Misfit Narratives: Exploring the Lived Experiences of Mad Social Workers
Date
2023-12-15
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Abstract
This thesis chronicles the stories of six Mad social workers in Canada, including my own story as a Mad social worker. I unsettle dominant methods for approaching lived experience research through establishing a research methodology which creates a harmony between feminist narrative inquiry and autoethnography as they are guided by teachings of Indigenous wholism and critical resistance. Grounded in a theoretical framework of critical disability studies, Mad studies, and critical feminism, I conducted five feminist narrative life history interviews – or conversations – with storytellers and critically explored my own life history through art and poetic reflection. As the story of this research unfolds, storytellers share about the masks they wear in response to sanism in both education and in the field of practice, as well as the pressure to be a “blank slate” to conform to the expectations of professional social work. Yet, in the midst of these experiences, storytellers demonstrate that it is within their Mad identities which initially brought them to the field that they find their strengths and ability to “get it” as mental health professionals. This research calls on the social work profession to build robust support systems to better respond to the psychological and emotional labour of our roles as social workers; to dismantle dominant ideas shaped by the interlocking systems of oppression which determine who gets to be a social worker; and to reimagine a social work praxis that is better aligned with our professional values of social justice and self-determination.
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Social work education, Social work, Clinical social work, Critical disability studies, Mad studies, Narrative inquiry, Lived experiences, Critical social work, Advocacy, Critical mental health
Citation
Warner, E. C. (2023). Misfit narratives: exploring the lived experiences of Mad social workers (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.