Caring Minds Web site Archives | Research & Innovation

Globe & Mail's 2010 Campus Research report cites 91��ɫ researchers, programs and projects

fmaquito — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:00:00 +0000

This week, the Globe & Mail's has focused on several of 91��ɫ's researchers and research-related programs.

On March 9, the Globe published an article on the . The story was part of its special report on university research and also appeared in the Report on Business section:

The study of literature is rarely associated with economic growth, yet that is precisely the argument made by Impact Group co-founder Ron Freedman: "The Stratford Festival generates huge economic benefit for the local community. What's its core technology? Old English."

According to Mr. Freedman, who authored a report on the economic role of social sciences and humanities research, this type of research doesn't get its fair share of credit for its contributions to the Canadian economy and society.

Discussions about the role of research in economic growth are usually dominated by the so-called "hard sciences," biomedical and technology in particular, and the Conservative government's recent Speech from the Throne was no exception, with its promises to continue investing in the Science and Technology Strategy, create a digital economy strategy and support advanced research in space-based technologies.

But many in the research community believe that focusing funding primarily on science and technology to strengthen the economy is a mistake. "The humanities and social sciences are moving to centre stage," said SSHRC president Chad Gaffield recently in a speech.

Two projects lead by 91��ɫ professors were mentioned in the coverage:

There are thousands of groups across the country trying to end homelessness. Yet, often being under-resourced, they lack funds to research whether their programs are effective. Enter Professor Stephen Gaetz of 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Education and nursing Professor Bernie Pauly of the University of Victoria who teamed up with community partners to help them evaluate their programs and share their great ideas with other communities.

Megan Davies, a professor in the Department of Social Science in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, had long wanted to share the wealth of knowledge she had accumulated about the history of mental health in Canada with young people, wrote the Globe. So, together with Anne Marshall, director of the Centre for Youth & Society at the University of Victoria, she developed high-school material that teaches students to understand their own mental health and be compassionate toward others with mental illness and made it available to teachers online at the Web site CaringMinds.ca.

On March 8, the Globe also published an article on that included 91��ɫ's Knowledge Mobilization program, which partners researchers with community organizations and government policymakers to produce mutually-beneficial research.

“The future lies in exchanging all forms of research not just with industry but with government and with the community at large as well,” says David Phipps, director of the Office of Research Services at 91��ɫ. “In past, the focus has been on technology. Now we are extending it to business, law, the social sciences and the humanities.”

...

At 91��ɫ, Mr. Phipps has two full-time staff working on what he calls knowledge mobilization. To date, they work with the United Way of 91��ɫ Region and The Human Services Planning Coalition of 91��ɫ Region, which represents 15 different social services agencies.

Representatives from those agencies meet regularly with 91��ɫ researchers for what he calls KM in the AM — a knowledge management breakfast — where the agencies get to pick what area of research they want to hear about and a 91��ɫ professor specializing in that area delivers a presentation.

"After that we leave it to the agencies and the professors to follow up," he says.

On March 10, Professor Joe Baker in 91��ɫ’s School of Kinesiology & Health Science in the Faculty of Health was profiled as one of several . It highlighted his research on the benefits of exercise and competitive sport to older people.

“We’re finding that a lot of things that we used to attribute to getting older, like decreases in cognitive functioning, depression and increased substance abuse, are really more a symptom of disuse rather than aging,” says Baker, a member of 91��ɫ’s Alliance in Graceful Aging, a multidisciplinary research team.

He also examines how society’s negative stereotypes about aging influence people’s behaviours as they grow older. “We are very much a culture that values youth and devalues the older person,” he says.

His findings so far suggest people’s expectations about aging play a significant role in their declining physical and cognitive abilities. “We’re just starting to get a handle on how big an influence these negative social stereotypes are on overall health,” he says.

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of .

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91��ɫ prof launches Caring Minds, mental health Web site for students, teachers and parents in Grades 7-12

fmaquito — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 10:00:00 +0000

Despite increased awareness and education, mental health and mental health issues are still surrounded by stigmas for many Canadians. 91��ɫ Professor is helping to challenge prevalent stereotypes and to encourage more dialogue about mental health issues in Canada. She is using her academic research to give students in Grades 7 to 12 the tools and knowledge they need to understand mental health both within their peer group and within the community.

Right: Megan Davies

Davies and University of Victoria Professor E. are in the final stages of a community-informed curriculum project that will provide middle- and secondary-school teachers in Ontario and British Columbia with a set of innovative, cross-disciplinary teaching units they can integrate into the classroom. The Youth & Mental Health project is funded by a Collaborative Faculty Incentive Grant from ResearchImpact, which is a 91��ɫ and University of Victoria initiative. The project is the result of a series of consultations with community groups, educators, and psychiatric survivors and it will offer students a wide range of perspectives on mental well-being. The goal is to facilitate critical thinking on this sensitive – and often controversial – topic, and to explore interrelated themes of diversity and social justice.

Davies got the idea for the project in an undergraduate class she taught at 91��ɫ over five years ago. Her students – inspired by the material they were exploring on the history of mental health in Canada – told her that mental health issues should be tackled in the classroom much earlier in a student’s education. “I really took that to heart,” she notes. “They were right; we need to talk to their younger selves.”

