Editing Social work (section)

===Canada===
A role for psychiatric social workers was established early in Canada's history of service delivery in the field of population health. Native North Americans understood mental trouble as an indication of an individual who had lost their equilibrium with the sense of place and belonging in general, and with the rest of the group in particular. In native healing beliefs, health and mental health were inseparable, so similar combinations of natural and spiritual remedies were often employed to relieve both mental and physical illness. These communities and families greatly valued holistic approaches for preventive health care. Indigenous peoples in Canada have faced cultural oppression and social marginalization through the actions of European colonizers and their institutions since the earliest periods of contact. Culture contact brought with it many forms of depredation. Economic, political, and religious institutions of the European settlers all contributed to the displacement and [[oppression]] of [[indigenous peoples|indigenous]] people.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Kirmayer |editor1-first=Laurence J. |editor2-last=Valaskakis |editor2-first=Gail Guthrie |date=2009 |title=Healing Traditions: The Mental Health of Aboriginal Peoples in Canada |publisher=UBC Press |location=Vancouver |isbn=978-0-7748-1523-9 |url=http://www.ubcpress.ca/books/pdf/chapters/2008/HealingTraditions.pdf |access-date=2016-03-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160406112447/http://www.ubcpress.ca/books/pdf/chapters/2008/HealingTraditions.pdf |archive-date=2016-04-06 |url-status=dead }}{{page needed|date=September 2016}}</ref>

The first officially recorded treatment practices were in 1714, when [[Quebec]] opened wards for the mentally ill. In the 1830s social services were active through charity organizations and church parishes ([[Social Gospel]] Movement). Asylums for the insane were opened in 1835 in Saint John and New Brunswick. In 1841 in [[Toronto]] care for the mentally ill became institutionally based. Canada became a self-governing dominion in 1867, retaining its ties to the British crown. During this period, age of [[Capitalism#Industrial Revolution|industrial capitalism]] began and it led to social and economic dislocation in many forms. By 1887 asylums were converted to hospitals, and nurses and attendants were employed for the care of the mentally ill. Social work training began at the University of Toronto in 1914. Before that, social workers acquired their training through trial and error methods on the job and by participating in apprenticeship plans offered by charity organization societies. These plans included related study, practical experience, and supervision.<ref>{{Cite book |last=King |first=D. |title=The History of Professional Education for Social Work in Canada. |year=1943 |pages=16–17 |language=en |department=New York University}}</ref> In 1918 Dr. Clarence Hincks and [[Clifford Whittingham Beers|Clifford Beers]] founded the Canadian National Committee for Mental Hygiene, which later became the [[Canadian Mental Health Association]]. In the 1930s Hincks promoted prevention and of treating sufferers of mental illness before they were incapacitated (early intervention).{{citation needed|date=November 2019}}

[[World War II]] profoundly affected attitudes towards mental health. The medical examinations of recruits revealed that thousands of apparently healthy adults suffered mental difficulties. This knowledge changed public attitudes towards mental health, and stimulated research into preventive measures and methods of treatment.<ref>{{cite web |title=History of CMHA |website=Canadian Mental Health Association: Ontario |url=https://ontario.cmha.ca/about-us/history-of-cmha |access-date=June 22, 2023 |archive-date=March 24, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170324055259/http://ontario.cmha.ca/about-us/history-of-cmha/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 1951 Mental Health Week was introduced across Canada. For the first half of the twentieth century, with a period of [[deinstitutionalisation]] beginning in the late 1960s psychiatric social work succeeded to the current emphasis on community-based care, psychiatric social work focused beyond the medical model's aspects on individual diagnosis to identify and address social inequities and structural issues. In the 1980s Mental Health Act was amended to give consumers the right to choose treatment alternatives. Later the focus shifted to workforce mental health issues and environmental root causes.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Regehr |first1=Cheryl |last2=Glancy |first2=Graham |title=Mental Health Social Work Practice in Canada |date=2014 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-900119-4 }}{{page needed|date=November 2019}}</ref>

In Ontario, the regulator, the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers (OCSWSSW) regulates two professions: registered social workers (RSW) and registered social service workers (RSSW). Each province has similar regulatory bodies, and their leanings and interpretations are influenced by the Canadian Council of Social Work Regulators (CCSWR). The [[Canadian Association of Social Workers]] (CASW) is the national professional body for social workers. Prior to the provincial-level politicization that began in the early 2000s and lasted until the mid-2010s, registrants of this professional body were able to engage in interprovincial practice as registered social workers.