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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