Jeannette Waegemakers Schiff

Emerita Professor, Research

Emerita

PhD & MPhil.

Columbia University

MSW

University of Toronto

Adjunct Appointment

Mathison Centre, Hotchkiss Brain Institute

Contact information


Research Activities

Research areas

  • Housing and Homelessness
  • Health, Mental Health and Wellness
  • Infant, Children and Adolescents
  • Human Service Organizations and Systems

Research

Research: persistent mental illness, addictions, various aspects of homelessness, including rural and aboriginal issues, and program evaluation of housing first and other housing programs. She is a member of the Canadian Homeless Research Network and the organizing steering committee of the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness and was a member of the steering committee of the Canadian Society for Spirituality in Social Work (CSSSW).  She coordinated the second national conference on Homelessness in Canada (2009) and the CSSSW in 2010. 

Current Research

Prof. Waegemakers Schiff’s recent work includes examining the psychosocial stressors of PTSD and vicarious trauma in frontline support workers in the homeless sector and a new study examining the psychosocial demands on staff in domestic violence shelters.  She is also conducting, in partnership with re4searchers at Lakehead University, a longitudinal examination of poverty reduction strategies using a Circle/ Getting Ahead and Moving Forward program in Ontario.


Biography

Dr. Waegemakers Schiff has a diverse background in mental health and homelessness. Her interests span direct services delivery as well as macro issues of the organizational contexts of services delivery. She combines an extensive background of direct practice and administration with her academic work and interests. 

Education initiatives: Professor Waegemakers Schiff has been the chief architect for three major educational initiatives involving interprofessional practice: the children’s Mental health interprofessional; curriculum, the Interprofessional Mental Health and Addiction certificate and diploma programs and the certificate for frontline workers in the homeless sector.  She also a member of the interprofessional practice initiative at the Cummings School of Medicine.  She has contributed to numerous book chapters inn her areas of expertise and is the author of Working with Homeless and vulnerable People (Lyceum/Oxford).

Teaching interests: Mental health and addictions, interprofessional practice, homelessness and marginalized people, organizational theory and program evaluation; integration of theory and practice.