Progressive accommodation for seniors : interfacing shelter and services

The purpose of this book is to explore the reasons why clients, agencies and governments are considering options that blend shelter and care, the barriers impeding their development and how these have or may be overcome at both the policy and the practice level. New ways of measuring person-environment fit and the potential of maximizing it via enabling technologies are also examined. The target readership includes researchers, architects, policy makers, developers, care providers and operators of existing seniors housing, all of whom can benefit from a better understanding of the multiple issues involved in interfacing shelter and services.TABLE OF CONTENTS: Introduction / Gloria M. Gutman and Andrew V. Wister; Part I: Changing Clients, Economics and Expectations in Housing for Seniors: Chapter 1- Current Demographics and Living Arrangements of Canada\u27s Elderly / Gordon E. Priest; Chapter 2- Choice, Control, and the Right to Age in Place / Veronica Doyle. Part II: Problems in Providing Service within Existing Seniors Housing: Chapter 3- Current Realities and Challenges in Providing Services to Seniors: The Home Care Perspective / Lois Borden and Joan McGregor; Chapter 4 - Difficulties in Providing Support Services in Buildings Constructed Under Shelter-Only Housing Policies / Reg Appleyard. Part III: Transcending Barriers to Combining Shelter and Services: Chapter 5- Public, Private and Non-Profit Partnerships: The CCPPPH Link / C.W. Lusk; Chapter 6- Group Homes: The Swedish Model of Care for Persons with Dementia of the Alzheimer\u27s Type / Elaine Gallagher; Chapter 7- Supportive Housing for Elderly Persons in Ontario / Garry Baker; Chapter 8- Social Policy Models for Shelter and Services: An International Perspective / Satya Brink. Part IV: Measuring and Maximizing Person-Environment Fit: Chapter 9- Measuring Person-Environment Fit Among Frail Older Adults Using Video / Andrew V. Wister and James R. Watzke; Chapter 10- Assessing the Client\u27s Perception of Person-Environment Fit Using the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure / Anne Carswell. Part V: Enabling Technologies in Housing for Seniors: Chapter 11- Personal Response Systems: Canadian Data on Subscribers and Alarms / James R. Watzke; Chapter 12- Older Adults\u27 Response to Automated Environmental Control Devices / James R. Watzke and Gary Birch; Chapter 13- Use and Potential Use of Assistive Devices by Home-Based Seniors / William C. Mann; Chapter 14 - Necessary Elements of a Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Technical Aids for the Elderly / George Abrahamsohn, Gloria M. Gutman and Andrew V. Wister; Chapter 15- Bridging the Technology Gap - The Links Between Research, Development, Production and Policy for Products Supporting Independent Living / Satya Brin

Tasers, Accountability, and Less Lethal Force: Keying in on the Contentious Construction of Police Electroshock Weapons

Over the last decade, Tasers and other electroshock devices have become a nearly standard, though highly controversial, piece of police equipment for law enforcement. While a great deal of research focuses on the technical merits and health effects of this type of device, we adopt a constructionist framework and explore the manner in which different sets of actors compete to construct the “reality” of this type of technology within public media. By focusing on this issue, we seek to use the debate over Tasers to explore an underdeveloped area of social problems theory, i.e., how public problems are constructed publicly through the dynamic interaction of different sets of contentious claims-making actors. More specifically, we adopt Goffman’s concept of “keying” to examine how the opponents of the technology sought to appropriate and then re-deploy the claims made by proponents of the technology. By exploring the “keying” process, this paper will allow us to better understand the dynamic and iterative way in which the public claims offered by dominant and powerful groups are contested, appropriated and sometimes subverted, by less powerful groups

Wired Identities: Retention and Destruction of Personal Health Information in an Electronic World

This article examines the issue of the retention and destruction of personal health information. While legislation in Canada shows some attention to the issue of retaining health records, very little consideration has been given to their destruction. As technological advances have made indefinite retention feasible, serious privacy issues are now being raised by the lack of a standard related to the destruction of health records. The author argues that this issue needs to be explicitly addressed. The author analyzes this problem by looking at issues of autonomy, public good, inequality, and privacy as a social good before offering thoughts on the shape that policies around the destruction of personal health information should take

