Evidence-Informed Mental Health Social Work: Insights from the 2025 Inspiring Social Worker of the Year with Brandon Wong, MSW
“…always wanting to learn more I think is super important in our field because nothing’s ever gonna be completely stagnant. Things are always gonna change, improve, or maybe get worse but it’s gonna be up to you to always be open to that continuous learning.“
Brandon Wong
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About the Episode
In this episode, the 2025 Inspiring Social Worker of the Year Award Winner, Brandon Wong, joins the podcast. Brandon Wong, a mental health social worker within the Vancouver Coastal Health authority, practicing in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside He reflects on his journey from a health sciences background in Australia to frontline social work in complex mental health and substance use settings. He shares what drew him to social work practice, why social workers are essential within interdisciplinary mental health teams, and his experience and insights of engaging in evidence-informed practice and knowledge exchange within healthcare. He further reflects on what it meant to be named inspiring Social Worker of the Year and co-authoring an award-winning article in the Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Diversity and Social Work. Brandon’s insights help foster a greater understanding of how social work research can be used to inform best practice, both currently and in the future.
Timestamps
1:30 – From Australia to Social Work: Finding a Path into Mental Health Practice
4:50 – Inspiring Social Worker of the Year
6:49 – Evidence-Informed Policy and Practice
9:13 – Equity in Evidence-Informed Practice
11:09 – Knowledge Exchange in Healthcare
16:07 – Best Manuscript Award for Peer-Reviewed Article
20:13 – How Social Workers Can Participate in the Creation and Dissemination of Research
22:36 – Hopes for the Future of Social Work
26:01 – Words of Wisdom: Navigating Stress, Feeling Unseen, Staying Open to Learning
Mentioned in this Episode
Inspiring Social Worker of The Year Award (2025): https://socialwork.ubc.ca/news/inspiring-social-worker-of-the-year-award-2025/
Publication:
Wong, B., & Chau, S. (2021). Mixed-race people and social work: a critical literature review. Journal of Ethnic & Cultural Diversity in Social Work, 31(6), 315–328. https://doi.org/10.1080/15313204.2021.1991867
Our Guest
Brandon Wong is a MSW social worker born in Australia. His origins are from China and Macedonia. He moved to Canada in 2017 to purse his MSW at UBCO. Upon completion of his MSW, he has worked in a number of different areas beginning in child guardianship at a Indigenous designated agency, and later moved to Vancouver Coastal Health where he specializes in mental health and addictions. Academically Brandon has published an article in the Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Diversity in Social Work which was subsequently awarded paper of the year for this journal in 2022.
