March Is Social Work Month

By Joe McParland

March is Social Work Month with the theme for this year being “Social Work Breaks Barriers.”

The Ontario Association of Social Workers (OASW) celebrates Social Work Week from March 6 to 12, putting the spotlight on the work and importance of the province’s more than 22,000 social workers.

Many social workers are in private practice while others work in public, private and government agencies, institutions, and organizations.

For this article we highlight three of our area’s Registered Social Workers (RSW).

I begin with Shaun Ouellette, (MSW, RSW), the 2022 Biz X Award winner for The Therapist Who Really Listens.

Ouellette received his Master of Social Work (MSW) Degree from the University of Windsor in 2014. He is currently the Local Engagement Ambassador for the OASW’s Windsor Area Engagement Network, including Chatham Kent.

The Engagement Network exists to advocate for and support their 200 local social workers and encourage interaction with each other, and to provide them relevant professional development opportunities.

As Ouellette points out: “We have developed a subset within our Engagement Network named SWIPP – Social Workers In Private Practice that allows us to more easily network with each other and provide support, direction and guidance when required.”

He left Windsor for a few years heading to Canada’s Northwest Territories (NWT) as Manager of the Health and Social Services Authority, with responsibility for eight remote communities, many of them Indigenous.

Ouellette followed that up with a one year stop with Winnipeg Regional Health Authority as Manager of the Department of Psychology and he tells us: “This is where I met my current partner, a travelling nurse; she is also from Windsor.” specializing in clients dealing with significant trauma, PTSD, anxieties from trauma etc.

The couple currently own homes in the Winnipeg area and in Windsor, and split their time between the two locations.

Five years after returning to Windsor, Ouellette started his own practice, Sage Therapeutic Consulting Inc.

He chose sage as part of his business name from his past experience with the NWT Indigenous communities and their practice of smudging with sage and “Sage also comes from the ‘sage commander’ in the classic book, The Art of War.”

Ouellette keeps a hectic schedule including part time work with Victim Services of Windsor & Essex County and ChathamKent Victim Services under their Victim Quick Response Program, where the Attorney General of Ontario allocates up to $1,000 funding for counselling for victims of crime. (Learn more about Ouellette and his practice on: SageTherapy.ca)

Diana Semaan (BSW, MSW, RSW, CRA-RP, CHyp) is the owner of Your Healing Centre (YourHealingCentre.ca) at 829 Ottawa Street and 815 Erie Street in Windsor, where virtual and in-person counselling sessions with her are available upon request.

The Ontario Association of Social Workers (OASW) is the voice of the social work profession in the province, an advocate for mental health access for all and is constantly striving to expand awareness of the value of social workers such as (left) Crona Airgid, Owner of

She graduated from the University of Windsor with a Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) in 2004, and a Master’s Degree in 2006, and has been a Registered Social Worker in the Windsor Essex region for over 16 years. Over the years, she has worked at the Windsor Essex Community Health Centre (weCHC), the John McGivney Children’s Centre, and Regional Children’s Centre.

Semaan indicates there were two medical events in her personal life history contributing to her interest in social work.

The first event she recalls: “I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes at the age of eight years old, so I feel like I grew up in the hospital. Over the years, all the helping hands that supported me, guided me to helping others in the same way. I am just that person that everyone feels like they can speak to during really difficult times, so my nature and my life experiences encouraged me to choose my passion as my profession.”

Years later Semaan was in a vehicle accident and explains: “The pain from the accident inspired me to learn more about the body and the brain as I needed to find a way to cope if I wanted to survive, and what I learned was life changing . . . I learned that everything we need to heal exists within us. And so, Your Healing Centre was created in my darkest days.”

Crona Airgid, (MSW, RSW, Clinical Counsellor) owns Talk2Crona, operating from 473 Notre Dame Street in Belle River (TalkToCrona.com). She completed a two year Master of Social Work Degree at Wayne State University in 2000.

Airgid has been the Mental Health Lead at the Thamesview Family Health Team (ThamesviewFHT.ca) for the past seven years, in the Chatham Kent area, where she has worked on providing numerous in-person groups, such as a Cognitive Behaviour Therapy based Mastering Your Mood Group, a Dialectical Behaviour Therapy Group, and a Caregiver Support Group.

Airgid opened her business in January of 2020 and saw her first client in February 2020. Then COVID hit in March 2020, and she saw six people in her office prior to the shutdown and transition to telehealth, which eventually left her with two clients.

Reflecting back Airgid states: “Unknowingly, those two clients covered most of my expenses during those difficult times and I am forever grateful for them. I had to learn how to regulate and create safety within my own body when the world didn’t feel like a very safe place and all our external coping strategies were taken away from us, in order to be there for the people that I support.”

With 23 years counselling experience, Airgid provides individual, couple and group counselling for children, teens, and adults.

How did her interest in social work evolve?

“I had witnessed both my mother and Irish grandmother, do a lot of volunteer work in my formative years, and sometimes I joined in,” Airgid indicates. She adds: “To me, volunteer work brings a mixture of struggle and peace. Struggle at seeing others suffer up close and personal, and peace at knowing you are contributing in some small way, to make it even a tiny bit better for others.”

For more information on National Social Work Month and any local activities planned for OASW’s Social Work Week from March 6 to 12, refer to the website: OASW.org.