The Level Playing Field: Unconcealing Diploma Exam Accommodation Policy

The authors, using a specific exemplar of standardized high-stakes testing and testing accommodations for learners with diagnosed disabilities in a Canadian province, open up, for conversation and critique, the myth of the accommodations metaphor of “leveling the playing fieldâ€. By utilizing Disabilities Studies perspectives and literature, alternative interpretive readings of commonplace accommodations practices, as well as the experiential data of one of the author’s experiences managing exam accommodations at the school level, the authors not only critique the myth of reasonable, fair and equitable learner accommodations for those high schools facing standardized exit examinations, they also offer, alternatively, suggested ways forward that they believe re-conceptualizes practices associated with framing accommodations for all learners and not just those deemed to have educational disabilities. When all learners are offered without prejudice diverse ways of demonstrating their learning, knowing, and achievement then all students are engaged on level playing fields

Beyond GDP: Measuring Economic Well-Being in Canada and the Provinces, 1981-2010

This report presents new estimates of the Index of Economic Well-being (IEWB) and its four domains (consumption flows, stocks of wealth, economic equality and economic security) for Canada and the provinces for the 1981-2010 period. It finds that the IEWB advanced at a 0.78 per cent average annual growth rate over the period, below the 1.32 per cent growth for GDP per capita. Both the consumption and wealth domains experienced solid advances over the period, but these developments were offset by declines in the equality and economic security domains. The recent recession caused a decline in the IEWB for Canada, driven by declines in wealth and economic security.well-being, economic measurement, IEWB, consumption, wealth, equality, economic security

Financial ideas, political constraints : the IPE of sovereign wealth funds

Rather than ponder sovereign wealth funds' (SWFs ') significance for global capital markets, this thesis takes a step back and asks the following: why do SWFs exist in such numbers across the global political economy? The SWF literature, dominated by fmancial economists and neoliberal commentators, has yet to adequately address this puzzle. This is significant given the funds embed systematically significant amounts of national wealth throughout speculative capital markets, thereby increasing their state's vulnerability to recurrent asset bubbles and crises. The thesis consequently examines the interest-based politics behind SWFs' domestic origins. It begins its analysis with the argument that SWFs are first and foremost domestic strategies of governance created to achieve specific short and medium term goals of the administrative state. This is despite their international and long-term investment orientations. In short, the funds serve to immediately stabilize state actors' governance function by reconceptualising problems of uncertainty in the quantitative and manageable terms of fmancial risk. This account of SWFs' origins thus contests that currently dominating mainstream commentary, which portrays the funds as evolutionary features of modem fmance capitalism. The domestic political interests SWFs were initially created to serve consequently remain critically unexamined. Drawing from the constructivist institutionalism literature, the thesis also seeks to demonstrate that SWFs are the institutional embodiment of a specific array of prescriptive fmancial ideas. It will be shown this framework offmancial 'knowledge' problematically constrains political actors to defer their interests to the demands of the speculative fmancial realm. In the face of recurrent crises, such constraint highlights how SWFs' immediate impact on domestic socioeconomic spheres outweighs their imagined fmancial benefits. The funds' rapid expansion since 2000 therefore poses significant implications for the nature and exercise of sovereign authority in SWF-states. These theoretical arguments are developed in Part I of the thesis, and then tested against three case studies in Part II: Norway's Government Pension Fund-Global; Alberta's Heritage Savings Trust Fund; and Ireland's National Pension Reserve Fund

The right to privacy through the development of smart technologies : how our personal health data is affected

