Toronto Metropolitan University Open Journals
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Activating the arts in death: What are the cultural implications for MAiD? Cultural implications for MAiD
No full textThis discussion paper attends to subcultural production emerging at the intersection of Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD), death, disability, and other forms of precarious life. We think with disability arts, that is art created by disabled, mad, sick, and ill people that springs from the experience, politics, and culture of disability (Frazee, 2008) and plays an important role in advancing disability rights and justice. We consider how this form of cultural production animates diverse and intersectional representations and political perspectives in ways that are invitational rather than didactic or prescriptive. By engaging three Canadian disability performance art pieces that activate “crip theory” critical perspectives, we consider how these subcultural productions both indirectly support and extend disability rights endeavours to challenge the implementation of MAiD legislation in Canada. We highlight how each of these works creates space for thinking about the relationship of death and dying in nuanced ways that promote disability life and vitality in a post-MAiD context, without slipping into ableist tropes
Intersectionality: A Framework for Children with Special HealthCare Needs Research
No full textIntroduction: The experience of children with special healthcare needs (CSHCN) who hold multiply marginalized identities is underrepresented in healthcare research literature. Even less research investigates the impact of multiple systems of oppression on CSHCN experiences with healthcare providers, services, and systems. Methods: To identify gaps and areas of future research, in early 2020, a scoping review of current CSHCN healthcare literature that includes an explicit intersectionality framework or analysis was conducted. Findings: Based on the literature search results, there were zero peer reviewed articles within the CSHCN research literature that included a framework or analysis of intersectionality. Implication: CSHCN have diverse lived experiences. An explicitly intersectional approach is best suited to creating programs, treatments, interventions, and service provision that address the truly complex needs of this population within the U.S. dominant culture. Promising frameworks and future research needs are discussed
Editorial: Interactive Narratives
No full textFilm and media practitioners and educators have been expanding the use of digital through new experiences with unusual and innovative technical and artistic “approaches.” Likewise, researchers and academics are questioning and analyzing these new practices that increasingly dominate global society, as seen in the past months with the advent of the worldwide pandemic.
In 2013, we created the IFM-Interactive Film and Media Conference to provide an inclusive educational space within the digital theory and interactive studies where researchers and practitioners could discuss and present their research and work in film and media. With this purpose, the IFM has partnered with universities worldwide and established a space for a global integration between academia and the audiovisual production community that aims to forge a valuable exchange between researchers, faculty, students, practitioners, and the community. The goal is to generate a broad debate, emphasizing the need to evaluate the increasing use of digital screens in contemporary society and how people respond artistically, socially, and politically to the challenges of the digital cultural space.
The work of professors, researchers, and practitioners (artists, filmmakers, and videomakers) from various areas and several countries, including Italy, Brazil, England, Spain, Canada, New Zealand, Portugal, Scotland, Germany, and the United States, constitutes this special issue with selected articles and audiovisuals from the #IFM2014. The aim is to launch IFM Journal first issues while archiving our preliminary works
Opening the door to dialogue: Experiences from equity-seeking students in dietetic education
No full textLack of diversity and barriers persist for marginalized students both when entering the dietetic profession and during their education. Through generative dialogue, as four dietitians in Canada, we discussed and reflected on our experiences in dietetic education and training. Our dialogue generated three themes: barriers, belonging, and resilience. We concluded by providing key recommendations for dietetic educators to support the learning of students from marginalized communities and call for difficult conversations about social justice in dietetic education. 
The mental health of immigrant and refugee children in Canada: A scoping review
No full textIntroduction: First- and second-generation immigrant children under 15 years of age make up 37.5% of the total population of children in Canada. Immigrant children aged 10-19, irrespective of their immigration status, face more ethnic victimization at school and in their neighborhoods. By 2036, the number of immigrant children in Canada is predicted to increase by 49%.
Method: A well-established Arksey and O’Malley’s five-stage methodological framework was applied to conduct this scoping review. This project reviewed the existing research literature on factors affecting immigrant and refugee children\u27s mental health in Canada.
Results: The mental health of immigrant and refugee children can be viewed as a combined product of personal, social, cultural, economic, and pre- and post-migratory factors. Immigrant and refugee children’s experiences of migration can be stressful and destabilizing. Service providers are not well trained and often cannot grasp the circumstances of immigrant and refugee children and families, which consequently disengages them from required treatment services and follow-up care.
