Navigating Mandated Reporting
Hello
My name is Heather and I come to this research as a longtime frontline worker and someone who cares deeply about keeping children, families and communities safe. My motivation is building towards a world free of violence where all families can thrive.
​
I'm currently doing my PhD in Social Work at York University and this research is part of my degree. I'm a Vanier Scholar and my research focuses on how mandated reporters understand and practice their duty to report and what could improve practice in this area.
About the research
This research is a way that I hope to collect the wisdom, strategies and struggles from mandated reporters across Canada to help share different approaches and strategies for keeping children, families and communities safe.
I worked for many years as a mandated reporter in Ontario. Calling Child Protection is a responsibility I don't take lightly and protecting children from harm is very important. However, I also struggled with situations where it was unclear what was happening in a family and sometimes felt torn between a broad legal obligation and knowing that a report could throw a family into more crisis. I also had experiences where there were families I was worried about and Child Protection chose not to get involved. These experiences pushed me to started thinking about the importance of having a range of ways to support families. I was lucky to have mentors and learned so much from the families I worked with but these experiences made me realize that the realities are often more complicated than the ways considered in our training. This survey is a way to help contribute to more effective practice for children, families and communities.