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Centre for Urban Health Initiatives (2008-2009) Seminar Series

Spotlight on Urban Health Series: (all seminars run from 1:15 until 2:45,
unless otherwise noted)

Wednesday December 10, 2008

“My Health Has Improved because I Always Have Everything I Need Here…”:
A Qualitative Exploration of Change in Health Status Since Migration
Kathi Wilson, Geography & Planning, University of Toronto Mississauga - 2006
CUHI Seed Grant Recipient
Summary: Immigrants in Canada constitute approximately 20 percent of the
total population and will continue to account for a significant portion of
the country’s population in the future. Accordingly, a growing body of
research has focused on examining the disparity in health status between the
increasing foreign-born and the Canadian-born populations. The healthy
immigrant effect, in particular, acknowledges that immigrants have better
health status than their Canadian-born counterparts upon arrival in Canada.
However, studies have shown that over time immigrants’ health status
declines to the level of the Canadian-born population. This study is one of
the first to qualitatively examine the factors associated with the observed
change in health status among immigrants. The paper presents the results of
23 in-depth interviews with recent (less than 3 years of residency),
mid-term (3-10 years), and long-term (more than 10 years) immigrants living
in the Greater Toronto Area. The findings reveal that the majority of the
participants believed their health had remained stable or increased over
time due to improved living standards and lifestyle behaviours in Canada.
Those who perceived their health to have worsened over time attributed the
change to life course events rather than a lack of health-promoting
opportunities in the country or their adoption of an unhealthy lifestyle.
This research highlights the need to incorporate more mental health measures
into the current understanding of the healthy immigrant effect and its
decline, as well as continue to focus on those factors that contribute to
high levels of stress and subsequent negative health outcomes among more
recent immigrants.

Location: University College, Room 177, 15 King’s College Circle,
University of Toronto St. George Campus

Thursday January 22, 2009

Blake Poland (Public Health Science, University of Toronto) & Cheryl
Teelucksingh (Sociology, Ryerson University) - CUHI Environmental Health
Justice Co-Leaders

Summary: TBA (topic will be relevant to Environmental Health Justice)

February 24, 2009

Good Governance for Local Environment and Health Decision-Making: Insights
from Two Case Communities

David Noble, 2DegreesC

Summary: Presentation will highlight insights on the governance context for
local environment and health decision-making in two case communities - Owen
Sound, Ontario and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Location: TBA

March 2009 - date TBA

Michelle Fine, Distinguished Professor of Psychology, City University of New
York

April 2009 - date TBA

Taking Action: Developing Aboriginal Youth Leadership in HIV Prevention

June Larkin (The Women and Gender Studies Institute (WGSI), University of
Toronto) - 2008 Seed Grant Recipient & 2007 Community-Based Research Award
of Merit

Project Summary: This project consists of an innovative knowledge
dissemination strategy for research on HIV/AIDS and Aboriginal youth.  Our
goals are to: 1) involve Aboriginal youth in a performed ethnography project
designed to turn data from our study on HIV/AIDS and Aboriginal youth into
scripts and discussion questions that can be used to educate both Aboriginal
and non-Aboriginal communities; 2) develop a draft evaluation tool to assess
the effectiveness of the scripts as a knowledge dissemination strategy; and
3) pilot the performed ethnography and evaluation tool with Aboriginal youth
and non-Aboriginal youth. This project extends the collaborative work of the
Gendering Adolescent AIDS Prevention (GAAP) Project, University of Toronto
and the Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network (CAAN) to include Native Child and
Family Services and will be used as the basis of a larger proposal to
support the wider dissemination of this prevention strategy and to assess
its effectiveness with Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal groups.


Past 2008- 2009 Seminars

Thursday October 16, 2008
“The Street Health Survey Project: Community-based Research for Social
Change”
Erika Khandor, Kate Mason and Peer Researchers, Street Health, 2008
Community-Based Research Award of Merit Recipient
Summary: Street Health is a community-based organization that has been
providing nursing, mental health and outreach services to homeless people in
Toronto for over 20 years. In the winter of 2006/2007, Street Health
conducted a survey of 368 homeless adults in downtown Toronto about their
health status and access to health care. The project involved extensive
collaboration with community, academic and institutional partners, as well
as employing a team of peer researchers with lived experience of
homelessness. The Street Health Report 2007 presents findings on the causes
of homelessness, the daily living conditions of homeless people, the
physical and mental health of homeless people, their use of health care, and
their barriers to health care. The report also outlines an action plan
consisting of targeted solutions to improve the health of homeless people
and to ultimately end homelessness. This presentation will include a
discussion of the study’s key findings and policy recommendations, research
process, dissemination and advocacy activities.  A short film produced in
partnership with NFB which tells the human stories behind the statistics
will be shown.
Bios: Erika Khandor and Kate Mason conduct research at Street Health. Both
are graduates of the MHSc in Health Promotion from the Department of Public
Health at U of T.
Location: University College, Room 248, 15 King’s College Circle,
University of Toronto St. George Campus

