Preparing for, and organizationally supporting, social work advocacy practice: A mixed methods study of mental health hospital social workers in Ontario, Canada

Abstract

Abstract An essential component of social work practice, advocacy encompasses activities to influence systems and attitudes. Drawing on a larger sequential mixed-methods study of frontline social workers’ experiences, this paper uses descriptive statistics and reflexive thematic analysis of an online survey (n = 43) and in-depth interviews (n = 12) to highlight factors facilitating social workers’ advocacy practices as they support client, family, and community well-being. Findings illustrate previous experiences, social work education, and peer support best prepared participants. Effective formal platforms, fostering professional growth, and dedicated time with a clear mandate were identified as organizational mechanisms to better embed advocacy efforts.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 2 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.