Jane Matheson, Phd, RCSW

DAY IN THE LIFE

BY SHAWNA DIRKSEN

JANE MATHESON PHD, RCSW

“I THINK CHANGE HAPPENS ONE PERSON AT A TIME. IF YOU NEED MY HELP—ONE PERSON, ONE FAMILY— I’M HERE.”

This is the mindset Jane Matheson, PhD, RCSW, has applied to her 40-year career in clinical social work. As the recently retired CEO of a children’s mental health centre in Calgary, an adjunct assistant professor with the University of Calgary Faculty of Social Work and a dedicated volunteer, Matheson has made an incredible impact in our province through her work—and she’s not done yet.

The early years

Matheson’s story started in 1972. After earning her degree in Psychology from Western University in London, Ontario, she was traveling through Europe and heard about a job opportunity in Germany working for the American army.

“I always like to say this was my first small ‘s’, small ‘w’ social work experience. I was there to talk to young men on their way to or coming back from Vietnam. Even though I knew nothing about war or trauma back then, you can imagine how much I learned just by being present.”

From there, Matheson went on to get her Master of Social Work from the University of Toronto. After graduating in 1979, Matheson moved to Calgary for an opportunity with Alberta Mental Health, where she stayed for about five years.

“I’m outspoken, so I seem to end up a supervisor wherever I go. In my last couple of years at Alberta Mental Health, I realized I was a better manager than a person who was seeing clients everyday.”

35 years of leadership

It was a friend and past supervisor of Matheson’s who suggested she apply at Wood’s Homes in 1984. Ultimately, Matheson joined the organization, which provides treatment and support to children, youth and families with mental health needs, as a senior director of residential services.

“There was a focus on crisis management. I learned a lot from the previous executive director who was a psychologist, including a great deal about managing a crisis in a calm way, and I’m forever grateful for that.”

A few years after starting with Wood’s Homes, Matheson decided to pursue her PhD in social work, specializing in clinical supervision. She took a year-long educational leave to work toward her doctorate at the University of Calgary.

Although Matheson was expecting to return to work in a role with fewer responsibilities so she could also focus on finishing her PhD, things didn’t work out that way. Just before her return, her executive director left the organization.

“That time is a blur! I ended up becoming a managing director—a job I shared with another person, then executive director and eventually CEO of Wood’s Homes and somehow finished my PhD in the chaos of starting a new job.”

Matheson went on to shape the organization as it grew from about 250 to 550 employees and from a $9-million budget to a $42-million budget. “Every day was different and, I’d say, interesting and fascinating. I spent a lot of time making sure the [organization’s] values were being operationalized by starting programs, introducing people to the agency, writing proposals and speeches, and doing the bidding of my directors.”

This is reflective supervision. It helps people understand what they did, why they did it, accept mistakes and find ways to fix them

Outside of the day-to-day challenges Matheson met as CEO, one of the things she brought to Wood’s Homes was her passion for clinical supervision.

“I see the supervision I did as clinical supervision because I was trained as a clinician in my master’s program and did therapy for many years, and also because I see us all as human beings. In the day-to-day of our work, it’s often hard to talk about what’s happening to us and around us. These things and how we make sense of them need to be listened to—a supervisor needs to go beyond just task completion or superficial conversation.”

“This is reflective supervision. It helps people understand what they did, why they did it, accept mistakes and find ways to fix them. It encourages and confronts and celebrates successes, and helps a person grow in their job, become a good team player and a satisfied, competent human being who helps others.”

Research was another area that Matheson was committed to bringing to Wood’s Homes. “[While] going to U of C and embarking on my PhD, I got a real appreciation for the value of data.”

With one employee and some extra money she found in the budget, Matheson brought a research department to Wood’s Homes, which grew to five employees and led to the Wood’s Homes Research Chair in Children’s Mental Health, a community-based partnership between Wood’s Homes and the University of Calgary Faculty of Social Work.

After 35 years with Wood’s Homes, Matheson retired as CEO in April of 2020.

What’s next. For Matheson, retiring from Wood’s Homes doesn’t mean retiring entirely. She’s been teaching with the University of Calgary on and off since 1981 and now teaches a continuing education course in clinical supervision twice a year and is involved in the new MSW leadership certificate programs.

Matheson has also dedicated time to volunteer work, including sitting on the ACSW Clinical Committee, nine years with the Child Welfare League of Canada (including a few years as president of the board) and contributing to various task forces. Currently, she lends her expertise to the Association of Social Work Boards in the United States, which is a regulatory body for every state and for some provinces.

Matheson isn’t quite done with Wood’s Homes yet, either. As part of the team that brought the Wood’s Homes Research Chair in Children’s Mental Health to fruition, Matheson still lends her support to the initiative. She’s only an email away if someone within Wood’s Homes has a question.

“Working behind the scenes and giving advice is actually kind of a treat,” says Matheson. “It’s good to be useful that way. And knock on wood, at 71 years old, I still have a pretty good memory!”

In her spare time, you’ll find Matheson enjoying her new home in beautiful Victoria, British Columbia, where she recently moved. She also loves spending time with her husband, children and grandchildren—and says she might become a fashion designer!

SHAWNA DIRKSEN is a freelance writer based in Alberta. She loves skiing in the winter and running outdoors in the summer, and when she’s not doing that, she’s probably writing something about being minimal-ish for her blog Practically Minimal.