Thursday November 13, 2008

(2pm- 4pm ) **note the change in time**

“Arts-Informed, Embodied Research Installations”

Geoffrey Edwards, Canada Research Chair in Cognitive Geomatics

Summary: Beginning with some concrete examples of Resonant Installations
currently under development, we shall explore some of the underlying
principles concerning embodied experience and visceral knowledge; talk about
technology toolkits that support the work, and do some "body-storming"
exercises that favor the development of transformative design principles.
The seminar will hence be a mix of theory, embodiment exercises and a
practical work focused on installation design.

Bio: Geoffrey Edwards is a senior scientist who has long worked at the
interface between disciplines. Since awarded the Canada Research Chair in
Cognitive Geomatics in 2001, he has concentrated his efforts towards the
elaboration of cognitively‐informed tools for situating the body in space.
For the past five years, Dr. Edwards has been working with a performing
artist, Ms. Marie Louise Bourbeau, on the development of new media
installations that explore the body in space as it relates to issues and
challenges in physical rehabilitation and public health. These
transformative or Resonant Installations explore visceral embodied
experience as it relates to personal identity and a sense of personhood. Dr.
Edwards has led several major initiatives in collaborative research over the
years, including roles as director of the Centre for Research in Geomatics
at Laval University and of the GEOIDE Network of Centres of Excellence. He
is currently also director of the Laboratory for the Exploration of Media
Immersion for Rehabilitation (the EMIR Laboratory), a CFI-funded
infrastructure. He is in Toronto as part of a sabbatical leave, working with
scientists and clinicians at Bloorview Kids Rehab on a series of Embodied
Resonant Installations for children with disabilities.

Thursday November 20, 2008

(11am- 1pm) **note time and CONFIRMED UNIV OF TORONTO LOCATION**

“What About the Guys? Young Men's Invisibility in Sexual Risk and Sexual
Health Research”
Elizabeth Saewyc, PhD, RN, CIHR/PHAC CIHR/PHAC Applied Public Health Chair
in Youth Health; Associate Professor, University of British Columbia School
of Nursing; Research Director, McCreary Centre Society
**Co-sponsored by the LaMarsh Centre for Research on Violence and Conflict
Resolution, York University
Summary: Much of the research on adolescent sexual health and risk
behaviours focuses only on girls and young women, whether the studies are
about teen births, contraceptive practices, or even sexual violence and
exploitation. Yet most of these sexual health events involve more than one
person-and that other person is often male. Even sexual violence, although
disproportionately experienced by women, is also targeted towards boys and
young men, and they too can experience lifelong health issues as a result.
So why are they so invisible? This presentation will explore the ways data
are gathered for population-level sexual health studies, how and perhaps why
sexual health and risk issues get framed as “female” issues, and what we
learn when we ask the same questions for adolescent and young adult males.
Bio: Dr. Elizabeth M. Saewyc is an Associate Professor in the School of
Nursing and the Division of Adolescent Medicine, Department of Pediatrics at
the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. She holds a Canadian
Institute for Health Research/Public Health Agency of Canada Applied Public
Health Chair, and is a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Scholar.
She also serves as Research Director for the McCreary Centre Society, a
community-based youth health research and youth empowerment organization.
She teaches public health nursing, adolescent health, and research methods.
Her research focuses on the sexual and mental health issues of youth, with a
particular emphasis on understanding the links between stigma, violence, and
trauma, how these influence their coping and risk behaviours, and what
protective factors in their relationships and environments can help reduce
their risks and foster resilience. The particular groups of young people
include: sexual minority youth (gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender
teens), homeless and runaway youth, sexually-abused and sexually-exploited
teens, pregnant and parenting adolescents, youth in custody, immigrant and
refugee populations, and indigenous young people in Canada and other
countries.
Location: Room 2111 Sidney Smith, 100 St. George, University of Toronto



Alexis Kane Speer, M.A.
Centre Coordinator/ Research Associate
Centre for Urban Health Initiatives (CUHI)
University College, Room 259
University of Toronto
15 King's College Circle
Toronto, Ontario M5S 3H7
416-978-7223
FAX: 416-946-0669


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