OASW
What was your reaction when you reflect on this award? What came to mind when you first found out that you were chosen?
Dr. Adamson
I was surprised, number one. And it kind of made me sit and think. We don't get a lot of time to actually just sit and reflect on what we've done. The nature of social work is such that there's always another challenge, always another denial that we haven't had access to a particular involvement in some kind of healthcare initiative. Social work is often always knocking on the door, saying, hey, let us in. So, it gave me an opportunity to just sit and think about the very long connection I've had to the profession, and the lifelong campaign to demonstrate social work's contribution to all aspects of life. I also thought about people who came before me.
OASW
Tell us more about that – how did you get involved at OASW and who shaped your experience at the organization?
Dr. Adamson
When I first came on board, it was when OASW was championing legislation for the creation of a regulatory college for social workers in the province, and at that time the OASW had an informal exam and I was one of that first cohorts to actually do an exam, to get the title of "Certified Social Worker."
I met the folks at OASW at that time, and I remember getting involved, probably on a committee. Then very quickly after that, Joan MacKenzie Davies, the CEO at the time, somehow got me involved on the board. I don't think I ever left, except for a five-year absence when I was doing my PhD.
I see the recognition not just at an individual level, or an individual achievement, but as a reflection of the collective efforts of all the people who came before me, the community, colleagues, and clients as well, who have shaped my work over the years.
I've been thinking about people like Beverley Antle. Beverley was a powerhouse of a social worker. One of her main achievements was bringing a unified code of ethics to the Canadian Association of Social Workers. I think of Joan McKenzie Davis, the long-standing CEO who invited me in at a time when the board wasn't very diverse. I was literally one of the only people of color on the board. I remember Dan Andreae, a colleague and university professor, who was also president for a long time, and Francis Turner as well. These are all social work legends, and I had a chance to be in the room with them and talk to them and be inspired by them.
OASW
Are there other milestones or achievements that you're really proud of, or things that come to mind when you look back on your career so far?
Dr. Adamson
The one that is foremost, because it really galvanized the membership at OASW, was when I was president and we wanted to be included in the Psychotherapy Act. I remember myself and the CEO at the time literally canvassing and going to MPs' offices, talking about the contributions that social workers had made to psychotherapy, that we were actually the largest professional group providing psychotherapy in North America. To be left out of the Psychotherapy Act was like, what is going on? We literally just went everywhere. And then eventually we got to the health professions regulatory advisory counsel to the ministry, and I just remember sitting there wondering, if we don't articulate what we contribute from a mental health perspective at this moment.. It all goes to Hell!
That is the achievement I'm probably most proud of. And obviously, again, I can't take all the credit, because social workers mobilized locally and provincially in a way that we had never seen before. It was a highlight of my career, to see how many social workers responded to the call, to mobilize, to be informed of what the impact of not being included in the Psychotherapy Act would be, and then seeing them respond. That was probably my most proud moment professionally, and as a member of OASW.
OASW
Looking back over two decades of work in critically assessing how patients interact with systems of care, have you seen changes, positive or negative?
Dr. Adamson
Well, first of all, people are growing older. There are actual demographic shifts that are taking place. I always tell my students, if you're going into gerontology, you're probably doing the right thing right now. What we're seeing is that expectations and preferences for care are elevated now. People are more informed about the care that they may need. They come with a lot more information that needs to be distilled. They're also a lot more interested in wellness and self-care than previous generations. And clients are a lot more aware of the flaws of the system, the broken systems, and they're a lot less tolerant of those broken systems. They are really driving a lot of the necessary reforms. They want to be involved in decision-making, planning, and determining their care. Now you have these clients who have embodied knowledge about their own experiences, and they're not going to be gaslit by experts telling them, no, you're not feeling what you're feeling. They've gone from patients to partners, to full collaborators.
And in the educational space, one of the things I'm most proud of is bringing in service users to be involved in social work education. It really reshapes teaching and understanding of what it means to partner with clients, not just in the field, but also in the classroom. Involving people with lived experience as partners in education, rather than subjects of learning, challenges the traditional power dynamics and brings real authenticity to social work education — and I don't think that could be achieved by theory alone.
OASW
Can you tell us more about some of the research and studies you're currently participating in?
Dr. Adamson
There's the primary care work that I've been doing with Dr. Rachelle Ashcroft. That research is titled Advancing the Role of Social Work in Primary Care, and we have been researching the role of social workers in primary care and making recommendations to re-tool practice to respond to the transforming landscape of primary care, highlighting the significant and potential contributions of social work in the new dawn of primary care. We held the first-ever national summit on social work in primary care in Canada in October.
I'm also Co-chair of an international initiative titled Service User Involvement in Social Work Education, which involves the development of a pedagogical guide for the involvement of service users in social work education for schools of social work. The guide is sponsored by the Council of Social Work Education in the USA, and the co-chairs are Dr. Joe Duffy from Queen's University Belfast and Sabrina Sullenberger from Belmont University.
And lastly, there is a study I'm doing titled Category Is: A Study of Ballroom, Black Excellence and Anti-Black Racism in Canada, which is a research project under a sub-grant from The International Partnership for Queer Youth Resilience. It looks at how members of the Toronto and Montreal house ballroom community experience anti-Black racism within queer spaces, and how Black queer youth became part of the House Ballroom Community and what may impede their full participation within more mainstream queer spaces. I'm doing that study with Dr. Shelley Craig.
OASW
How has OASW membership enriched your professional practice, as a professor and as a practitioner?
Dr. Adamson
OASW membership helped me be more evidence-based. Social workers have a very rich emotional life, which I think is great. But we have to texture it with evidence. Our intuitions are strong, and I always say intuition is subconscious logical analysis. So there's a truth to it. But we need to test it, and learn to speak to whatever truths we discover, and learn to convince people of those truths.
I wouldn't have been exposed to policy like I was. I wouldn't have been exposed to being able to be strategic in learning how to change policy. I wouldn't have had a network of people to bounce ideas off of that literally helped me mature intellectually about social work itself. I wouldn't have made all these lovely friendships in the community. I would never have been able to get many of the leadership positions that I got in hospitals without being able to articulate what social work was and some of the main issues connected to the profession.
As well, I think isolation is a very big topic these days. Professional isolation causes us to lose a grip on current, evidence-based practice. We need to stay connected to each other in order to grow as professionals. We can't do it in isolation. Given all of the technology that's around us, there's a lot more isolation, an isolation trap, in a sense, and we have to fight against that, to stay connected, not just online but in person as well. Unity is power.
In terms of how my OASW experience has shaped me as a professor, I've been fortunate to meet some truly remarkable social workers and client advocates across Ontario and Canada. These relationships and experiences have deeply influenced me. I've learned so much from them, and I carry those lessons with me into the classroom, trusting that they meaningfully inform how I teach and engage with students.
Learn more about CASW's Distinguished Service Award