Examination of a series of related projects with prevention of and intervention into adult abuse in aboriginal communities in Canada; which constitute emergent social policy based on cultural safety and 'hybrid' meaning making.

1. From Process to Product
Impacting Social Policy in Addressing Abuse of Older Adults in
Aboriginal Contexts

2. Agenda
Introduction
 Working definition of Social Policy
 Events leading to set of products
 Combining work at differing levels, professions, sectors
Two products / tools and their application
 Being Least Intrusive Tool /exercise
 Protocol Template / exercise
How is this relevant to your work?
 Can you use this process?
 Social policy lessons
Summary & Questions

3. Introduction
Working Definition of social policy
 “Social policy is all about social purposes and the choices between
them. The choices and the conflicts between them have
continuously to be made at the government level, the community
level and the individual level. At each level by acting or not acting,
by opting in or contracting out, we can influence the direction in
which choices are made”
Richard Titmuss, 1974 (as cited in Heinonen & Spearman, 2001, p. 76). http://spon.ca/social-policy-
definitions/2007/08/27/

4. Intentional Process, Action Learning Approach
Shared Work, Different Perspectives
 Adult Guardianship Legislation
 CRNs, PGT, Health Authority,
 Contracted work

5. Intentional Process, Action Learning Approach
Shared Vision, Common Interests
 Prevention Collaborative, First
Nation Working Group
 Education of frontline clinicians &
community members
 National research, Identifying
promising approaches

6. Intentional Process, Action Learning Approach
Shared Values & Principles
 Critical Analysis, Cultural
Safety, Social Determinants,
Aboriginal Understanding of
Health, Human Relations,
Empowerment, Advocacy &
Change.

7. Ideal Policy Development
Policy
Problem,
definition,
research
Objectives with
policy goals
Options
Values
tradeoffs,
Recommend-
using
judgement

9. Tacit Social Policy Development
Burning
Question
Ways of
Working
Knowledge
Acquisition and
Lenses
Persistence and
Support
Applied
Learning

10. Questions
• How would you use this process?
• What are the parallels you can use in your
context?

11. Products & Tools
Being Least Intrusive
 Emerges from the frontline practice of
responding to situations of abuse and neglect
of vulnerable First Nation adults.
 It is a hybrid approach that draws on
indigenous knowledge, critical social work
theory and first hand accounts of response
and prevention initiatives within First Nation
Communities across Canada.
 It is meant to help orientate frontline workers
to respond in a way that: is culturally safe,
collaborative, strengths based, and facilitates
a broader more holistic understanding of
health and well-being.

12. Being Least Intrusive – Video Presentation

13. Products and Tools
Being Least Intrusive
 Is a tool that guides frontline
workers through a process of
critical preparation, assessment
and reflection.
 It is divided into 3 sections, each
with a series of questions that
assists frontline workers to
 develop critical self-awareness;
 gather information that will
inform a more holistic
assessment;
 engage with clients, families and
communities in ways that are
culturally safe and appropriate.

14. Questions
• How could you use this tool?
• Who else could use it?
http://www.nicenet.ca/files/U_of_T_Nice_185649_
BLI_Jul_2012Tool.pdf

15. Products & Tools
Protocol Templates
 Public Guardian & Trustee of BC
commissioned work to develop a
provincial template that could be used
by Designated Agencies (provincial
health authorities) and First Nation
Communities to assist in the
development of collaborative
partnerships of response and
prevention work
 It has been used by VIHA and Kwakiutl
District Council as a framework for
their ongoing partnership in delivering
services to the 10 KDC member
communities.

16. Protocol is Signed
WEAAD
Day
Thunderbird
Hall,
Campbell
River, BC
June 15,
2012

17. Questions
• Are there areas in your practice needing
protocols like this ?
• Do you have the relationships in place to support
the development and co-creation of a protocol
like this ?
• Can it be inter-professional?

18. Adaptability of Tools
Tools and practice emerge from multiple and intersecting points.
 Structured by provincial legislation
 Enriched and supported by national research projects and community
based response and prevention strategies
 Informed by the realities of frontline practice
 Founded on principles and values honoring self-determination,
autonomy and empowerment
 Grounded in a critical awareness of the cultural, social and historical
context in which adult abuse and neglect emerges and is experienced.

19. Social Policy Lessons
 Used principles of how we think people should be
served and how to treat one another
 Relationships at all levels
 Partners continually identified and invited

20. Social Policy Lessons
 Seeing linkages between projects-opportunities to
further explore or explore more deeply
 Commitment to the process and carrying on
 Combination of “off the side of the desk” and
mainstream funded endeavors

21. Social Policy Lessons
 Lack of tools and practice provided freedom to do what
we thought was the right thing
 Created a cross professional community of practice-
deliberate action and discernment of critical differences
in action and practice
 Managed up at every opportunity (audaciously)

22. Summary
 Tacit process becoming
explicit and deliberate
 Across professions
 A body of linked work
 A „stream‟ of interrelated and
complementary products
 A collaborative practice

23. Social Policy
 By the study of anthropology, sociology, and
psychology and such elements of social and
political economy as are relevant we try to
work out our correct principles to guide us in
our approach to the social problems of the
time.
Nevertheless, the applications of those
principles to a given situation is an art.
Aneurin Bevan 1952

24. Thank You
 Alison Leaney, MSW, RSW,
Public Guardian and Trustee of BC
(604) 660 4413
ALeaney@Trustee.bc.ca
 April Struthers, M Ed, RCC,
Wit Works Ltd. (604) 885 0651
www.witworks@dccnet.com
 Lindsay Neufeld, MSW, RSW,
VIHA Professional Practice Office – CDMR
(250) 287-6433
Lindsay.Neufeld@viha.ca