Migration is a complex phenomenon聽that can have important consequence on mental health, say two 91亚色 professors who will talk about some of the assumptions聽made in conducting research聽on immigrant mental health at the upcoming Multicultural Mental Health Promotion.

Michaela Hynie (left), associate director of the 91亚色 Institute for Health Research and a 91亚色 psychology professor, and Yvonne Bohr, director of 91亚色鈥檚 LaMarsh Centre for Child & Youth Research and a psychology professor, will draw on their own research to discuss assumptions in immigrant mental health research.

Multicultural Mental Health Promotion will take place Wednesday, Feb. 15, from noon to 2pm, at 519 91亚色 Research Tower, Keele campus.

Following opening remarks by Harvey Skinner, dean of 91亚色鈥檚 Faculty of Health, and Nazilla Khanlou, co-director of the Ontario Multicultural Health Applied Research Network, Hynie and Bohr will conduct an interactive roundtable discussion. In addition, they will also make use of narrated- and video-based case studies to help frame the discussion.

Left: Yvonne Bohr

As part of the discussion they will explore how the phenomenon and experiences of migration can differ along a number of dimensions, and how these differences can impact the mental health of migrant families. Participants will be invited to join the discussion with their own experiences in research and practice regarding assumptions, their alternatives and how they shape the understanding of mental health among migrant populations.

Some of the assumptions Bohr and Hynie will examine include those about the geographic space inhabited by migrant families, the source and adaptiveness of coping strategies, and the causes of behaviour and well-being.

鈥淔or some families, their migration experience might better be described as transnational, with family members repeatedly spending extended periods of time in more than one country,鈥� says Bohr.

Coping strategies, she says, need to be considered in context. That context includes time/era, geographic location, availability of structural supports and culture. Change in any of these dimensions can render a formerly adaptive strategy less adaptive.

As for adaptiveness, 鈥渨e often assume that differences between migrant and non-migrant families in the receiving country are due to acculturation or the migration process, but we often do not compare migrant families to non-migrant families in the country of origin and so cannot be certain about causes,鈥� says Hynie.

The event is sponsored by the Ontario Multicultural Health Applied Research Network.

To RSVP, contact owhchair@yorku.ca.

For more information, visit the Ontario Multicultural Health Applied Research Network website.

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

The post Professors question assumptions in immigrant mental health research appeared first on Research & Innovation.

91亚色 Professor Emeritus John Warkentin's book Creating Memory: A Guide to Outdoor Public Sculpture in Toronto (Becker Associates/The City Institute at 91亚色, 2010) is vying for the award in the book category along with Imagining Toronto (Mansfield Press Inc., 2010) by of 91亚色's Department of Geography in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.

Faculty of Health Professor Geoffrey Reaume, graduate program director of the Critical Disability Program in the Faculty of Graduate Studies, is the co-founder and chair of the (PSAT). All three nominees deal with Toronto history one way or another and will be at tonight's awards announcement.

The idea for came some years聽ago when Warkentin was strolling main avenues and back streets of Paris, looking at buildings, street life and public sculpture. "Increasingly, as I walked it became apparent that I could read quite a bit of the history and geography of France, including its colonial associations, through its public sculpture," says Warkentin (Hon. LLD '11). He wondered if he could read the history of Canada or, more specifically, his home city of Toronto through its sculptures.

Left: John Warkentin

There are over 600 public sculptures and monuments in Toronto, says Warkentin. In the book, he divides them into 16 categories with two graphs showing the number of sculptures installed by year and decade since the mid-19th century and 20 maps indicating where the sculptures can be found.

"Many monuments are memorials to Canada's participation in various conflicts or commemorate important individuals in the history of the province or country," he says. "Some sculptors try to relate humans and nature, and some of early examples indicate environmental concerns well before they became an issue for the general public. Only a few sculptures commemorate the history of the city."

, which was also shortlisted for the Gabrielle Roy Prize in Canadian literary criticism, explores how Toronto's writers have represented the city's buildings, people, neighbourhoods and natural spaces, says Harris, a contract faculty member. "The list of authors and literary works mentioned in the book is extensive, ranging from the familiar聽鈥� Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, Hugh Garner聽鈥� to the obscure 19th century novelist and founder of the Town of Galt, Bogle Corbet." Corbet's 1831 novel Bogle Corbet; or, The Emigrants is one of the first fictional works to feature Toronto as a setting, says Harris.

