School of Social Work Faculty in the News!

• One of Ontario's Top Teachers
• Study Findings - Better service coordination needed to help torture survivors 
• Reducing Poverty
• Recognition of Excellence
• Lieutenant Governor speaks to Disabilities Studies Students
• New Faces:  Chris Reid
• New Faces:  Suzanne McMurphy
• School of Social Work Expanding - University of Windsor to Open Campus in Niagara Region
• Social Work Professor Reaches Out to Help Mental Health Care Workers
• Accessibility is at the Core of Disability Studies Curriculum
• Study of Alcohol Use by Korean Immigrants

One of Ontario's Top Teachers

Dr. Donald Leslie is honoured as one of Ontario's top teachers.  His recognition as one of the province's top teachers is a trhill because it represents all the continuing efforts to strengthen the role of teaching at the University of Windsor, says Don Leslie.

The Social Work prefessor is one of five recipients of the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA) Teaching Award who will be honoured at a ceremony next month in Toronto.

"I think we've put a lot of energy into developing our programs," he said.  "It's in the classroom where these activities really come to fruition and where we can excite fresh minds to stand on our shoulders and carry on."

Selectino committee member Zopito Marini, a professor at Brock Unviersity, said Dr. Leslie has distinguished himself through many forms of educational leadership.  

"Whether through his continuous involvement in curriculum development, teaching innovations, mentorship of students and junior collegues, or thoughtful advocacy of increased accessibility to university education for all, Prof. Leslie brings exceptional commitment and ability to his teaching," Marini said. 

Alan Wright, the University of Windsor's Vice-Provost of Teaching and Learning, nominated LEslie for the award. 

"Through his achievements and his dedicated service to the campus community, Don Leslie has made post-secondary education more accessible and more inclusive, both at the University of Windsor and beyond," he said.

Founded in 1964, OCUFA represents 16,000 faculty and academic librarians in 26 faculty associations across Ontario.  It has been celbrating outstanding achievement in teaching and academic librarianship at Ontario universities since 1973.  In that time, 26 University of Windsor professors have won its teaching award. 

~Courtesy of the Daily News September 23, 2010.

Better Service Coordination Needed to Help Torture Survivors, Study FindsMore work must be done to better coordinate Windsor's services to help female refugees who have survived political torture in their home countries, according to a researcher in social work.

That was the message student Theresa Hughes—also an employee at the Sexual Assault Crisis Centre of Windsor and Essex County—delivered to community service agencies who attended a research dissemination event held Tuesday at the Toldo Health Centre.

Under the direction of assistant professor Sung Hyun Yun, Hughes interviewed hundreds of refugee women to better understand their needs as they struggle to adapt to life in their new country. Tuesday's event was held to share the findings of her two-year study with community service agencies so they can better serve those women.

Hughes said services exist, but there should be more coordination and communication among agencies. To read an article about the project in Wednesday's Windsor Star, click here.

Social work professor Sung Hyun Yun listens as Theresa Hughes shares the findings of her study into the needs of refugee women who have survived poilitical torture in their home countries.Excerpt from the Dailynews-March 31, 2010Downloading Programs to Provinces Fails to Reduce Poverty, Reseracher FindMaking provinces responsible for social assistance has not helped the poor, according to a trio of social work researchers.~

“The whole purpose of social assistance programs such as welfare and workers compensation is to reduce poverty,” said Robert Weaver, an assistant professor in the School of Social Work. “Decentralizing those programs has failed to do that.”

Dr. Weaver, UWindsor assistant professor Nazim Habibov and Lida Fan, an assistant professor at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, are the study’s authors. They examined both changes to the poverty rate—the number of people living below the poverty line, and adjustments to the poverty gap—the average measure of how far the poor fall below that line, between 1996 and 2005. Their work was published in the academic Journal of Policy Practice.

Using Statistics Canada’s annual household Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics, the trio found that once the federal government downloaded services to the province, all 10 provinces saw a decrease in effectiveness at reducing the poverty gap. Five provinces had lower effectiveness for reducing poverty rates after the province took control of social assistance.

Ontario had the most pronounced example of ineffectiveness: while social assistance reduced poverty rates by 18.64 percent in 1996, that reduction rate decreased dramatically to 2.92 percent in 2005. Authors cite the federal government’s 1996 $7 billion cut in annual spending on programs as the main cause for the failure.

Dr. Habibov said he hopes the research will inform policy makers to find solutions.

“It’s obvious that the labour market alone isn’t solving the problem and adds to the argument that we need a strengthened social safety net,” he said.

