Matt Scott, RSW

Director of Professional Practice

Matt Scott has recently joined the BCCSW this fall to fill in temporarily for Selena’s parental leave as the Director of Professional Practice – Inquiry.  Matt has been a social worker for 20 years in BC.

Matt’s practice has not been limited to a specific population or area of practice but has grown with him as a professional and as a person.

His broad background in diverse areas of practice across the lifespan has been in front line areas where social workers tend to encounter direct challenges professionally and ethically.  This gives Matt sensitivity to the nuts and bolts of practice and to the sorts of issues which generate complaints to the BCCSW.

For the last decade, Matt’s focus has been helping develop and lead Adult Protection work within the province under the Adult Guardianship Act and related legislation.

Matt’s earlier social work career was primarily in front line mental health and addictions across the lifespan in both community, and in acute care.   Matt also has worked in child protection assessment and investigations with MCFD and as a civilian social worker for members of the Canadian Armed Forces.
Matt has always sought out ways to challenge his own practice, and is now greatly looking forward to supporting both his fellow social workers and the public from a regulatory perspective.

Matt and his family are fortunate to spend time between urban living in Vancouver and rural life on an island off an island in the Salish Sea.

Margaret Alala, RSW

Professional Practice Associate

Margaret possesses an interest in trauma-informed practice particularly as it relates to the role of social injustice in poor mental health. Her interests span both mainstream and non-mainstream forms of knowledge and global knowledge exchange. She is keen on discovering ways in which marginalized perspectives can be incorporated into practice.

While completing her final practicum at the Africa Mental Health Foundation in Kenya, Margaret was interested in how they incorporated alternative approaches to practice in a practice that respected both traditional healers and western medicine. She completed her first practicum with Coast Mental Health/Mental Health Commission of Canada’s At Home/Chez Soi’s  Housing First pilot project where she worked with the intensive case management team on housing homeless people in Vancouver living with mental illness and addictions.

Margaret has an MSW from the University of Victoria and business degrees from New York University and Adelphi University. Before a career change to social work, she worked in Kenya, the US and Canada for both non-profit and, commercial organizations. She has spent several years working and volunteering in mental health, hospice palliative care, with women in conflict with the law, community court, homelessness, working with seniors and food security. She is committed to critiquing how oppression may be built into social work best practices.