Decolonizing Stigma and Diagnosis as Healing Work

In order to disrupt dominant understandings of health and well-being, and to confront systemic injustices that result in ongoing health inequities, stigma must be addressed from both within and beyond the realm of medical diagnosis. The individualistic nature of diagnosis, that is characteristic of Western medical approaches, often perpetuates stigma. The role of diagnosis in biomedicine, as well as the historicity of professions and disciplines in Westernized health-care, intersect with different hierarchies of power, identities, and knowledges through mechanisms that operate across local and global contexts. This paper argues that a decolonial approach to health research, practice and education offers an important lens through which to critically analyse these intersections of power, identities, and knowledges. Such an approach can help disrupt dominant understandings of health and well-being. To advance the argument, examples of decolonial thinking approaches and pedagogical methods from South Africa are provided

Traumatized Children and Post-Traumatic Growth in Francophone Trauma Novels

In an attempt to decolonize Trauma Studies, a dominant mental health discourse, and to expand our understanding of trauma and post-traumatic growth, this project investigates J.M.G. Le Clézio’s The African (L’africain 2004) and Ahmadou Kourouma’s: Allah is Not Obliged 2011) (Allah n’est pas obligé 2000) and the untranslated and unfinished Quand on refuse on dit non (2004). The term “decolonizing Trauma Studies” refers to a remapping of this particular field of Cultural Theory by studying these non-Western “trauma novels”. The first critical suggestion advanced is that these authors explore the traumatic consequences of lies that are ontological and phenomenological in nature and maintained through language (logos). This research then examines Le Clézio’s and Kourouma’s models of healing, which centre on the body, language, and an empathetic re-encounter with the traumatized self through narratives. Another major finding is that these texts experiment with literature, manipulating it into new forms, thus expanding our understanding of the relationship between the literary arts and post-traumatic growth theories and treatments

Incorporating a Life-Course Perspective in the Development of Research and Public Policy Impacting Older Refugees

Older refugees are widely recognized as one of the most at-risk populations living with multiple intersecting barriers of political insecurity, financial insolvency, and poor health. Drawing upon secondary literature, this review essay builds upon a critique of multiculturalism to argue that the successful integration of older refugees is a two-way process. This process includes: 1) refugees making active attempts to embed themselves into Canadian society, and; 2) government facilitating conditions to help refugees integrate. The social integration of refugee elders is not a personal issue. It is a public problem that requires active government intervention via generous universal benefits.  I use the life-course theoretical perspective to undertake an analysis of public policies and existing research to identify structural determinants of older refugees’ integration