A series of community consultations were held in Toronto and Victoria. In September, Davies and Marshall presented four draft teaching units to middle- and secondary-school focus groups for feedback and criticism. Feedback from the groups was integrated into the units and the researchers began to develop a Web site that would house the teaching units and other resources. launched at the end of January and it is rich with lesson plans, hands-on activities, resources and helpful learning objectives.

Learners explore, across cultures and history, the shifting contours of what is, and what has been regarded as, normal mental health in the first teaching unit, Understanding, Experiencing & Equity. The lessons in the unit encourage students to consider where stereotypes about mental health come from, how they impact individuals and communities, and what can be done to combat these negative responses. In one of the activities, students are asked to discuss passages from the diary of a young woman named Lara Gilbert who lived in Vancouver during the 1980s and 1990s and struggled with depression. “The idea is to get students to think about what life is like for someone with mental health issues,” says Davies. “What better way to provoke discussion than through the writings of someone who has actually dealt with the challenges, the discrimination and the struggle for well-being.”

Traditionally, mental health patients in Canada were sent to live at institutions for extended periods of time, if not their entire lives. In the 1960s and 1970s, improved treatment options and a shift in ideology occurred; governments and health professionals started to advocate for the deinstitutionalization of mental health care. The idea was to integrate – rather than isolate – patients into the community. The second teaching unit, Self-Determination & Activism, provides a snapshot into the conditions of mental health institutions and explores what the shift in practice meant for those living with mental health issues.

As Davies notes, though integrating individuals into the community may have been a noble idea, it has been a difficult and flawed process. Insufficient community services, limited health care, and a lack of funding for resources have prevented mental health patients from getting the support they need. Instead, the most powerful force for positive change has often come from psychiatric survivors themselves who have united against discrimination and pushed for better living conditions. Students in the second unit examine patients’ rights and reflect on the mixed freedoms and hardships that community living can provide.

Housing, Homelessness & Poverty, the focus of the third teaching unit, asks students to think about complex questions such as: Why are people with mental health issues vulnerable to being homeless? Should safe, affordable housing be considered a fundamental right? Highlights of the unit include surprisingly grim figures about the state of homelessness in Canada and an activity that gets students to create skits that portray the real-life stories they’ve read in class.

The last teaching unit, Well-Being, Health Care & Treatment, looks at positive mental health strategies and resources. It also examines mental health care through the lens of human rights. Lessons are complemented by historical archives, cartoons and artwork.

“Each of the four teaching units draw heavily on personal experiences, historical documents, poetry and graphic art in order to help students gain a more comprehensive and personal understanding of the complex aspects of mental health,” says Davies. “The lessons are interactive and designed to encourage a deeper learning experience through personal reflection and engagement in classroom discussion.”

Davies, who teaches in the Health & Society Program in 91��ɫ's Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, continues to exchange ideas with community partners on revisions for the teaching units. She hopes to develop more units in the future and to have them linked to curriculum in other provinces, translated so that they can be accessed by francophone students and reworked for aboriginal communities. Davies also welcomes suggestions for improvement from students. In fact, she says students played a key role in the overall success of the project. “A lot of the work was done by youth – from the original artwork on the Web site to data entry and research,” Davies notes. “This was very much a youth-centred project and it only made sense to involve them at each phase.”

The project has already attracted .

The curriculum project is part of a larger heritage initiative that is funded by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research. As part of that initiative, Davies has been active in the creation of another Web site, , which serves as a research, resource and educational hub on mental health issues.

For more information on Davies’ research, e-mail daviesmj@yorku.ca.

By Kristin Taylor, communications coordinator, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies

Republished courtesy of YFile – 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin

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91��ɫ and UVic launch Caring Minds, mental health Web site for students, teachers and parents in Grades 7-12

fmaquito — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 10:00:00 +0000

Researchers at 91��ɫ and the University of Victoria in British Columbia have taken the latest research in mental health and worked with teachers, as well as mental-health-system users and service providers, to create an online curriculum easily used by teachers and grasped by high-school students.

helps young people address the stigma and discrimination associated with mental health concerns and treatment. It provides Grade 7 to 12 teachers, students and parents with four teaching units—covering discrimination and stigma, housing and poverty, rights and activism, and well-being and treatment—that come with activities, lesson plans and resources.

The project garnered coverage in Victoria, BC’s .

Led by , associate professor in 91��ɫ's Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies' Department of Social Science (left) and , professor of Educational Psychology and Leadership Studies at UVic, the project was , which launched several pilot projects by offering grants to help researchers and their partner organizations address research issues with relevant public policy and/or professional practice implications. , which covers Esquimalt, Oak Bay, Victoria, View Royal and a portion of Saanich and Highlands, is among the project's partners.

Caring Minds features original artwork created by William Willis, a sixteen year-old secondary school student, and help make the site visually appealing while keeping its focus appropriate for a youth-centred project.

Davies and Marshall are now disseminating their research findings, pursuing additional funding to further resource development and expand the program internationally while seeking ways to integrate their materials with other provincial curricula and international Web sites. A more detailed overview of the is available here.

By Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile – 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin – and – researchimpact's blog about knowledge mobilization at 91��ɫ and the University of Victoria.

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