Maddy worked in the ER, ICU and COVID wards, helping out wherever needed, then in Fall 2021, she took a position in the Rehabilitation unit, working mostly with patients adjusting to life-changing physical injuries.

“The majority of the clients I worked with in the rehab unit had suffered a spinal cord injury, which obviously results in severe physical trauma because it can cause paralysis, but this type of injury also has significant mental and emotional impacts. A spinal cord injury, an amputation or other type of serious injury can change everything about your previous life, and that means adapting to a whole new reality.”

According to Maddy, the Rehab unit’s social workers help clients consider all aspects of their new way of living and access resources and services.

“I supported clients in assessing their current housing and whether it could continue to meet their needs. I helped them navigate the home care program, apply for disability benefits, figure out transportation, develop coping skills, connect with counsellors, and more. Then there are the caregivers, including partners and family members. This type of severe injury changes everything for everyone in the circle.”

In 2023, Maddy accepted a position in the Central Dialysis unit, working mostly with outpatients.

“There are five renal social workers on the team, and I follow roughly 80 clients at any given time. My typical clients are very complex, as they’re mostly lower-income folks with advanced to end-stage renal disease. They’re coming here for dialysis, but they often have many chronic diseases and co-morbidities, as well as social issues and barriers to deal with. We really try to meet folks wherever they’re at, which means doing everything we can just to get them here for treatment. Once they’re here, we can offer additional types of support and resources to try to meet their other needs.”

Maddy says roughly one-quarter of her clients are from Northern Manitoba, which often means relocating to Winnipeg for dialysis and separating from family and community. They can’t work, which means they don’t have an income, and that means they may not have a safe, clean and comfortable place to stay while they’re here either.

“I have even booked taxis for clients because they don’t have a phone or vehicle or any money for a cab…I want to try to do anything I can to support them and reduce the harm that would come from missing dialysis. What’s most important to our team is a dignified quality of life for our clients, and of course, we are concerned about their overall well-being. I spend a lot of time chatting privately on the phone or texting with people, because it can be tough to talk confidentially about difficult things while dialysis is happening. This unit is big and busy and there’s a lot of activity here all the time.”

Maddy says that social work plays a vital role across the health-care system and that career opportunities exist in a variety of units.

“Social workers provide incredible value to the system because we remove barriers to treatment and we work preventatively to reduce hospital admissions. Hospital stays are intensive and extremely expensive, so we work hard to try to keep people out of hospital and reduce pressure on the system. We are problem-solvers working in a very fast-paced environment, and we try to learn and share information with clients about everything that may be available to support them.”

Maddy met her husband, Brent Moyer, a Rehabilitation Clinician at HSC, and says that working together in health care has its benefits.

“We definitely help each other out dealing with the stress and emotional baggage that comes with a health care career. We talk a lot, but we set boundaries. We also travel a lot and we live an outdoorsy life, cycling, hiking and swimming.”

Professional success for Maddy is about listening and she spends a lot of her time doing exactly that.

“People need to talk and express themselves. I always want to treat my clients as people first; people who deserve kindness. I find myself frequently serving as a mediator between all the elements of a very complex system and acting as an advocate to try to shield my clients from judgment and limit risks to their cultural safety. Their emotional needs often supersede the physical, so I would love to be able to do more counselling, but building strong relationships to help them feel comfortable coming to the unit for treatment is what matters most.”

The post Meet Maddy Goodwin: Supporting Clients in HSC’s Central Dialysis Unit appeared first on Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals.

Sharon Young, Registered Social Worker at Women’s Health Clinic, calls herself a “worker at heart,” and says that her career has been the result of opportunity, circumstance and getting behind causes that align with who she is at her core.

“I started out in health care 26 years ago as a volunteer at Women’s Health Clinic. I was at the University of Winnipeg doing an Honours degree in Sociology and I came across a clinic poster advertising for volunteers. Reproductive health really spoke to me, so I started out as a volunteer and worked my way through the organization. Community health is the space I landed and it definitely connects with who I am.”

Sharon is fascinated by the complexities of the human experience and says that her very nature put her on a social work trajectory. After applying for an employee position at the clinic’s front desk, she then trained and spent time as a medical assistant and eventually moved into the Mothers Program, now known as Families and Community Program.

“Eventually, I figured I may as well actually become a real social worker. Over all my years in community health, all the work I was doing was social work-related. I was an outreach worker and coordinated the Provincial Healthy Baby Community programs, developed and ran a mother mentoring program, and eventually led the Mothers Program team while also working at the Morgentaler Clinic on Corydon Avenue.”

Sharon graduated from the Faculty of Social Work in 2013 and proposed an official staff social worker role to the clinic’s then-Executive Director.

“There are now two of us doing triage, counselling intake assessment and brief treatment counselling. The clinic offers both brief, action-focused care, as well as a longer-term general counselling program for more complex needs.”

Services are available to all women and women-identifying persons from anywhere in the Winnipeg.

“Anyone in Winnipeg can call us; we are not catchment-based. Most of the clients we connect with initially contact us for similar, broad-based themes, and although the specifics may be different, the outcomes are the same. We can definitely see a trend: We are all doing more with less, and labour and resources are stretched thin. The expectations around work are very difficult for people to manage because there are individual people doing multiple roles. When you have this kind of role overlap, stress levels are going to be high.”

According to Sharon, whose advanced area of practice is in mental health, there are considerable wait list problems when it comes to accessing public system counselling. She has become a self-professed ‘master’ at assessing clients’ needs and private benefits programs, and identifying opportunities to get them the care they need, quickly.

“I have always had an ability to strike up meaningful conversations with people. I am a curious person and interested in learning about others’ experiences, so therapeutic alliances come naturally to me. I truly want people to get the help they need in a timely manner. I’m actually good at small talk and getting to know people; in this case, it’s a very helpful skill.”

When Sharon started at Women’s Health Clinic, it was a small organization with around 30 employees at one site. Today, this feminist, non-profit clinic has approximately 200 staff, a larger operating budget, and three sites including the abortion clinic, the main office at 419 Graham Avenue and Ode’imin (formerly the birth centre). Clinic services include a medical program, midwifery, abortion, pregnancy and birth control counselling, mental health counselling, a Provincial Eating Disorder and Recovery Program, training, support groups, community programming and more.

Sharon says that she enjoys her work very much and is grateful to be a repository for people’s stories and experiences. “I learn just as much from our clients as they learn from us.” But she also acknowledges that keeping perspective and balance is critical.

“I get up in the morning with purpose, and that purpose can be as simple and straightforward as eating a good breakfast or going for lunch with my mom. I find some degree of purpose in everything I do, but I am motivated and inspired by the people I love – my family and friends.”

The post Meet Sharon Young, RSW: Driven by purpose appeared first on Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals.