Summary of my Learning

Throughout this course I have been able to build a knowledge base not only on social welfare but as well as different marginalized groups specifically people living with a mental illness. Before entering this course I had a basic understanding of what social welfare is but I now have gained knowledge that I will take with me in the future. By learning about Canada's history of their welfare state as well as different political ideologies I am now able to apply theses topic areas in the other courses I am taking. Throughout the semester and the blog posts I have been able to expand my Knowledge vastly on the area of mental illness and the social and political issues that face people who live with a mental illness. Some of the areas I have focused my blogs on are, employment, health care, poverty and housing. These are only just a few of the many issues that face those living or experiencing a mental illness but these topic areas have opened up my view on social policies in Canada and how many people are greatly neglected. Through my placement with the Child and Youth Worker program I was able to work within the Royal Ottawa Mental Heath Care Group and during that time I was able to experience inpatient issues that face youth living with a mental illness. But now with the information I have gained from this course and specifically the blog posts i know there are many other issues that face this population far beyond managing their illness. One major things I have learnt from doing research and finding topic areas is that the severe disadvantage we have here living in the north when it comes to access of care and treatment compared to other urban centers such as Ottawa and Toronto. As a future social worker I hope to work in this area and I'm very intrigued on finding out more information about what can be done in our area to improve support and services. As well from reading the blog posts not only of my other group members but the other groups as well not only I have I gained knowledge on other maraganlized groups but I was able to recognize all the work that we as future social workers will be faced with. These blog posts I believe are important because I now have a background knowledge in all these topic areas that I did not have before and I will be able to carry this information with me in the future.

- Amanda