Brother fuels this student's passion for social work
Denise Silva (right) and her brother Noah.
By Louise Kinross
Denise Silva got interested in disability issues when growing up with her younger brother Noah, who has autism.
"My little brother and one of my cousins have autism," Silva says. "Growing up I really didn't understand it, but I had the drive to help and find resources and support them. There was a 10-year age gap between me and my brother. We had immigrated here four years before and my parents were focusing on their jobs to provide for us. So I helped with Noah's care and babysat and took him to lessons. I loved hanging out with him because he was so witty and clever and funny, and we grew up really close. In some ways I did feel the stigma [of autism], because I was the one tackling society and finding new information to help him."
Today Silva is a social work student doing a placement at Holland Bloorview where she connects parents who have children with disabilities to resources on a larger scale. She works in our Family Navigation Hub, helping families connect to housing, food, childcare and funding supports.
"I'm learning a lot about one-to-one consultation and how to understand the nuances of different social needs for complex clients," Silva says. "Understanding what resources are out there is a huge learning curve, and our job is to explain it to families in a way that's simple, clear and accessible."
Silva, who is doing a master's in social work at the University of Toronto, values the way she was introduced to her role at the hospital.
"First we shadowed our supervisors meeting with families, then we took notes, and then we were gradually supported into doing more parts of the sessions ourselves," she says. "Every step of the way we were trained, supported and given concrete and actionable feedback to think and reflect on. It's so important to have a supervisor who really cares about your learning."
Silva says she also benefited from shadowing staff in other disciplines, including music therapy.
Silva first learned about Holland Bloorview when she worked as a lifeguard and swim instructor here. "I loved working with the kids, learning how to do adapted swimming, understanding disabilities and being accessible," she says. "I fell in love with the facility's philosophy and how they support kids. I knew this was a community I wanted to work with and learn more about."
One of the joys of her placement is "talking to parents and really understanding their stories," she says. "In all of my work the most important thing I find is that families are very creative. They do whatever they need to do to support their children and each other, especially if no one is there to help and guide them. It shows the strength built within family systems. During difficult times, families make do and are creative and it's awesome to see. I have a lot of appreciation for the persistency and resilience of parents."
Silva says she uses empathy and "genuine curiosity" in understanding a family's needs.
She acknowledges that "there are frustrations with the system, because it's so limited. You can't fix what a family is going through as much as you would hope or want."
To manage stress, Silva enjoys arts and crafts. "I have a cricut machine, which is an industrial cutter, and I make T-shirts and stickers. I also spend a lot of my time watching musicals and plays. I love the joy that the stage brings, and I love singing. I go to shows and it brings me a lot of joy."
If she could change something about how we support families, it would be "having one place where families can find information, so they don't have to go through a multitude of websites and different clinicians. Connectivity and consolidation of supports and resources would keep everyone aware."
Silva says working with our families has given her "a greater appreciation for my own parents and how they cared for my brother."
Her research interests lie in accessibility. "Since my undergrad, I have been working in the Authentic Learning Lab on a virtual game that focuses on perspective taking for privilege, oppression and intersectionality. The character we're building is an 18-year-old girl named Noor. Two years before her 18th birthday she was in a severe accident, and she lives with traumatic brain injury and cognitive and motor disabilities. So disability is a huge component of the story we're telling in the game. My research for this game focused on understanding what accessibility features university students with disabilities want in digital learning games.
Silva began her placement at the hospital in September and is here until April.
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