L’évolution de la technologie, nonobstant ses apports, peut enfreindre certains de nos droits fondamentaux puisqu’elle se développe plus rapidement que ces derniers. Ce mémoire vise à relever les défis que les technologies intelligentes peuvent poser tant sur la santé des communautés que sur les droits fondamentaux. La thèse porte sur les contraintes juridiques, présentes et à venir, notamment sur le droit à la vie privée à travers le développement et l’usage des technologies intelligentes qui captent notre information personnelle en lien avec la santé. Plus précisément, ce travail analyse si les bénéfices de l’accès à notre information à travers les technologies intelligentes en vue d’améliorer la santé et la sécurité des populations surpassent les conséquences juridiques. Ce travail explore, entre autres, le potentiel des technologies intelligentes, leurs avantages individuels et collectifs, notamment en matière de santé publique, et les violations des droits de l’Homme que leur usage peut générer. Mais encore, il présente des innovations technologiques qui permettent d’améliorer les systèmes de santé étatiques afin d’être en mesure de mieux réagir aux futures épidémies, notamment au niveau international, comme à l’OMS. Ces données, suivies des autres complications possibles du fait d’un usage accru des technologies intelligentes qui restreignent notre vie privée, permettront de conclure si une telle intrusion peut être justifiée dans une société libre et démocratique. Finalement, ce travail regarde les limites de l’acceptabilité sociale de l’intrusion dans la vie privée en échange à de meilleures conditions de santé afin que les organes étatiques et supraétatiques puissent prendre des décisions éclairées, sans que les droits constitutionnels soient violés. Ce travail permettra de comprendre les enjeux que notre système judiciaire inévitablement devra surmonter en proposant des stratégies visant la prévention des maladies et autres problèmes de santé à travers l’usage des technologies intelligentes. Une des solutions principales proposées est la création de bases de données nationale et internationale à l’OMS qui captent les données des appareils intelligents portables.The evolution of technology, notwithstanding its benefits, can negatively impact some of our fundamental rights as it develops faster than the latter. Indeed, this thesis aims to meet challenges generated by smart technologies and the impact they can have on the health of communities as well as on our fundamental rights. This thesis focuses on the legal constraints, present and to come, including the right to privacy, through the development and use of smart technologies that seize our personal health information. More specifically, this work seeks to analyze whether the benefits of accessing our information through smart technologies to improve the health and safety of populations outweigh the legal consequences. This work explores the potential of smart technologies, the interest in using them individually and collectively, especially in the public health sector, and the human rights violations their use can generate. Moreover, it looks at technological innovations that help improve State health systems to be able to better respond to future epidemics, particularly at the international level, such as at the WHO. These data, followed by other possible complications due to the increased use of intelligent technologies that restrict our privacy, will allow us to conclude whether such an intrusion in our right to privacy can be justified in a free and democratic society. Finally, this work examines the limits of the social acceptability of the invasion of privacy in exchange for better health conditions so that States and supra-State bodies can make informed decisions, without violating constitutional rights. This work will help us understand the issues that our judicial system will inevitably face while proposing strategies for the prevention of diseases and other health problems through the use of smart technologies. One of the main proposed solutions is the creation of a national and international database at the WHO generated by the data of smart health devices