Her聽book traces more than three centuries of Toronto writing from Aboriginal oral narratives to contemporary graphic novels, tracing how Toronto's writers have represented ravines, islands, the lake, what it means to live in the "city of neighbourhoods" and how the people's faith in multiculturalism amounts to a kind of creation myth. "I also explored how class and work are represented, as well as sexuality and the changing suburbs," says Harris.

It was while creating a new geography course in 2005 that Harris realized "there was a huge body of Toronto literature that had not received any comprehensive study, and in fact was widely believed not to exist."

Right: Amy Lavender Harris

Out of this developed the , a database of Toronto novels, poems and other literary works, which Harris still maintains and adds to regularly. The website's library is the largest curated list of Toronto literature currently in existence, says Harris. In 2007, Mansfield Press approached her about doing a book.

"I began writing the book, initially, to respond to claims that Toronto lacks a fully developed literature or that what literature it does have does not compare to the widely fictionalized cities of London, Paris, New 91亚色, Mumbai and so on," says Harris. "What I found was that Toronto is richly imagined and that its stories are widely appreciated elsewhere聽鈥� winning international awards and being in high demand in translated editions 鈥� but are not as well appreciated here at home."

Left: Geoffrey Reaume

Through PSAT, Reaume was聽part of a collective that worked for years to save the 19th century psychiatric-patient-built boundary walls on the south, east and west side of what was once the Toronto Insane Asylum and is now the Centre for Addiction & Mental Health (CAMH) on Queen Street West. Last year, PSAT, along with CAMH,聽unveiled nine memorial wall plaques at CAMH dedicated to patient labourers of the past (see YFile, Sept. 23, 2010).

"I'm thrilled we were nominated," says Reaume, adding that by recognizing the work of PSAT, the nomination also recognizes and values the people whose unpaid聽labour built the walls. CAMH Friends of the Archives was the nominator; it聽collaborated with PSAT in the wall preservation and memorial plaques campaign.

Saving the wall from being torn down and creating memorial plaques took a decade of effort. "There was a great deal of community support for the plaques, which really helped to聽get the word out," says Reaume. The project聽aims to connect past history with present issues. It helps to challenge discrimination which is still present today against people with a psychiatric diagnosis.

As of last month, Reaume says he has conducted exactly聽100 tours of the walls since 2000. People can now also do self-guided tours thanks to the existence of nine memorial wall plaques and the many people who supported their creation, he says. To watch a video聽of Reaume talking about the wall, visit the 91亚色 Institute for Health Research website.

The 37th annual Heritage Toronto Awards for architecture, book, media and community heritage will be announced at a ceremony聽tonight at , the Royal Conservatory of Music.

For more information, visit the website.

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

The post Three 91亚色 profs nominated for Heritage Toronto Awards appeared first on Research & Innovation.

The Centre for Innovation in Information Visualization and Data-Driven Design (CIV-DDD) is seeking a project manager for a one-year contract. The position will be posted until it has been filled.

Details about both postings are available in Research Jobs.

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer.

The post Research Jobs: CIV-DDD seeking project manager and new details on YIHR's administrative clerk posting appeared first on Research & Innovation.

The it also seeking five graduate interns (students enrolled in master's or PhD programs) for placement with a variety of municipal partners in the GTA. There are several due dates for applications beginning February 28 through to March 4.

Details about both postings are available in Research Jobs.

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer.

The post YIHR hiring administrative clerk; Knowledge Mobilization seeking five graduate interns for climate change projects appeared first on Research & Innovation.

The event will take place Jan. 13, from 2:30 to 5pm, on the聽5th Floor of the Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL)聽Building, Keele campus. In addition, there will be some short remarks at 3:30pm in 5084 TEL Building, at the south end of the hallway. Refreshments will be served.

The open house will showcase faculty- and student-led research projects, along with short presentations by researchers.

The LaMarsh Centre conducts interdisciplinary research in health, education, relationships and development of infants, children, adolescents, emerging adults and families. Its particular focus is on the health and well-being of Canada鈥檚 youth, preventing youth violence and promoting positive development. The aim is to foster a centre of learning, productivity and exchange for new and senior scholars and to create a critical mass of related research activity.

