An evaluation of the public health paradigm: a view of social work

The Creators' Game: A Conduit for Youth Development, Community Engagement, and American Indian Cultural Connections

The Nebraska Panhandle Creators' Game event (CG) was a grassroots-driven community engagement project for the Nebraska Panhandle region, a largely rural region with a vibrant American Indian (AI) population. The CG event explored the role social workers can play in leveraging a youth sport (lacrosse) as a convening platform for public health messaging and to embrace the fundamental fact that the AI people live with an intimate connection to their community, the land, and their people. This connection is pivotal for self-directed change in communities that actively comingle with American Indian people. A feasibility study was done to explore respondents' perceptions of the impact of the event on youth development, community engagement, and cultural connections. The pilot data collected for this project supports the literature on participatory research as a key to engaging AI communities. Data trends are provided, and the implications of these findings are discussed.

Honouring the role of community in community health work with Cambodian Americans

Despite surviving extreme forms of violence, torture and other traumas during the Khmer Rouge genocide and forced migration, Cambodian Americans experience devastating health inequities and barriers to health access in the United States (U.S.). From the perspective of Cambodian American community health workers (CHWs), we explored three aims in this community-based participatory research (CBPR), qualitative study: Cambodian Americans' understanding of health, community health work strategies that improve health access of Cambodian Americans, and action steps that improve health access for Cambodian Americans. From 2014 to 2016, our two-phased study spanned seven U.S. states, which included a focus group (n = 5) and 16 semistructured interviews. Participants identified an indigenous concept of health, and micro-level (e.g. service navigation, peer education) and mezzo-level interventions (e.g. community building, coalition work) to improve health access. Finally, Khmer Health Advocates, a community-based health advocacy organisation, served as a vital study partner in this CBPR study.

An Examination of the Holism Paradigm: A View of Social Work

This article examines the holism paradigm, implications on social work practice in healthcare, and how social work practice can help promote the value of social justice. Examining the holistic health paradigm fosters a critical reflection that assists to better understand beliefs and assumptions that guide social work practice, thus leading to critical action.

An Examination of the Biomedical Paradigm: A View of Social Work

The biomedical paradigm provides foundational assumptions that shape the context within which social workers in health care settings practice. By providing social workers with a greater understanding of the history, epistemology, and key assumptions, this article aims to promote critical awareness and critical reflection on how the biomedical paradigm may be influencing health care environments. The analysis of this article raises important questions for social workers within health care environments, questions about how social workers are able to retain their disciplinary identity as agents of change in the pursuit of social justice.

Ontario’s Family Health Teams

This article provides an overview of political decisions that led up to the implementation of the Ontario Family Health Team (FHT) model. FHTs have broadened primary health care in Ontario by bringing together family physicians with various interdisciplinary professionals. Political decisions have long influenced the shape and need for the FHT model. Knowledge of historically imbedded elements in the FHT model helps to strengthen current and future policy and decision-making. This article is informed by qualitative data collected from interviews with seven policy informants and 29 FHT leaders.