Supreme Court Rules Insite to Remain Open

A landmark decision was made in Canada today in regards to the existence of Insite, the controversial safe injection clinic, where people inject drugs and connect to health care services. The clinic located in Vancouver, British Columbia will keep it's doors open and continue to serve the 12,000 registered users currently using it's services.

The Supreme Court of Canada ruled today that "Insite has been proven to save lives with no discernible negative impact on the public safety and health objectives of Canada” and the clinic will be allowed to legally remain in operation.

Click the link below to read the article in today's Globe and Mail:

Supreme Court ruling opens doors to drug injection clinics across Canada

Digital Edition of Social Work Today

The American Publication, Social Work Today is now available online. This useful resource is a monthly news magazine committed to enhancing the entire social work profession by exploring its difficult issues, new challenges, and current successes.

Subjects range from building practice in a digital world to sexual harrassment in the military to bullying and suicide prevention.

Check out the lastest edition here: Social Work Today

A New Generation of Social Workers?

I really enjoyed this article from the Huffington Post about Kate Barrow, a recent graduate from New York University, who has started a new "grassroots collective." The collective works to "empower Social Workers to instill social justice" back into social work practice, something Kate feels is not always included in the curriculum.

Chapter 4: Theory and Approaches to Social Work Practice includes a section on several social work theories and how they can affect social work practice. Might be worth checking out and considering which of the theories can be applied to Kate's approach - if any.

Click here to read the article.

Great Huffington Post article about Social Workers

Ilaina Edision, Senior Vice President for Operations at VNSNY recently wrote an inspiring article for the Huffington Post that profiles the story of several Social Workers working in the United States.

Click here to check out the article.

Insite Makes Front Page News Again!

The Harper government still has not made a final decision regarding the continuation of federal support for Vancouver's supervised injection site and the issue has made front page news in Canada for the second time this month.

Read the article by Wendy Steuck, of the Globe and Mail that presents both sides of the argument regarding the existence of Insite and hold a debate in your classroom - with half of the class taking the side of "Support" and the other half of "No Support."

Social worker uses social media to be heard...

There was an interesting article in the Guardian today that profiled a social worker who is using social media to connect with service users and key influencers. Check out the article here.

The best resource within the article is a link to the subject's blog - Fighting Monsters: Life and Thoughts of a British Social Worker. The website is a treasure trove of useful resources:

• links to other social workers blogs
• extensive and current commentary on current events
• audio resources (extensive list of useful podcasts)
• weblinks and more!

Definitely a blog to bookmark!

A Great Online Resource: The Fifth Estate

Photo taken from the fifth estate website.

www.cbc.ca/fifth

I just found this great resource and wanted to pass it along. I really enjoy the CBC show "the fifth estate" and recently visited their website and was happy to discover that they post links to all broadcasted episodes and the videos are free to access.

This past weekend, the fifth estate broadcast a documentary titled "The Life and Death of Abdinasir Dirie" with host Gillian Findlay. The documentary is the story of the Abdinasir Dirie, the murdered child of Somalian refugees who settled in Canada, fleeing the civil war.

His family settled in Toronto's St Jamestown and later Abdinasir made his own way to the oilfields of Alberta looking for work. While living in Alberta, he was murdered and no one has yet to be charged with the crime.

This documentary is a good look into the conditions of racilized immigrants in Canada. While watching the film think about how you feel towards Abdinasir. Think about what kind of stereotypes you may have towards Somalian-Canadians. Do you disagree with his mother and think that he was possibly involved in drug dealing or some form of organized crime? Why do you think Abdinasir went to Alberta?

Refer to page 266 in the Social Work in Canada resource and read "Case Study: Using the Anti-Racism Analysis Tool." Figure out how you could incorporate this tool into your practice with troubled youth like Abdinasir. Why is it important to not jump to conclusions about a case like this?