This text is part of the special Acfas Congress notebook
How can we better train social work workers and increase their retention in the job market? How can we rethink youth protection interventions in other cultural contexts? A first conference on social work in a protection context will attempt to provide avenues for reflection and responses to this type of question and the challenges surrounding the field in the province.
At the University of Quebec in Chicoutimi, full professor of social work Eve Pouliot has swapped the lecture format for a teaching approach based on storytelling. Students come into contact with fictional characters whose stories evolve and intersect throughout the session. These stories are based on real cases. For each case study, students must work as a team to analyze the situation and establish an intervention plan.
“Through the story of these characters, we see the theoretical concepts,” explains M.me Pouliot. Each course, we start with a case study. We are in the concrete. It motivates students and makes them experience emotions. It promotes learning. »
Likewise, to approach the history of the profession, Eve Pouliot uses the example of Aurore, the child martyr, to determine in what ways this same case would have been treated by the authorities at different periods in the history of the profession. province. “Youth protection is not an easy context for students,” observes Eve Pouliot. We are there to help them think, develop reflexes and critical thinking. »
Likewise, an immersive laboratory was developed within the baccalaureate in social work at the University of Quebec at Rimouski. The students put themselves in the shoes of representatives of the Director of Youth Protection (DYP) to act in scenarios with parents whose roles were played by professional actors. The activity took place in collaboration with various partners in the community, including the Integrated Health and Social Services Centers of Bas-Saint-Laurent and Chaudière-Appalaches and the DPJ.
On the side of the University of Quebec in Montreal, the guest professor, specialist in intervention in youth protection services in Quebec at the School of Social Work, Nathalie Plante, calls into her classes speakers or parents who have a child with a severe disability so that they can come and talk about their experience.
These different approaches are part of the educational initiatives that will be highlighted during the conference. Thinking about the issues of research and teaching linked to social work in protection contexts: critical, theoretical, ethical and methodological reflections. The latter will take place on Monday May 13 in hybrid mode as part of the Acfas congress.
Decompartmentalizing the discipline
“There is a major shortage of staff and retention challenges,” notes Nathalie Plante, who is co-responsible for the event. According to the latter, educational establishments are adapting to the situation by promoting more experiential learning techniques and providing tools to future stakeholders to better take care of themselves.
“ [Au sein des universités], there is a change of direction, a major reflection which is taking place at the moment on the way of training the stakeholders. I believe that a conference will improve these initiatives, by sharing what we have learned,” says M.me Plant.
The conference is divided into two blocks. Before discussing educational initiatives, we will first discuss the ethical issues surrounding the field as well as advances in research. One of the conferences will focus in particular on the experience lived in the Attikamek community of Opitciwan, in Mauricie, which has had full control of its child protection services since 2022. Other presentations will focus, for example, on dropping out of school or intervention in a context of poverty.
“The goal of the conference is to develop pooling in sectors that don’t communicate that much,” continues M.me Plant. We would like there to be a meta-reflection that emerges to [éventuellement] to take decisions [politiques] which are the most appropriate. »
This content was produced by the Special Publications team at Duty, relating to marketing. The writing of the Duty did not take part.