1,720,964 research outputs found
Our narratives are radical: rethinking suicide care through lived experience
No full textThis thesis qualitatively explores how suicidal people experience and respond to contemporary medicalized approaches to suicide care through examination and analysis of lived experience. Contemporary suicide care is based upon the definition of suicide as a medical problem; as a result, dominant psy discourse and practice addressing suicide has been driven by neuroscientific innovation and clinical expertise rather than the testimony of individuals with lived experiences of suicidality, a population whose perspectives are largely dismissed and discredited due to sanist prejudice and discrimination. Seeking to centre suicidal perspectives in its investigation of suicide care, this thesis presents an autoethnographic account by the author of her own suicide-related hospitalization and qualitatively examines seven interviews with suicide attempt survivors drawn from the Live Through This narrative catalogue to explore the ways in which suicidal people navigate complex relationships with medicalized interventions for suicidality. The LTT survivors reflect that these interventions may provide some benefit, but also often cause harm and emotional trauma to people in crisis. The analysis also explores the tension between conceptualizations of suicidality as a symptom of mental illness versus a response to challenging life circumstances. Outside of the medical model and clinical intervention, the survivors' narratives emphasize the importance of suicide care that does not focus narrowly on symptomology and psychopathology but instead provides genuine connection and presence in the midst of struggle. Insights drawn from these first-hand accounts of suicidal experiences indicate a need to rethink contemporary approaches to suicide care and shift towards more holistic forms of support for people in crisi
"First and foremost for our adolescents": community radio programming for teenage pregnancy prevention in Ada, Ghana
No full textThis thesis explores whether a community radio station in Ghana, called Radio Ada, represents the experiences of teenage mothers in their programing. Through participatory programming methods, social determinants of teenage pregnancy can be identified. One social factor leading to teenage pregnancy is exploitation around access to work at the Songor lagoon, which Radio Ada is a partner in advocating against.
I collected data in interviews and a focus group with teenage mothers in Ada, interviews with Radio Ada staff, and observed planning for an adolescent sexual and reproductive health and rights radio series. I evaluate
radio programming on a continuum of stereotypical to empowering (Gupta 2000). The findings demonstrate a paradox: there is capacity for Radio Ada to disrupt harmful gender and sexuality norms yet there is a disconnect between programming and the experiences of teenage mothers to whom I spoke. The methodological and theoretical frameworks are women's standpoint and postcolonial feminism
COVID-19 and intimate partner violence: the implications of the pandemic on women's shelters in Atlantic Canada
No full textThis thesis explores how women's shelters serving survivors of intimate partner violence in Atlantic Canada were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Intimate partner violence is a persistent and widespread issue in Atlantic Canada: every year, thousands of women seek refuge and support from women's shelters when fleeing abusive relationships. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 came increased incidents of severe intimate partner violence with implications on the work of the women's shelter sector. This thesis reviews published information from violence against women's organizations in Canada during the pandemic to discuss how the regular service provision of women's shelters was affected and thereby adapted. I found that the challenges women's shelters face during 'normal' times, including deficiencies in funding and shelter capacity, were exacerbated during the pandemic. The experiences of staff at women's shelters during the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates that without adequate and stable government funding and without investment in infrastructure for the sector, the current shelter system will continue to be insufficient to meet the needs of Canadian women fleeing violence
The Birth control pill: An analysis of the experience of women university students
No full textThroughout the course of their lives women are faced with many decisions regarding their sexual health, including birth control. The current study examines the different contributing factors that influence women students at an Atlantic Canadian University to begin using the birth control pill, remain on the birth control pill and discontinue its use. The literature reviewed includes a brief background of the history of the birth control pill and an exploration of the role of the sexual revolution that took place in the 1960s. A mixed method approach was used; the research consisted of 5 semi-structured interviews and a survey with a range of questions about women's experiences with the birth control pill. The survey consisted of 543 participants and the study only included Acadia University female students aged 18-25 who had previously used the birth control pill or were currently using it. The findings were interpreted using different statistical cross tabulations and were also examined through the lens of medicalization, structure and agency, and intersectionality.