The YIHR takes a determinants approach to health research with sub-areas including diversity and health, health equity and social justice, health and the environment, health law and ethics, health care and health governance. YIHR draws together a range of social, biomedical, environmental and behavioural scientists, as well as researchers from business, law, education and the physical sciences, bridging the divide between the sciences and social sciences to deliver real-world solutions.

The houses the largest university-based survey centre in Canada, conducting major surveys on population health, education, gender, the environment and voting behaviour. It conducts more than 25 survey research projects annually, as well as a range of qualitative research, including focus group studies. ISR staff complete all stages of the survey research process from questionnaire design, sample selection and data collection to the preparation of machine-readable data files, statistical analysis and report writing.

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

The post Three research centres to host open house in TEL building January 13 from 2:30 to 5 pm appeared first on Research & Innovation.

Wu, a , is leading two prominent Canadian teams on modelling and geo-stimulation of disease spread, and coordinates a number of academic-industrial collaborations in data mining, neuronal networks and pattern recognition. He is also the Canadian leader of a Canada-China collaboration in disease management and modelling, funded by the International Development Research Centre and Canada Research Chair program.

Right: Jianhong Wu accepts his Award of Merit

Recently, Wu was awarded the Federation of Chinese Canadian Professionals (Ontario) Education Foundation鈥檚 2010 Award of Merit for his expertise in the field of mathematical biology and epidemiology, during a ceremony and reception in Toronto. In the federation鈥檚 citation it was noted that Wu is recognized in Canada and internationally for his interdisciplinary research in modelling disease transmission.

鈥淚 feel deeply honored and humbled by the award,鈥� says Wu. 鈥淚 am very pleased that 91亚色's support for interdisciplinary research and outreach is also recognized by the federation that has been promoting interdisciplinary studies among the various professions.鈥�

What makes Wu distinct in his field is his ability to make novel contributions and integrate industrial application and applied mathematics to his research repertoire, and significantly contribute to both pure and applied mathematics.

Left: Jianhong Wu

He is most known for his contributions to the field of disease modelling, where his work has made a permanent and positive impact on human health. During the 2003 SARS outbreak, he established and led a national team of聽more than聽20 scientists from governmental agencies and medical and mathematical sciences to model the transmission dynamics and spread of infectious disease (see YFile, Dec. 9, 2003). The research conducted by Wu and his team led to the development of prediction and intervention strategies, which impacts directly on preparedness measures for an influenza pandemic.

His work has influenced various public health policies and has become the benchmark for researchers in the pandemic area and beyond.

Among his accomplishments, Wu is founding, and has co-authored 17 books and聽more than聽280 articles in both pure mathematics and mathematical applications. He is the recipient of various honours, including the Humboldt Research Fellowship (Germany), Paul Erdos Visiting Professorship (Hungry), Cheung Kong Visiting Professorship (China) and New Pioneer Science & Technology Award (Skills for Change). He is an executive member of the 91亚色 Institute for Health Research.

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

The post Professor, Canada Research Chair, and mathematician Jianhong Wu wins 2010 Award of Merit appeared first on Research & Innovation.

Throughout November, the Vari Hall Rotunda will play host to displays and demonstrations featuring our faculty and graduate researchers. Drop by between 10 am and 2 pm each Wednesday to learn what 91亚色's researchers are doing.

The Research Month index on 91亚色's Research website contains complete information about the researchers, research centres and research support groups participating in the event.

Social sciences and humanities research 鈥� Nov. 3

Confirmed participants include:

• Institute for Science聽& Technology Studies
• 91亚色 Centre for Education聽& Community

Science and engineering research 鈥� Nov. 10

Confirmed participants include:

Health research 鈥� Nov.17

Confirmed participants include:

• Professor Joseph DeSouza, Faculty of Health, Department of Psychology
• Professor , Faculty of Health, School of Nursing
• Professor Jennifer Kuk, Faculty of Health, School of Kinesiology & Health Science
• Professor Gail Mitchell, Faculty of Health, School of Nursing
• Professor Jennine Rawana, Faculty of Health, Department of Psychology
• Professor Rose Steele, Faculty of Health, School of Nursing
• LaMarsh Centre for Research on Violence聽& Conflict Resolution
• 91亚色 Institute for Health Research

Fine and performing arts research 鈥� Nov. 24

Confirmed participants include:

Want to participate?