Financial ideas, political constraints : the IPE of sovereign wealth funds

Rather than ponder sovereign wealth funds' (SWFs ') significance for global capital markets, this thesis takes a step back and asks the following: why do SWFs exist in such numbers across the global political economy? The SWF literature, dominated by fmancial economists and neoliberal commentators, has yet to adequately address this puzzle. This is significant given the funds embed systematically significant amounts of national wealth throughout speculative capital markets, thereby increasing their state's vulnerability to recurrent asset bubbles and crises. The thesis consequently examines the interest-based politics behind SWFs' domestic origins. It begins its analysis with the argument that SWFs are first and foremost domestic strategies of governance created to achieve specific short and medium term goals of the administrative state. This is despite their international and long-term investment orientations. In short, the funds serve to immediately stabilize state actors' governance function by reconceptualising problems of uncertainty in the quantitative and manageable terms of fmancial risk. This account of SWFs' origins thus contests that currently dominating mainstream commentary, which portrays the funds as evolutionary features of modem fmance capitalism. The domestic political interests SWFs were initially created to serve consequently remain critically unexamined. Drawing from the constructivist institutionalism literature, the thesis also seeks to demonstrate that SWFs are the institutional embodiment of a specific array of prescriptive fmancial ideas. It will be shown this framework offmancial 'knowledge' problematically constrains political actors to defer their interests to the demands of the speculative fmancial realm. In the face of recurrent crises, such constraint highlights how SWFs' immediate impact on domestic socioeconomic spheres outweighs their imagined fmancial benefits. The funds' rapid expansion since 2000 therefore poses significant implications for the nature and exercise of sovereign authority in SWF-states. These theoretical arguments are developed in Part I of the thesis, and then tested against three case studies in Part II: Norway's Government Pension Fund-Global; Alberta's Heritage Savings Trust Fund; and Ireland's National Pension Reserve Fund.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceUniversity of WarwickGBUnited Kingdo

Financial ideas, political constraints : the IPE of sovereign wealth funds

Rather than ponder sovereign wealth funds' (SWFs ') significance for global capital markets, this thesis takes a step back and asks the following: why do SWFs exist in such numbers across the global political economy? The SWF literature, dominated by fmancial economists and neoliberal commentators, has yet to adequately address this puzzle. This is significant given the funds embed systematically significant amounts of national wealth throughout speculative capital markets, thereby increasing their state's vulnerability to recurrent asset bubbles and crises. The thesis consequently examines the interest-based politics behind SWFs' domestic origins. It begins its analysis with the argument that SWFs are first and foremost domestic strategies of governance created to achieve specific short and medium term goals of the administrative state. This is despite their international and long-term investment orientations. In short, the funds serve to immediately stabilize state actors' governance function by reconceptualising problems of uncertainty in the quantitative and manageable terms of fmancial risk. This account of SWFs' origins thus contests that currently dominating mainstream commentary, which portrays the funds as evolutionary features of modem fmance capitalism. The domestic political interests SWFs were initially created to serve consequently remain critically unexamined. Drawing from the constructivist institutionalism literature, the thesis also seeks to demonstrate that SWFs are the institutional embodiment of a specific array of prescriptive fmancial ideas. It will be shown this framework offmancial 'knowledge' problematically constrains political actors to defer their interests to the demands of the speculative fmancial realm. In the face of recurrent crises, such constraint highlights how SWFs' immediate impact on domestic socioeconomic spheres outweighs their imagined fmancial benefits. The funds' rapid expansion since 2000 therefore poses significant implications for the nature and exercise of sovereign authority in SWF-states. These theoretical arguments are developed in Part I of the thesis, and then tested against three case studies in Part II: Norway's Government Pension Fund-Global; Alberta's Heritage Savings Trust Fund; and Ireland's National Pension Reserve Fund.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceUniversity of WarwickGBUnited Kingdo

The role of publicly-reported research in the early stages of the diffusion of an innovation: the case of E-commerce

This study examined patterns of research-based information and predictions about e-commerce that have been disseminated during the first six years of the diffusion of this innovation. The theoretical expectation was based on Hoopla Effect theory, which suggests that early information and predictions about an innovation will be overly optimistic, produced mainly by inventors and businesses that have a stake in their success, and focused primarily on main effects of the innovation rather than indirect social impacts the innovation might have. All 1,134 research-based reports about e-commerce posted on the website nua.com were content analyzed in this study. Findings showed the tone of information did tend to become significantly less positive over the five-year period. While studies about social impacts of the innovation did increase over time, there were many more studies about financial and business aspects across all time periods. The source of most of the reports was research firms, which was contrary to the expectation that it would be primarily businesses themselves. This suggests that research firms may now be playing a major role in presenting information used by investors or businesses to make decisions about e-commerce. The extent to which such research firms are acting as agents of businesses promoting these innovations could not be determined by this study. The study supports supply-side diffusion theorists who suggest that the quantity and source of innovation information is likely to vary widely over time