Conclusion: Reflection of diversity and inclusivity in mental health policies can influence actions in a primary care setting and reduce accessibility gaps and barriers that affect immigrant and refugee children in Canada.
Keywords: child; Canada; immigrant; mental health; refuge
Blue Pencil: Experiences in Transmedia
No full textThis article aims at analyzing and discussing the proposed objectives and outcomes of a transmedia project that was run in partnership with CICANT/Universidade Lusófona, in Lisbon, Portugal, and the Portuguese media group Impresa, as part of a European Commission-funded project named CIAKL-Cinema and Industry Alliance for Knowledge and Learning. The Blue Pencil project had as its main objective the development of a transmedia narrative that grouped different platforms and technologies, which included intersections inside the narrative within the genres of entertainment and education. Taking as its central theme the censorship in Portugal during the Estado Novo, the narrative extends into a short fiction film, a documentary, a site with archive material, an online game that challenges writing on freedom of the press, an online store, and a school program, in partnership with the network of school libraries, to launch the debate of censorship in schools
Telling the Stories of Left-behind Children in China: From Diary Collection to Digital Filmmaking
No full textThe issue of “left-behind children” in China has been widely recognized as a significant social problem, as more than 61 million children are living in villages away from their parents, who have migrated to large cities to seek employment opportunities. There is a very limited number of media products depicting left-behind children in rural China as central characters with individual personalities. As Stuart Hall states, representation is the process or channel or medium through which meanings are both created and reified. This paper analyzes how stories and voices of this underprivileged group are presented in recent years to the public in different non-fictional media forms, particularly documentary films. Through content analysis of selected samples, the paper examines how narratives are weaved about the lives and emotions of these children, and how the stories make sense of their family experiences. The paper discusses the power of digital narratives and visual-based expressions. It also examines how the products of representation are mediated by different types of storytellers, who are often motivated by a sense of social engagement to raise awareness about the plight of these children to appeal for support but addresses the issue from their specific perspectives.
Image Credit: Still of Children at a Village School by Nengjie Jian
‘Giving and giving back’ at the end-of-life: Investments into reciprocity relationships between caregivers and care receivers in a Swiss nursing home
No full textThe present article is based on an ethnographic research project exploring the constitution and reproduction of exchange relationships between residents and caregivers in Swiss nursing homes and elaborating on their significance within end-of-life trajectories. The results show that despite scarce personnel, time and cost resources in old-age long-term care, exchange relationships in the sense of non-liquidating transactions are of major significance both in daily interactions and in the context of acute dying in the nursing home. Residents as well as caregivers invest in relationships that build on an informal ‘giving and giving back’. Invested goods or services are manifold and often immaterial, both on the caregivers’ and on the residents’ side. The main informal investments are: 1) permitting affection and emotional involvement 2) sharing personal information, and 3) offering extra-time. The paper demonstrates how actors exchange these goods to establish an informal dimension in their care relationships and how this dimension may influence end-of-life practices in the nursing home. Focusing on informal parts in exchange relationships allows considering care relationships from a theoretical perspective that has gained little attention so far, both in anthropological exchange theory and in disciplines concerned with care relationships
Mental health crisis and spatial accessibility to mental health services in the city of Toronto: A geographic study
No full textAbstract: Mental illness includes a wide range of disorders that affect mood, thinking, behaviour and overall wellbeing. One in five Canadians has mental health care needs, many of which are unmet. Within the City of Toronto, the provision of specialized mental health care is delivered by over 100 public and private community service organisations and over 700 physicians with a psychiatric specialization - each providing community-based general or specialised care to residents in need. Research has shown that travel distance is an enabling factor of health service utilisation, thus equitable spatial access to services remains a key priority. Using spatial quantitative methods, this study examines potential spatial accessibility to both general and specialized mental health services within the City of Toronto, and levels of statistical association between access to care and prevalence of mental health crisis events. The main datasets analyzed including geo-referenced Census data and occurrence data on mental health crisis (represented by apprehensions under the Mental Health Act undertaken by the Toronto Police Service). The enhanced two-step floating catchment area (E2SFCA) method is used to model spatial accessibility to mental health services based four modes of transportation: driving, walking, cycling and public transit. Areas that are underserved by mental health specialists and mental health community services are identified and shown to have different socioeconomic characteristics. The study reveals spatially explicit patterns of access to various mental health services in Toronto, providing detailed data to inform the planning of and policy on mental health care delivery concerning severe mental health crisis