(Montreal) Many actors in Quebec’s social services have united to denounce a societal context characterized by multiple social, ecological, economic, demographic and climatic crises, as part of the summit of the first Estates General of Social Work in 25 years , held Friday and Saturday in Montreal.
The Estates General of Social Work, launched in April 2023, attempted to report on the situation of social work and social services in Quebec.
It was therefore time to take stock. Friday and Saturday, 400 people gathered at the Cégep de Maisonneuve and online for the summit of these Estates General, which aimed to shed light on the findings and look into the future.
A draft declaration of commitment was proposed at the start of the summit. Now the declaration can now be signed online by the general public and other organizations.
“We consider this summit as the beginning of a vast mobilization and renewed collective commitment for social work in Quebec. We aspire to create more justice, equity, inclusion and solidarity,” the document states.
The declaration highlights several of the findings established during the consultations, notably the scale of social crises, the centralization, bureaucratization and deprivation of the health and social services network, the deterioration of practice conditions and the growing challenges access to social services in the public sector and community settings.
“An unprecedented social crisis”
“Quebec is currently facing an unprecedented social crisis,” said Pierre-Paul Malenfant, president of the Order of Social Workers and Marriage and Family Therapists of Quebec (OTSTCFQ), in an interview with The Canadian Press, Sunday.
This raised several issues, including the number of people waiting for mental health services, for places in daycare, for affordable housing or for an assessment at the Direction de la protection de la jeunesse in Quebec. He also referred to the precarious conditions of indigenous communities in the north and the growing number of people experiencing homelessness.
“What we observed was negligence on the part of social services,” lamented Mr. Malenfant. Faced with this observation, we cannot remain idle. It was unanimous to say that the situation could not continue like this and that we needed to join forces. »
The Estates General also painted a gloomy portrait of the practice of social work in Quebec, due to major structural obstacles that hinder the ability of social workers to intervene. “Sixteen% of our members are considering leaving the health and social services network because of the conditions of practice,” laments Mr. Malenfant. However, he adds that at the top, optimism and the desire to change things in Quebec took precedence over fatalism.
The summit is the result of a collaboration between the Communagir organization and the Estates General steering committee, made up of multiple stakeholders, including the OTSTCFQ, the Collective of Community Development Partners and the Table of School Directors in social work.
A unanimous observation emerged from the discussions this weekend, according to Mr. Malenfant: the desire of those involved to make social work an essential force for change in Quebec.
As for what happens next, the steering committee will meet at the end of May and will try to chart the way, so that the summit is “a starting point and not an end point,” specifies Mr. Malenfant. The creation of a broad coalition of social partners, one of the commissioners’ key recommendations, should be seriously analyzed, according to the president of the OTSTCFQ. “Everyone is working hard to try to improve the situation, but there is no broad coalition specific to social work and social services,” he says.
It was the first Estates General of Social Work in 25 years. Coordinated in partnership with the Institut du Nouveau Monde, the consultations were structured around four main axes, namely the social work perspective, social work practices, the organization of social services in Quebec and public policies in the social field. as well as training in social work, initial or continuing, and research work.
Three independent commissioners chaired this series of consultations, which led to a final report and more than 60 briefs submitted by a range of different stakeholders.