Peter Choate, PhD, RCSW

Administrative title: Program Coordinator, Social Work

Academic title: Professor

Education
PhD, Kingston University
PhD, Westbrook
MSW, University of British Columbia
BA (Psychology), University of British Columbia

Contact Information
pchoate@mtroyal.ca
403.440.5008
T364

Peter’s teaching focuses on assessment issues in social work, including families, as well as child and adolescent mental health. He has served in a variety of administrative positions at MRU including practicum field director and program coordinator. He is a chair of the university’s Academic Program and Curriculum Committee as well as a councilor on General Faculties Council and a member of its Executive Committee. He is a member of the Program Planning Committee of the 9th International Conference of Adolescents and Adults with FASD to be held in Seattle, WA. In April 2024. He is a member of the Planning Committee and Editorial Committee of the Prairie Child Welfare Consortium. He serves as an expert witness in child protection. Peter uses the pronouns he/him. 

Areas of Instruction

  • Child and Adolescent Mental Health
  • Child Intervention
  • Assessment in Social Work
  • Interpersonal Violence 
  • Mental Health and Addictions

Areas of Scholarship

  • Assessment of parents within child protection systems including systemic bias issues
  • Practice errors in child protection linked to serious injury and death
  • Indigenous children and family intersection with child protection
  • Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, Stigma and implications for front line practice
  • Implementation of Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action within the practice of social work

Selected Publications

Tortorelli, C., Choate, P. & Badry, D. (2023) Disrupted life narratives of children in care with neurodevelopmental disabilities: Whose story is it? (Invited Book Chapter) Published https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.dnb.2023.05.006  

Choate, P. & Engstrom, S. (2023). Decolonization has thus far mostly failed – drawing from Canadian lessons. In Press. Palgrave Macmillan Handbook on Social Issues.

Orton, S., Mills, K., & Choate, P. (2023). Epigenetics of Trauma Transmission and Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder: What Does the Evidence Support? International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20, 6706. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20176706

Badry, D., Dearman, A.H., Choate, P., Marcellus, L., Tortorelli, C. & Williams, R.(2023). FASD and child welfare. In, A.A. Abdul-Rahman & C.L. Peterenko (Eds.) Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder: A multidisciplinary approach. Pp. 385-404. Spring Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3- 031-32386-7_15

C. Tortorelli, D. Badry, P. Choate & K. Bagely.(2023). Ethical and social issues in FASD. In, A.A. Abdul-Rahman & C.L. Peterenko (Eds.) Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder: A multidisciplinary approach. Springer Nature. Pp. 363-384.

Selected Presentations

Choate, P.(2023). Assessment, Testimony, and the Place of Expert Witnesses. King’s Bench Judicial Conference, National Judicial Institute, Winnipeg, MB.

Tortorelli, C.& Choate, P. (2023).Preparing Social Work Students for Impactful Relational and Ethical Child Protection Careers. Kempe 2023 Conference – A call to action to change child welfare. Denver, CO.

Choate, P., Tortorelli, C., Borg, I & Dickens, C. (2023). Inter-professional simulation leading to excellence in social work practice. Kempe 2023 Conference – A call to action to change child welfare. Denver, CO.

Choate, P.W. & Warthe, D.G. (2023). Impact of Family Violence on Children. Judging in the First Five Years. Montreal, PQ: National Judicial Institute.

Choate, P., Bear Chief, R & Lindstrom, G. (2023). Reconsidering Maslow and the Hierarchy of Needs from an Indigenous Perspective. Canadian Association of Social Work Educators / Congress on the Humanities and Social Sciences.

Relevant Community Service

  • Program Planning Committee of the 9th International Conference of Adolescents and Adults with FASD
  • Member of the Planning Committee for the Prairie Child Welfare Consortium Conference