For my “Community Connections” project I chose to interview a Social Worker through Instagram DM’s. Paige Lachance is a social worker at the “Eagle Ridge Hospital” here in Canada and is the boss of her unit there as well. She has worked for over 5 years to create a safe and welcoming environment for her coworkers and patients. I chose her for my “Community Connections” project because I have always been interested in being a social worker/councilor and have considered it as a job title on multiple occasions. I’ve messaged and met with her numerous times as well. I look to her for any help/questions I have about this and think of her as a mentor for me.
(Not in order)
Paige Lachance
The questions I asked Paige Lachance were…
1. Can you explain your roles and responsibilities with your current position?
She answered with…”. I am currently the social work practice leader in an acute care hospital, my role includes supervising the social workers providing clinical direction and managing the day to day supervising tasks and responsibilities. I am also responsible for providing social work coverage for one of the units which focuses on discharge planning for patients with chronic health care issues and complex issues, including family stress, financial stress and issues etc.”
2. What obstacles have you faced to get you where you are today?
“My job requires me to have various degrees (including my masters in social work). Starting out working in entry level jobs working with high-risk crisis and difficult population including women shelters, for low pay and with different cliental. You are very undervalued in these jobs as well.”
3. What advice would you pass on to someone interested in what you are doing?
“The best advice I would give is to get involved, by volunteering in different shelters or at hospitals. Volunteering is the most important thing because there are many different areas someone can work in when going into social work and It’s the only way to make sure the job is for you.”
4. Why are you passionate about your job or role?
” I love my job because I’m very passionate about social justice, advocating marginalized populations. It’s also a job that is never dull, you’re always challenging yourself and you learn from those you work with, you’ll never have a boring day. It involves meeting new people and it’s such an interesting job. In my current role there is also the added benefit of mentoring others and advocating for change a higher level within the managing circles.”
5. What struggles do you face daily in your current day to day job?
“Staffing shortage, lack of resources, lack of time, increasing demands.”
6. What type of experience have you gained from working in this position?
” I’ve had the opportunity to work with a diverse group of people with diverse and complex issues, I’ve had the opportunity to mentor others including other social workers, to gain leadership skills, to teach social work courses to social work trainings.”
What I have Learned from this interview-Paige Lachance: 
I have learned throughout this interview and project that there are many up and down sides to being a social worker. There were aspects of being a Social Worker that I hadn’t even thought of before I had had a conversation with Paige Lachance. I learned that there would never be a dull moment when there and that you learn something new about someone else all the time. I found it extremely interesting how she had learned different things about different communities, all different types of people and others struggling with all types of things. In addition to that, it was so cool that she as able to shed light to me on the good and bad of that job just through sending DM’s. All in all, she was so helpful throughout this all and has helped me confirm that I will be looking towards this as a possible job option for my future, and I am very thankful for her.
For our Indigenous Explorations Podcast assignment, we chose Kamloops Indian Residential School. I worked with my friends Aj, and Andy on this school project.
Our podcast:
My experiences writing this project:
In this assignment, my group and I chose the Kamloops Indian Residential School. I personally loved this assignment for multiple reasons. It required a team which I really loved because I got to work with others, but I also loved getting a more unique project. It was so interesting learning about a specific school instead of all residential schools as a whole. I really enjoyed writing a script which I had never done before and getting more experience doing that. We all researched together so that we were on the same page and helped one another write notes. It was fun working with my friends on this project although I do think we should have tried to organize our time better because it took us longer than it should’ve to write our notes. That led to the chain reaction of us having to move a bit quicker through our script, but in the end, I was really proud of our finished product.
For the recording portion of this assignment, I felt for the most part it all went well. We had a quiet room for the first day and we got mostly everything done. However, there were some focus issues. We kept getting distracted by little things happening, but we got ourselves back on track fast and kept going till we got it done. All in all, I felt that this project and our progress towards the finished product was quite good, and I am very proud of how we worked.
How does your artifact tie in with what you have learned before? How has your thinking changed? What made it change?