Robert Weaver, left, and Nazim Habibov are part of a trio of researchers who found that downloading social welfare responsibilities to the provinces failed to reduce poverty.Excerpt from the Dailynews-October 16, 2009

Teachers Win Recognition of Excellence from Students

A common interest in involving students in research unites the co-recipients of the 2009 Teacher of the Year award from the University of Windsor Students' Alliance—professors Jill Grant (social work) and Trevor Pitcher (biological sciences).

As director of the School of Social Work's Community-Based Research and Development Centre, Dr. Grant says that her partnerships include not just communities and organizations, but her students as well. They are important contributors to the work of the centre even as they learn the fundamentals of research practice, she says.

“Creating knowledge, sharing knowledge and analyzing knowledge are at the core of what a university does,” Grant says. “Given that so much of that happens through our work with students, it is important for universities to support and cultivate effective teaching that challenges and nurtures students in their learning.”

Her students nominated her for the award in recognition of her availability, insight, use of real-world experiences to illustrate concepts, the stimulating discussions in her courses, and her talent for “making hard ideas easier to understand.”

Excerpt from the Dailynews-September 24, 2009

Lieutenant Governor Inpries Students in Disability Studies

Ontario's Lieutenant Governor encouraged students in the disability studies program yesterday to use their knowledge to change attitudes that prevent people with disabilities from finding meaningful employment.

The Honourable David Onley spoke to the students to mark the first anniversary of the only full-time disabilities studies program in Ontario. People with disabilities have been accepted in the world of sports and entertainment, he said, but not as much throughout the rest of society, noting that the unemployment rate for people with disabilities is about 56 percent.

"This wouldn't be accepted if it were any other minority group," said Onley, who has a disability caused by polio. "The biggest problem is attitude. The attitude persists that somehow 'disability' means 'inability.' Through your studies, you can shine a light on how to apply acceptance throughout the rest of our culture."

Students in disability studies learn about approaches to advocacy and empowerment, community practice, service delivery and independent living. Onley applauded the University of Windsor for its leadership on this very important issue.

Lieutenant Governor David Onley speaks to students in the Katzman Lounge of Vanier Hall to mark the first anniversary of the only full-time disabilities studies program in Ontario.

Excerpt from the Dailynews-September 15, 2009

New Faces:  Social Worker returns to Alma Mater

Chris Reid is right back where he started his career in social work more than 30 years ago.~

A new field learning specialist in the school of social work, Reid earned his BSW here in 1977 and is now looking forward to helping both students and faculty members fulfil their academic potential.

“It feels good to have come full circle,” said Reid, an avid kayaker and yoga enthusiast, “but over the years, I’ve always maintained an active relationship with the university.”

After graduating, Reid’s first job out of school was working with the Children’s Aid Society of Toronto in the rough-and-tumble Regent Park area.

“That was quite an eye-opener for a country boy from Harrow,” said Reid, who met the woman who would eventually become his wife here when they were both studying social work.

He concentrated on child welfare and integrated community living for the developmentally delayed and eventually earned his MSW from the University of British Columbia in 1988. He came back to Windsor in 1986 and began working as a family service worker at the Windsor-Essex Children’s Aid Society and eventually worked his way up to a management position.

He hopes his wealth of experience will be a valuable resource as he finds placements for undergraduate students in their third and fourth year as well as acting as a conduit between faculty members seeking out new research opportunities and local agencies that require research.

“We have some people here coming from out of town who may not know how the systems work locally, so I can certainly help them with that.” he said. “I see it as enhancing a mutually beneficial relationship between the university and the field.”

He’s very interested in diversity issues and will take part in a pilot project with school of social work, the international student centre and Kelly Sheardown in the student counselling centre, which aims to develop more interaction between domestic and international students, many who may be at risk for anxiety and depression.

Chris Reid is a new field learning specialist in the school of social work.

Excerpt from the Dailynews-September 9, 2009

New Faces: Social Work Professor Wowed by Collaborative Atmosphere

Intermittently living and working in the city of brotherly love over the last few decades must have rubbed off on Suzanne McMurphy.

“Everybody just seemed to get along here,” said McMurphy, who packed up two university offices in Philadelphia to take a position as an assistant professor in the school of social work. She had been teaching at her alma mater Bryn Mawr College and working as a research professor at the University of Pennsylvania when she met director Brent Angell last fall at the Council on Social Work Education conference in Philadelphia.

Before long, she had gone for an interview, came to Windsor for a visit with her husband and fell in love with the place.

“I just really liked the department,” she said. “There seemed to be a lot of collaboration and that’s what’s really important to me. Having a good departmental philosophy was at the top of my list of priorities. This is really where I wanted to be. The fit just seemed to be so perfect.”

Originally from northern Michigan, McMurphy attended Albion College and then went to Bryn Mawr, where she earned an MSW, a master's degree in law and social policy, and her doctorate. She won a Fulbright scholarship and went to Sweden for six years. While there, she did extensive research on the criminal justice system, conducting a nine-country comparison on how the courts deal with young offenders.

