Sharon Tracey

#IamMGH - Meet Sharon Tracey

#IamMGH tells the stories of our people. In celebration of Social Work Week, we would like to introduce you to Sharon Tracey, social worker at Michael Garron Hospital (MGH).

“I have been a social worker at MGH for 13 years. I’ve worked in several areas throughout the hospital including general medicine, oncology, respirology and the Family Birthing Centre and Special Care Nursery. Now, I work in our Complex Continuing Care and Palliative Care units.

I actually got into social work because it came recommended to me. I was working as a secretary at Sunnybrook Hospital and the social workers I worked with felt that I had the right personality traits for the role. They encouraged me to go to school and get certified, so I did my undergrad at Ryerson and my masters at the University of Toronto. After working in the community and at Toronto Grace Hospital, I came to MGH.

The role of a social worker can look a little bit different depending on what area you work in but in its basic essence, we provide support. Part of what we do is determining the type of support that a patient and their family needs through psycho-social assessments. From there, we can provide emotional, psychological or physical support. We also offer psychotherapy, counseling and address mental health issues.

In my current role, I focus on providing emotional supports to our patients and their families. A lot of my work includes reviewing patient applications for our programs and making sure our patients know they have someone to speak to when they get here. I also support families in caring for loved ones, whether it’s advising them how to get a power of attorney or how to work with a lawyer. After a patient passes away, I continue to work with patient families to offer bereavement support and help them determine the necessary next steps.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been emotionally challenging for everyone, so in addition to working with patients and their families (often over the phone), I also do my best to offer emotional support to our staff. I find it beneficial to help people identify their areas of strength and what makes them feel good so they can build on that. I try to help them see the positives in any situation, like recognizing that as healthcare workers, we are healthy and able to help someone that needs it. It’s important to be self-aware, to know your triggers and to remind yourself to be intentional and cultivate a life that makes you feel happy.

I sometimes refer to something that Maya Angelou once said along the lines of ‘If I don’t like something, I need to change it. If I can’t change it, I need to change my attitude and appreciate that there is something to learn in every situation. If I am not good to myself, how I can I expect anyone else to be good to me? Without courage to speak truth, I cannot practice any virtue with consistency such as being kind, patient, generous, gentle or have self- control.’ 

I am so proud to be a social worker and to know that I can make a difference in a person’s life when I come to work. I hope that if someone reading this is interested in social work, they know what a fulfilling role it is and that it's about more than having a career – it’s about having a passion for others.”

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