I found that this assignment really helped me tie in all my learnings about First Nations Peoples and Residential Schools. Having learned about these things in the past benefited me so much in this project because I had a really good base understanding to build up from. Knowing the general idea of what was going in Residential Schools and having already heard things about this school in particular, for example the 215 graves, etc. I had such a good starting point to help my group. During the process of this project, I found my thinking changing consistently. On a deeper level I found myself understanding the things I had been learning about for years. The cycle of abuse and intergenerational trauma and the long-lasting effects Residential Schools had and have on it’s victims. I was thinking more about and looking at the effects Residential Schools had after they were over. Looking at the suicide rates, and the poverty rates for Indigenous Peoples, really upset me in particular. The effects of these Residential Schools last for a lifetime, and I think that is what this project helped me to think about the most.
Wikipedia contributors. (2022b, October 16). Canadian Indian residential school system. Wikipedia. Retrieved October 19, 2022, from Canadian Indian residential school system.
Wikipedia contributors. (2022a, September 20). Kamloops. Wikipedia. Retrieved October 19, 2022, from Kamloops
Gale – Institution Finder. (n.d.). Retrieved October 20, 2022, from https://galeapps.gale.com/apps/auth?userGroupName=&origURL=https%3A%2F%2Fgo.gale.com%2Fps%2FtermCluster%3FinPS%3Dtrue&prodId=GVRLTerm Clusters – Gale Power Search
Describe at least 3 strategies that you can use to keep your digital footprint appropriate and safe:
There are a few strategies that can be used to keep your digital footprint secure. However, the first I would suggest is only posting what you feel comfortable with showing to your family and friends. I think its really important to always think twice before sharing things online. When posting, make sure you feel confident and secure in the fact that people you may know in real life will see this post. The second thing I think is also really important in order to maintain a safe digital footprint is thinking twice before writing something on the internet. What I mean by this is, on multiple social media platforms there are options to comment, tweet, and interact with others. Tons of people use this to give compliments to their friends and spread positivity in general. But it can, of course, also be used to engage in negative activity. Withholding from tweeting or making negative comments and instead using these platforms to spread positivity is always a good idea. My last and final strategy to help maintain a safe and clean digital footprint, is limiting your consumption of social media and media in general. By this, I mean first of all, cutting down on the amount of time you spend on social media each day. The reasoning for this is because social media has been proven many times to be a large distraction, and can contribute to poor mental health. It can also reduce the amount of time you spend with others face to face. Limiting yourself to only a few social media apps at one time as opposed to being active on multiple different platforms at once is a good way to regulate your use of different social platforms and keep yourself in control of your media in general.
How could social media be used in a positive manner?
Social media is a great way to keep in touch with those around you without being face to face. For example, during the pandemic, social media and texting was one of the only ways to actually keep in touch with your friends and your more distant family. Quarantine was a hard time for everyone, but having online school and using social media platforms to connect with my friends and classmates helped me feel like I was in more of routine and gave me a better sense of normality. I have also found that it is a really good way to stay more organized. For example it allows more flexibility and saves more time when working on group projects, because you can work around the schedules of others more easily and make changes more efficiently. Therefor, you can easily make different suggestions and adjustments without it being done last minute. Another positive way in which social media can be used, is to help you find out what different opportunities can be found if you’re perhaps searching for good deals, or even job offers. All of this is made so much easier with the use of social media.
What are some ways you can limit the amount of online content that you are constantly consuming?
There are many easy ways to limit the amount of online content that you consume. One example that comes to my mind straight away, is spending time with loved ones. When with people that make you happy, there is no need to be on your device. Surrounding yourself with not only family and friends but others in general is a good way to help yourself keep in control the amount of tech you consume. Another good example is, trying new things. Picking up new hobbies that you really enjoy will help you focus your efforts on to something that will benefit you and your mental health. Try doing something you have always wanted to do. Some good examples of a few hobbies you could try, are reading, writing, or learning a new sport. Besides these hobbies, a habit you could implement right away is trying to stay off your device at night. Doing art, gardening, or going for a walk are all good substitutes to help keep yourself occupied without technology. To add onto this, besides consuming content in our free time, a large amount of our work/school life revolves around technology. When not working on assignments for school or work, try to fill your life with things that make you happy; Family and/or friends, a sport you may enjoy, or maybe a art project you’ve been working on. All of these ideas are great examples of things you can do to keep yourself occupied, without being on your device.
