Northern social work practice: three months of discovery at Yukon Health and Social Services

Abstract

This report outlines my MSW practicum experiences in working in Whitehorse Yukon in Health and Social Services for three months during the Summer of 2018. Yukon Health and Social Services serves clients in a variety of capacities including the Income Support Unit. I worked in the Income Support Unit for eight weeks on a full-time basis while completing the remaining four weeks formulating a project looking at ways to incorporate the voices of individuals with lived experience in service delivery, program development, and policy. I wanted to gain an appreciation and understanding of how Cognitive Behavioral techniques can be used to assist individuals who are struggling with economic insecurity to obtain meaningful employment, cope with life stressors, and manage stress in a variety of ways. A key component of my practicum also involved formulating a report which includes tangible recommendations on how individuals with lived experience could be represented in Northern Health and Social Services in actionable ways. As this area of practice is not well represented in the Yukon, I wanted to shed light on ways in which individuals with lived experience could be represented in meaningful ways within existing systems. This project allowed me the ability to have discussions with leaders in a variety of Health and Social Services programs to gain valuable insight into how this objective could be achieved in different ways. The use of Appreciative Inquiry as a model gave me a greater understanding of the importance of using a model to map out ways in which recommendations could be realized, deciphered, and implemented.