Below you will find answers to frequently asked questions. If you do not find the answer to your question here, please contact us at chart.workshops@torontomu.ca.
The main audience for this workshop is two-fold; those who are currently working in mental health care and those who are studying to become workers in this field, including social workers, nurses, psychologists, psychiatrists, and others. The workshop is designed for those who have some experience of completing chart documentation in a professional context, either at work or in a student placement.
Participants should note that difficult topics will be explored, including examples of systemic violence and coercive treatment. The workshop explores chart documentation in the context of interlocking forms of oppression such as transphobia and cisnormativity, sexism, anti-Black racism, and sanism. The workshop also explores chart documentation about sexual violence.
The objectives of the workshop are to 1) integrate social justice-based theories with clinical practice (chart documentation) for current and aspiring mental health care workers; 2) support reflexive praxis in which workshop participants analyze and evaluate how dominant worldviews and their own social identities inform their chart documentation practices; 3) encourage current and aspiring practitioners’ awareness of the larger social context that shapes mental distress and how charting practices can both support and challenge the structural power dynamics that dis/empower service users; 4) support participants to use critical documentation practice as a strategy towards revealing and resisting pathologization of everyday life and the dehumanization of service users through documentation.
The workshop is hosted at eight locations across Canada including post-secondary institutions, community health centres, and psychiatric hospitals. As of September 2024, most of the locations will have been chosen, however, organizations who wish to host a workshop can get in touch to inquire about availability by sending an email to chart.workshops@torontomu.ca.
If your organization has been chosen as a host, you will receive instructions on signing up via your organization.
Most workshops have approximately 30 participants and two facilitators.
The workshop is approximately 3 hours in length with several breaks built into the schedule.
The workshop includes a mix of lecture, solo reflection, small group activities, and large group discussions. Participants are asked to participate and interact with one another and the facilitators.
The workshop is held online over Zoom.
The workshop is held online over Zoom with automatically generated captions. Any images used on the slides are verbally described. Visual descriptions of the facilitators are shared at the beginning of the workshop. Breaks are built into the schedule and participants are encouraged to engage and participate according to access needs. Difficult topics will be explored, including examples of systemic violence and coercive treatment. Access requests can be made up to 10 days prior to the workshop by contacting chart.workshops@torontomu.ca.