The Office of Graduate Administration is pleased to announce that Stefani Kolochuk will be defending their thesis entitled “EXPLORING SOCIAL WORKERS’ SPIRITUAL MEANING OF THEIR RECONSTRUCTION PROCESSES AFTER THE UNANTICIPATED DEATH OF A CLIENT(S)” as a candidate for the degree of Master of Social Work. 

You are encouraged to view the defence online. The details on the defence and how to join are included below:

DATE:  March 29, 2023
TIME:   1:00 PM

DEFENCE MODE: Remotely via Zoom

LINK TO JOIN:
https://unbc.zoom.us/j/64477476222?pwd=aC9aeWxtUGFpN3M4OWNGV1Q3bStWUT09

Meeting ID: 644 7747 6222
Passcode: 797397

To ensure the defence proceeds with no interruptions, please mute your audio and video on entry and do not share your screen inadvertently. The meeting will be locked to entry 5 minutes after it begins, ensure you are on time.

ABSTRACT:     Background: This interpretive qualitative inquiry explores the spiritual meaning of their reconstruction processes of social workers after the unanticipated death of a client. Identifying existing social networks and using snowball sampling, ten social workers in British Columbia were recruited for this research. From a socially constructed and spiritual perspective, the researcher examines this process in collaboration with the ten participants. Through semi-structured interviews the social work participants gave deep and rich personal stories reflecting on the experience of having a client unexpectedly die. Through a process of thematic analysis, four main themes, and nine sub-themes emerged from the data. Objective: To explore and gain a better understanding of social workers’ experiences of unanticipated client death and the spiritual meaning of their reconstruction processes after this experience. Methods: An interpretive qualitative inquiry was used for this study. A literature review was conducted to identity existing research and any gaps in research on the thesis question. Subsequently, semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten social worker participants who shared their experiences of unanticipated client death and spiritual meaning of their reconstruction processes. Thematic analysis of the data, guided by Braun and Clark (2018) was undertaken. Results: Three main themes and eight subthemes about how social workers experience and process the death of a client were found. Results revealed social workers often experience multiple client deaths that can be traumatic and have long lasting impacts/memories and that making sense of this experience is generally complex, unique to the individual, and meaning was found to be tied to systemic issues in the context of client death. A comparative analysis of Indigenous and non-Indigenous agencies in relation to spiritual supports are also presented. Conclusion: The experience of having a client death(s) is impactful and was found to be generally traumatic for social workers. Spirituality may play a part in how this experience is processed and understood. Systemic issues and current neoliberal systems were reported to be main factors in how death was understood in the context of worker-client relationship. Informal support in the workplace was perceived as essential and formal workplace supports were seen as ingenuine and challenging to access. Spiritual and culturally based supports naturally found within Indigenous culture were perceived as a welcome support, especially in the context of client bereavement. Finally, through this inquiry it was apparent there needs to be more research about the understudied impacts of experiencing the unanticipated death of a client, how social workers perceive, and access formal workplace supports, and how individual social workers and organizations draw from and utilize spirituality in social work practice.

COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP:

Chair: Dr. Shannon Freeman, University of Northern British Columbia

The examining Committee Members are:

Supervisor: Dr. Indrani Margolin, University of Northern British Columbia

Committee Member: Dr. Dee Horne, University of Northern British Columbia

Committee Member: Dr. Joanna Pierce, University of Northern British Columbia

External Examiner: Dr. Caroline Sanders, University of Northern British Columbia