Analysis of the findings demonstrated that young women were frequently prescribed the birth control pill as their first method of birth control, that many women experienced negative side effects with the birth control pill, and that the responsibility for birth control is viewed as gendered, with women bearing a greater responsibility
Overbooked, over worked and unorganized: students' perceptions of Acadia's student Counselling Services
No full textThis thesis focuses on Acadia students' perceptions of the Student counselling services—through its service of individual counselling—and its ability to adequately treat the mental health of students. To identify students' perceptions, quantitative methodology was used in the form of an online survey, where students assessed certain factors that acted as potential barriers to accessing the services. This included the organization of the services, whether stigma was present, and students' general knowledge of when accessing the services was most appropriate (i.e.,mental health literacy). An open-ended question provided a qualitative approach to the survey and students had the option to provide their own thoughts and
experiences about the services. To understand who was more likely to access the services, gender was examined as a social construct using a healthcare context and this provided a possible explanation to the gender disparity of Acadia students. This gender disparity was present throughout the statistical analyses with statistical significance in terms of a relationship existing between gender and access of the services. The students utilizing the services were identified as 80.2% female, 17% male, and 2.8% gender queer. When analyzing the open-ended survey responses, stigma and mental health literacy were not presented as barriers; however, students spoke of other factors that acted as barriers such as the perceived disorganization of the infrastructure, a lack of treatment options, unprofessional counsellors and staff members, a lack of privacy and confidentiality, and rurality of the space that limited outsourcing to other mental health services. The standpoints of students should be accounted for when developing policies surrounding Acadia's Student Counselling Services
Medicalized definitions of severe mental illness: a qualitative analysis of Nova Scotia's mental health policies, strategies & legislation
No full textThis study seeks to answer two questions: how do Nova Scotia policy makers define severe mental illness? How do definitions of severe mental illness influence the creation and implementation of mental health policies? Theoretical frameworks and concepts such as social constructionism, medicalization, stigma, and intersectionality were used to unpack the characteristics that are essential to defining severe mental illness. Literature on North American mental health policies were examined to provide context. The methods used were a Intersectionality-Based Policy Analysis (IBPA) (guided by a critical discourse analysis) of Nova Scotia's most current mental health strategies and legislation, as well as conducting semi-structured interviews with ten individuals that embody the roles of policy makers, mental health professionals, and members of mental health Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO). The findings were broken down into five themes. (1) The process of defining severe mental illness is framed through the process of medicalization and the mental health continuum; (2) the social determinants of health framework is used to frame diversity in mental health policy; (3) medical professionals have more power in contributing to mental health policies than persons with lived experience; (4) the mental health system is disconnected, which creates discontinuous mental health treatment; (5) stigma impacts severely mentally ill marginalized persons more so than non-marginalized persons. Severe mental illness is defined through medicalized discourse, which ignores the social context of persons with severe mental illness. Thus, a new definition of severe mental illness must include of social analysis paired with medical discourse in understanding the distress of persons with severe mental illness. Severe mental illness and mental distress must be examined societal structures
Mu Na Kesinukutiwek: engaging the 'Sick Indian' with perspectives of Mi'kmaq on healing and sickness
No full textThis thesis engages with a narrative on Indigenous peoples, one that is created purposefully to maintain current systems of power between Indigenous people and the colonial state by promoting notions of essential difference, essential sickness, and dysfunction. It is in recognition of these notions that the narrative has been named the "Sick Indian". This narrative is directly implicated in the creation of discriminatory policies,
state coercive force in stealing land and resources, issues of sovereignty, and the creation and perpetuation of a specific power relationship between nations. By using Indigenous research methods associated with oral story in recruitment and knowledge generation, the thesis investigates how this narrative emerges in the truths revealed by co-researchers on their lives and their experiences as Mi'kmaw. Conversations with co-
researchers surrounded power, ideas of health, and this concept of the Sick Indian. These interviews explicitly showed that the idea of the purposeful framing of sickness is understood by my Mi'kmaw co-researchers and reveals how the influence of these structures is experienced
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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