“Kids do the same stuff all over the world, but we respond in radically different ways,” McMurphy said.

When she returned to the U.S., she worked at both the University of Vermont and the University of New Hampshire, and then returned to Philadelphia where she took a break from academia to work for a charitable foundation creating funding programs for criminal justice and substance abuse research. She then returned to academic work, and remained at her most recent positions for the last seven years.

Her current research examines the impact of genetics on client help seeking behaviour and how genomic information may influence the way social workers treat their clients. She’s also studying issues of trust between clients and their health care providers, as well as the ethics involved with using prison populations for clinical research trials.

She will be teaching courses in social work and criminal justice, indirect social work practice and professional issues, as well as program evaluation in the off-campus executive program.

Social work professor Suzanne McMurphy comes to UWindsor from Philadelphia.

Editor's note: This is part of a series of articles about new faculty members joining UWindsor this year.

University of Windsor to Open Campus in Niagara Region - School of Social Work Expanding

By Doug Schmidt, The Windsor Star April 14, 2009

Taken from: the Windsor Star, April 14, 2009

Good times, bad times -- when it comes to social work, there always seems to be a demand, as evidenced by the University of Windsor's school of social work planning for its fourth off-campus presence for graduate students.

"When the economy is good, there's a high demand for social workers, and when the economy is bad, because of the work we do, there's also a high demand for social workers," said school director Brent Angell.

"It looks very, very good right now," Angell said Monday of a new University of Windsor campus setting up soon in the St. Catharines area to serve masters degree students. The school has 96 post-graduate students enrolled in satellite campuses in Barrie, Peel Region and at the Canadian Mental Health Association office in Windsor.

While Hamilton's McMaster University offers a masters program in social work, Angell said the types of students he's targeting tend to have work and family commitments, making it difficult for any travel for studies on top of that. Brock University in St. Catharines has no social work program, and while Hamilton may be close, Windsor will soon be closer.

Angell said the demand is coming from employees who want to upgrade their social work credentials and from employers who want their employees to upgrade their skills to move into supervisory and administrative leadership roles.

The expansion comes several years after the U of W did a survey of Ontario's professional community and discovered a pent-up demand from potential students and employers. The Niagara region was one of the areas expressing a strong interest, said Angell. He cites Peterborough and Kingston as examples of where the University of Windsor may reach into next.

As for McMaster possibly retaliating for Windsor's intrusion into its turf by, for example, setting up a competing campus here, Angell responds: "I wish them the best of luck."

While there is "a sort of competition for students" among universities, Angell said Windsor's school of social work offers a unique program, which he describes as "one of the strongest social work programs in the province, if not the country."

The U of W's social work masters program is not considered part-time, with courses running Friday afternoons and evenings and all day Saturday over 16 months for those already holding a bachelor degree in social work or over 32 months for those with honours degrees in other undergraduate disciplines.

After word went out that the U of W was interested in setting up a Niagara campus, Angell said there was "a phenomenal number of applicants."

He anticipates filling the necessary start-up roster of 25 to 35 students and giving the go-ahead by the end of the month.

With a Niagara campus, Angell said his social work school will grow to about 130 off-campus masters degree students, compared to about 80 post-grad students at the Windsor campus, itself host to about 450 undergraduates enrolled in social work.

"This is a really exciting thing," said Angell. He said the best part of the program is it offers skills upgrading to busy professionals who might not otherwise have the opportunity. That, he said, only benefits the communities where they work.

Opening up campuses in other areas doesn't mean erecting new buildings. Angell said it can be as simple as arranging a partnership with a local community college, as is currently the case with his school and Barrie's Georgian College and Peel Region's Sheridan College.

© Copyright (c) The Windsor Star

Excerpt from the Dailynews - February 3, 2009 

Social Work Professors Reach Out to Help Mental Health Care Workers

Area mental health care workers will be better equipped to deal with an increased number of patients struggling through the recession, thanks to a certification program taught by UWindsor social work professors.~

About 150 people—psychologists, social workers, child and youth care workers, parental relief workers, managers and support staff—are taking part in the School of Social Work Child and Youth Mental Health Certification Program.

“When they leave, they have knowledge and skill sets they can take back to their agencies,” said Brent Angell, Director of the school. “It’s geared so they can make positive changes in their workplaces.”

The program, which consists of three three-day training modules, is designed to help mental health care workers:

• gain an advanced understanding of best practice assessment and intervention strategies to help children separated from their families;

• work more effectively with the families of children suffering from mental health issues; and

• gain knowledge and employ new methods in working with families where the parents are facing mental health challenges.

Cory Saunders, director of crisis services at Windsor Regional Hospital, helped to develop the program.