Do you have completed works, prototypes, technology, or works in progress that you could demonstrate? Do you have graduate/undergraduate students working with you who could assist and help talk about the work? If you have other ideas, we would love to hear about them.

Interested faculty members or research centres should contact Elizabeth Monier-Williams in the Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation at ext. 21069 or eamw@yorku.ca. Please note that space is limited and allocated on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Other research-related events

These research-related events will also be running in November:

• Nov. 6 鈥� , featuring Professor Poonam Puri聽from聽Osgoode Hall Law School and Professor Steven Gaetz聽from the Faculty of Education among other speakers.
• Nov. 10 鈥� Toward a Behavioral Neuroscience of Parenting, sponsored by the Department of Psychology in the Faculty of Health.
• Nov. 24 & 25 鈥� at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre (by invitation only).
• Nov. 26 鈥� Campus visit from Suzanne Fortier, president of the .
• Nov. 30 鈥� Campus visit from David Malone, president of .

By Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer

The post November is Research Month: 91亚色 celebrates with a series of events appeared first on Research & Innovation.

If you pass a law to prevent discrimination against persons with disabilities, how do you know whether it鈥檚 being enforced, let alone making a difference?

Marcia Rioux (right), director of the 91亚色 Institute for Health Research (YIHR) and professor in the Faculty of Health鈥檚 School of Health Policy & Management, is working internationally, particularly with countries with limited resources, to develop a unique and innovation solution for the reporting requirements set out in the United Nation鈥檚 .

The United Nations requires all governments that have ratified its Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 鈭� as Canada did on , 2010 鈭� to provide information on the measures they have taken to integrate persons with disabilities into their societies. But this reporting is often limited to cataloguing laws, policies, and programs that may have little impact on the day-to-day lives of the people they鈥檙e intended to help.

Disability Rights Promotion International (DRPI), a multi-year international collaborative project, is establishing a global monitoring system to address disability discrimination. The research project, based in YIHR, is led by Rioux and Bengt Lindqvist 鈭� a former Cabinet Minister in Sweden, former UN Special Rapporteur on Disability, and long-time activist on disability rights. The team includes a group of 91亚色 researchers and international colleagues who are creating a roadmap that will allow countries to evaluate their laws, policies and programs to comply with the United Nations鈥� standards.

鈥淐ollecting and reporting on evidence-based data forces governments to acknowledge that the challenges people with disabilities face are not just anecdotal,鈥� says Rioux. 鈥淥ur project allows evaluation to happen within the context of the experiences of people with disabilities to objectively measure where discrimination is now while developing and tracking solid trend data to determine if and how things are getting better.鈥�

In September, the Africa Regional Monitoring Centre opened its doors in Kigali, Rwanda and will act as a focal point for disability monitoring and reporting in the region. Agreements with centres in Asia Pacific, Eastern Europe and Latin America are expected in the near future. The (SIDA) awarded the research team over $2 million in 2009 to open the four regional centres.

Each centre will act as a focal point for monitoring disability rights in that region, and will play a key role in empowering local people with disabilities to lead disability rights monitoring projects. 鈥淩egional monitoring is most sustainable when local people are involved since it puts long-term roots into the community,鈥� says Rioux. 鈥淭he vast majority of disabled people around the world face endemic poverty 鈭� many don鈥檛 have jobs or go to school or have basic literacy skills. Engaging people with disabilities to lead this process is a more holistic approach to addressing the challenges they face, both as individuals and a collective.鈥�

When all four centres are operational, Rioux anticipates that hundreds of people with disabilities will be engaged in disability rights monitoring activities. The centres will host training on what disability means as a human right, how to collect data and conduct evidence-based research, and how to write and file human rights reports. Groundwork is also being laid to connect monitors with disabilities to other local rights-seeking groups, such as religious-based, race-based and gender-based, to get them coordinating their efforts together instead of separately.

"The Faculty of Health鈥檚 worldwide research aims to help people live healthier lives while co-creating rejuvenated health systems,鈥� says Harvey Skinner, dean of Health. 鈥淧rofessor Rioux's research is an excellent example of how 91亚色 University is on the front line of our increasingly complex, simultaneously global and local world."

Previous phases of this project focused on developing and piloting tools and methods to monitor disability rights. In 2006, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada ()鈥檚 Community-University Research Alliances program provided Rioux and her team with just under $1 million to fund Monitoring the Human Rights of People with Disabilities in Canada, which is currently in its last of five years.

