Honoring Mental Health Week and the Value of Empathy

The theme of this year’s Mental Health Week, from May 2 to 8, is empathy, which is both timely and incredibly relevant for our profession. The value of empathy in our work, communities and society matters now more than ever.

I have taken lessons from my life to focus on empathy at home and at work. Having lived in a multi-generational household, I know cultivating empathy makes a difference. As a South Asian woman, mother, and social worker I have named the importance of paying everyday attention to innovation and action driven by empathy. It’s a quality my grandmother, my Dadi expected me to understand, specifically when it came to helping our communities move forward to create opportunity for all.

During Mental Health Week 2022, OASW honors the incredible commitment of social workers like you who lead with empathy and embed it as a professional value in your work with others. We also recognize that the pandemic has introduced significant professional and personal challenges, and that you are not exempt to those. Take time to care for yourself, to invest deeply in self-empathy and to place value on you.

Deepy Sur
MSW, PhD, RSW
Chief Executive Officer

Mental Health Resources

Upcoming Webinars:

• May 10 | Psychological Therapies & Work-Related Stress | Presented by Dr. Sanjay Rao, MBBS, MD, FRCPsych, FRCPC, MBA and the OASW Learning Centre

• June 23 | Managing Difficult Emotions in Substance Use Recovery | Presented by Sly Sarkisova, MSW, RSW and the OASW Learning Centre

On-Demand Webinars:

• Revolutionizing Trauma and Addiction Treatment with The Felt Sense Polyvagal Model™ | Presented by Jan Winhall, MSW, RSW and the OASW Learning Centre

• Discrimination is Trauma: Trauma-Informed Care Approaches for Supporting Marginalized Populations | Presented by Uppala Chandrasekera, MSW, RSW and the OASW Learning Centre

• Dual Diagnosis and the Role of Social Work | Presented by Alex Chiefari, BA, MSW, RSW and the OASW Learning Centre

• Trauma Stewardship: A Workshop on the Fundamentals of Trauma and Vicarious Trauma | Presented by Karine Silverwoman, MSW and the OASW Learning Centre

• Psychological Safety in the Workplace | Presented by Milena Braticevic, PhD Integral Health and the OASW Learning Centre

• Mindfulness as a Brief Intervention | Presented by Rhea Plosker, RSW, RP RSW and the OASW Learning Centre

Other Resources:

• Mental Health Resources

• Resources for Health Care Workers During COVID-19: CAMH

• ECHO Coping with COVID-19

• Virtual Peer Support for Social Workers in Long-Term Care