He said there has been an appreciable increase in the caseload of people who aren’t coping well with the stress caused by the economy’s downturn.

Saunders said the sessions, led by Angell and social work professors Jill Grant and Jim Coyle, could help prevent some of the negative effects recessions can have on families by making certain that caseworkers in all the city’s agencies are following the same best practices.

“There’s not a lot of agreement among agencies on how to best deal with issues,” Dr. Saunders said. “We’re looking to make sure that all of our practitioners are at the same level and that they’re doing things consistently.”

Dr. Angell said the program was developed long before the recession hit. Area agencies wanted credible training for their employees that was delivered locally so they could reduce costs and send more people. They also wanted the legitimacy that comes with being a University of Windsor program, he said. An anticipated outcome of the series is increased inter-agency collaboration, program planning and service delivery.

“It is an integral part of our civic engagement activities and we are very pleased to be able to work with our partners in meeting needs that they have identified,” he said.

Participants have already attended one session and will attend two more at yet-to-be-announced dates.

The program received $29,392 from Windsor Regional Hospital, funding which comes from the Ministry of Children and Youth Services. A consortium of agencies including Windsor Regional Children's Centre, Glengarda Child and Family Services, Maryvale Adolescent and Family Services, Windsor-Essex Children's Aid Society and many other partners, decided it wanted that money spent on training for its case workers.

Excerpt from the Dailynews- January 27, 2009

Accessibility is at the Core of Disability Studies Curriculum

When the University of Windsor awarded him an honorary doctorate last June, Ontario Lieutenant-Governor David C. Onley said yesterday, officials told him they would be putting him to work. He was only too glad it was to help launch the university's new undergraduate program in disability studies.

"I define accessibility as that which allows people to develop to their full potential," Onley told about 100 students, academics and community members on hand for a launch celebration in the CAW Student Centre. "This program is a tremendous gesture of commitment to a field that touches the life of just about every Ontarian."

A sea of hands responded when he asked who in the room had a family member with a disability.

Among those raising their hands was James Salmons, one of the initial class of about 20 students who joined the program in fall 2008. The 40-year-old Windsor native transferred from social work when he learned of the new major. He said it has been an "eye-opener."

"I suffer from an invisible disability myself and have had difficulty getting employment in the past," Salmons said. "Graduates from this program are going to combat all the barriers to true accessibility. We have made great strides but we have far to go."

His classmate Janine Reid also transferred into the program, although she had nearly completed a degree in psychology.

"I just had to pursue disability studies," she said. "I have never seen any other program in Canada like it at an undergraduate level."

Program coordinator Irene Carter said she is receiving very positive feedback from the students.

"Our emphasis on the social model of disability, combined with practical instruction in accessibility issues, has been very attractive to students," she said. She said the program draws courses from a number of disciplines, and includes significant partnership from community agencies.

One of those partners is Lambton College, which had a number of representatives present at the launch. Wendy Asher, dean of health, community and public safety, said she expects college graduates who have earned diplomas to further their educations with a university degree.

"We see it as a wonderful opportunity not only for recent graduates, but for those who have already entered the workforce to upgrade their skills," she said.


Social work professors Irene Carter (left) and Don Leslie (right) speak with Ontario Lieutenant-Governor David Onley and Ruth Ann Onley yesterday at the official launch of the UWindsor program in disability studies. 

Excerpt from the Dailynews - January 6, 2009

Alcohol Use by Korean Immigrants Subject of Study

Freedom from constraints of the traditional Confucian female role may contribute to increased use or misuse of alcohol among some first-generation Korean women, according to two UWindsor researchers.~

Social work professors Sung Hyun Yun and Wansoo Park explore the characteristics of alcohol consumption by people who were born and raised in Korea and immigrated to the U.S. as adults. Their article, “Clinical Characteristics of Alcohol Drinking and Acculturation Issues Faced by Korean Immigrants in the United States,” was published in the Journal of Social Work Practice in the Addictions.

The researchers, both from Korea themselves, conducted most of the research while they were still working at universities in the US state of Georgia, home to a large concentration of Korean immigrants.

Dr. Yun says Confucianism reinforces traditional ideas of male dominance. Contemporary Korean culture encourages excessive drinking among men while discouraging alcohol consumption by women. Drinking habits can worsen for Asian women who arrive in a more open, liberal, society—especially when they are facing acculturation issues of loneliness and isolation, the pair concludes.

The notion that Asian Americans are a model minority is a myth and has caused problems such as alcohol abuse to be overlooked, they say. They advocate initiatives to reduce ethnic disparities in the prevention and treatment of substance abuse.

Social work professors Sung Hyun Yun, left, and Wansoo Park studied the drinking habits of Korean immigrants.

Excerpt from the Dailynews-May 20, 2010