In 2008, Rioux also received a two-year $40,000 grant from to research disability and social, economic and cultural rights. She has also received funding from the , and been invited to consult with governments and disabled persons associations around the globe to discuss disability rights. Recently, she and her team wrote the chapter on disability rights monitoring for the .

鈥淧rofessor Rioux鈥檚 disability rights research reflects both the value 91亚色 places on social justice and her expertise in leading large-scale collaborative research projects of international significance,鈥� says Stan Shapson, vice-president research & innovation. 鈥淭his type of knowledge mobilization is a crucial step in making governments more accountable for the social policies they set, and reflects the social input that鈥檚 possible when expertise is globally shared.鈥�

By Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer.

The post Researchers creating international global rights-monitoring network for persons with disabilities appeared first on Research & Innovation.

Prof. Feldberg made a significant mark at 91亚色. She spent a decade at Harvard, first as an undergraduate in biology, then as a graduate student in the history of science and medicine. When settling on a dissertation topic,聽Prof. Feldberg聽chose to explore differing American and Canadian approaches to the control of tuberculosis (TB) in the first half of the 20th century. Her husband, Rob Vipond, said that even her historian colleagues wondered why she had chosen to write on such an unfashionable disease as TB. Yet within a few years, the disease was resurgent, TB was 鈥渉ot鈥� in historical circles, and Prof. Feldberg鈥檚 dissertation, now a book titled (1995), had captured the Jason Hannah Medal from the for the best book in the history of medicine.

Right: Prof. Gina Feldberg

Prof. Feldberg's聽gift for engaging students in the area of health聽& society was recognized through a faculty-wide award for outstanding teaching in 1990. She聽was particularly proud of the graduate students whom she mentored. She led the 91亚色 Centre for Health Studies (now the 91亚色 Institute for Health Research) through a critical decade of rebuilding health studies at the University, then managed a large and complex research grant on women鈥檚 health from 1992 until 2001. At the time of her death, Prof.聽Feldberg was about to begin a research leave to finish work on an inspired project on the history of salads.

In addition to her colleagues and聽hundreds of former students, Prof. Feldberg leaves her husband聽Rob Vipond and their daughter Susanna. A memorial service will be held for Prof.聽Feldberg in the fall.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Prof. Feldberg's honour can be made to the Princess Margaret Hospital, 610 University Ave., Toronto, for research in multiple myeloma; St. Stephen's Community House, 91 Bellevue Ave., Toronto; or the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, 10 Garden St., Cambridge, MA.

Professor Feldberg was also remembered in an obituary published in The Globe and Mail:

It's safe to say that tuberculosis is not a subject of great interest for most folks 鈥� unless, of course, you or a loved one actually has it. Often associated with filth, squalor and Dickensian living conditions, TB, at least in the industrialized world, is commonly, and erroneously, thought to have vanished with consumptive Victorians, and good riddance.

For Gina Feldberg, TB's persistence and treatment were treasure troves, offering up mountains of information on social reform, middle-class values, personal hygiene, and public health policy. She believed that as with AIDS, tuberculosis served as a metaphor for other social ills, and that perhaps like no other disease helped shape modern North American values.

She was a historian of science, specifically of medicine and more specifically of infectious diseases. A probing, inventive scholar, she examined the interplay of illness, class, and the practice of medicine, and how those combine to affect the health of nations.

"If we want policy to be effective," she said, boiling it down, "we need to know why it looks the way that it looks and how we can change it."

At Toronto's 91亚色, where she taught in the Department of Social Science and for nine years headed the Centre for Health Studies [now the 91亚色 Institute for Health Research], she also weighed in on a host of public issues, including women's health, AIDS and Canada's health-care system.

Feldberg, who died in Toronto on July 10 at the age of 54 following a four-year battle with multiple myeloma, focused on the differing American and Canadian approaches to the control of TB in the first half of the 20th century.

The is available on the Globe's website.

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

The post Passings: Professor Gina Feldberg led the 91亚色 Centre for Health Studies appeared first on Research & Innovation.

"There are better ways of doing many things regarding long-term residential care, more creative ways,鈥� says Armstong. She is confident that the study will come up with ideas on how to improve conditions for workers and residents. 鈥淟ong-term residences need to be a positive option, not the last resort as it now seems to be in Canada."

Armstrong聽says people feel聽shame when they have to admit a family member to a long-term care facility. 鈥淧eople see long-term care as a failure of themselves, their family and the health-care system. The main goal is always to keep them out of long-term care homes, rather than saying how can we make them attractive interesting places to be and work.鈥� People are apologetic for not being able to care for their loved ones at home, but home care is not necessarily ideal either,聽Armstrong says. There can be issues with caregiver burnout and elder abuse, and it鈥檚 often just not a viable option as many women 鈥� still the main caregivers 鈥� work full time.

Right: Pat Armstrong

鈥淗ow we treat this vulnerable population and those who provide their care is a critical indicator of our approach to equity and social justice, as well as to care,鈥� says Armstrong. 鈥淟ong-term residential care is a barometer of values and practices.鈥� It raises questions regarding fundamental human and social rights, the role of the state, as well as the responsibilities of individuals, families and governments.

"Reimagining Long-Term Residential Care: An International Study of Promising Practices" is a seven-year project with $2.5 million in funding from the 鈥檚 program. Armstrong will lead an international team of researchers seeking to identify the most promising practices for long-term residential care, ones that treat both providers and residents with dignity and respect. The team is less interested in pointing out what鈥檚 broken in the system, than in coming up with promising practices to improve it.

Up until now, there has been little research on residential care in Canada or elsewhere聽that has taken聽this kind of聽approach, says Armstrong. What has been done tends to focus on issues such as patient abuse and under-staffing rather than on聽issues related to gender and diversity, the relationship between the conditions of work and conditions of care or on policies that will lead to quality care. Meanwhile, the need for long-term residential care in Canada is expected to grow in the face of psychiatric, chronic care and rehabilitation hospital closures, the shift in hospital focus to short-term acute care and outpatient services, and with an aging population, she says.

The research team, which includes physicians, architects, sociologists, philosophers, social workers, historians, political scientists and economists, along with representatives of competing interests, such as employers and unions, will compare practices in Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, Norway, Sweden and Germany.聽They will look at four different themes 鈥� work organization, accountability, approaches to care, and financing and ownership.

Left: An elderly woman sits by a window. Photo by Chalmers Butterfield.

In the area of work organization, researchers hope to find care models that better meet the needs and balance the rights of residents, providers, managers, families and communities. Under accountability, they are looking for structures which nurture care and inspire quality workplace relations. They will also investigate financing and ownership models to identify the contexts, regulations, funding and conditions that allow residents and providers to flourish and that ensure equitable access to quality long-term residential care.

鈥淲e鈥檙e hoping to get the pieces of a kind of mosaic to guide us to a better place for all the countries鈥o producing an integrated picture of long-term residential care and how to do things differently,鈥� says Armstrong. 鈥淚n many ways, the approaches to care are the most important.鈥� In this country, the emphasis seems to be more on finances, but it is imperative that approaches to care provide a viable, desirable and equitable option for individuals, families and those who provide care. Both providers and residents need to be treated with dignity and respect in the approaches to care, she adds.

The plan is to have researchers work in all four thematic areas, not just their area of expertise, to help generate new ideas and novel ways of approaching problems. 鈥淚 emphasize the ideas because we're not just thinking about the residents, but the families, the workers and the governments,鈥� Armstrong says.

Long-term care raises many complex issues dealing with gender, diversity, aging, sexuality and providing medical care once the domain of hospitals. Typically, long-term care residents have been mostly women, currently about 80 per cent, but the number of men in care has increased. So has the number of younger people needing constant care and not served by a hospital. Most care workers are also women, many of whom are from racialized communities. Trying to find the most promising practices is not an easy task and one size will definitely not fit all, but at the same time there is much room for improvement,聽Armstrong says.

Armstrong, who holds a Canadian Health Services Research Foundation/Canadian Institutes of Health Research Chair in Health Services & Nursing Research, expects the project to create readily usable research.

鈥淲e hope the research will make a difference long before the project is done.鈥�

Armstrong is a professor of sociology in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies and an executive member of both the 91亚色 Institute for Health Research and the Graduate Program in Health Policy & Equity.

The post Professor Pat Armstrong's long-term residential healthcare study looks to improve national and international conditions appeared first on Research & Innovation.