Making connections: Greek and Sri Lankan Tamil perceptions of mental health, ways of coping, and help-seeking

This thesis explores the perceptions of mental health, mental health problems, depression, and the coping and help-seeking behaviour of Greeks and Sri Lankan Tamils in Toronto. The study was undertaken in collaboration with a community mental health agency located in the Toronto community council area of East York. The information from this study will be used to help the agency, Alternatives, develop a strategy for reaching more members of diverse ethnic communities. In this study data were collected through interviews with Greek and Tamil service-providers and focus groups with lay community members using a qualitative, culturally sensitive, and participatory action research approach. For Greeks mental health is perceived as the ability to cope with the problems of everyday life. For Tamils mental health is part of one‘s approach to life, which includes the ability to cope with life and a good family life. For both ethnic groups, mental health problems are viewed as a disturbance in the mind and behaviour and as a disruption in one‘s life roles. Mental health problems are defined as visibly abnormal behaviour. Greeks perceive depression as unhappiness, while Tamils view it as a change in the mind or a health problem. In both groups depression is also believed to affect one‘s life roles. Greeks and Tamils attribute mental health problems to environmental, biological, and supernatural factors. Greeks attribute depression to environmental and individual factors, while Tamils attribute depression to environmental and biological factors. In coping with mental health problems and depression, Greeks and Tamils seek help from family members and medical professionals. They also use spiritual/religious approaches. In both ethnic groups, there is a stigma attached to mental health problems which affects the process of seeking outside help. In this study, I suggest a model of service that Alternatives can use to reach members of the diverse multicultural community

What really happens during study abroad? : an in-depth analysis of learners’ interactions during a short-term sojourn in Spain

We often hear assumptions about students who study abroad: Students learn a foreign language faster, students interact more with native speakers, students are immersed in the target language, and host families provide endless target-language practice. Universities and private companies in the United States promote this scenario as the best way to learn a language, and this preference is reflected in the growing number of U.S. students studying abroad, with over 60 percent taking part in programs that last for eight or fewer weeks. The goal of this study is to investigate these assumptions by examining the interactional practices of study-abroad students using the target language. We posed three research questions: (1) What types of interactions do students have outside of the classroom?, (2) How do learners interact with the host families?, and (3) How does technology and social media affect students’ immersion experience? The results show that short-term study-abroad programs, as viable language-learning contexts, are in jeopardy. Students in this program had few meaningful interactions with people in the target community. Conversations with host families proved to be deficient in many areas (e.g., students’ erroneous utterances were not corrected). The output of students during mealtime conversations proved to be linguistically poor, as students used few communication strategies. Furthermore, students used their electronic devices to communicate with friends and family, and to keep up with television shows and music from the U.S. They did not use social media websites and mobile applications to communicate with people in the target community nor did they use them to interact with the target language. Based on the results of this study, we call for a revamping of study-abroad promotion. If 100 percent immersion no longer exists, study-abroad promoters should change the way in which short-term programs are marketed. Additionally, if we want short-term study abroad to actively foster language learning, foreign language acquisition researchers, study abroad-program designers, and language instructors need to design programs centered on meaningful student-native speaker interactions. Study abroad is a tool that, if used correctly, can be the catalyst that changes the trajectory of students’ language-learning lives.Foreign Language Educatio

An Investigation of the Utilization of Smart Meter Data to Adapt Overcurrent Protection for Radial Distribution Systems with a High Penetration of Distributed Generation

The future of electric power distribution systems (DSs) is one that incorporates extensive amounts of advanced metering, distribution automation, and distributed generation technologies. Most DSs were designed to be radial systems and the major philosophies of their protection, namely, selectivity and sensitivity, were easily achieved. Settings for overcurrent protective devices (OCPDs) were static and based on the maximum load downstream of its location, with little concern of major configuration changes. However, the integration of distribution generators (DGs) in radial distributions systems (RDSs) causes bidirectional power flows and varying short circuit currents to be sensed by protective devices, thereby affecting these established protection principles. Several researchers have investigated methods to preserve the selectivity of overcurrent protection coordination in RDSs with DGs, but at the expense of protective device sensitivity due to an inherent change in system configuration. This thesis presents an investigation to adapt the pickup settings of the substation relay, based on configuration changes in a DS with DGs, using smart meter data from the prior year. An existing protection scheme causes the faulted areas of DSs with DGs to revert to a radial configuration, thereby allowing conventional OCPDs to isolate faults. Based on the location of the fault, the created radial segments are known and vary in length. The proposed methodology involves using demand information available via smart metering, to determine the seasonal maximum diversified demands in each of the radial segments that are formed. These seasonal maximum diversified demands are used to yield several pickup settings for the substation overcurrent relay of the DS. The existing protection approach enables the selectivity of radial overcurrent protection coordination to be maintained; the sensitivity of the substation relay is improved by adapting its pickup settings based on seasonal demand and system configuration changes. The results of the studies are reported through simulation in EMTP™ /PSCAD® using a multi-feeder test system that includes DGs and smart meters located at the secondary distribution load level. The results show that using seasonal settings for the substation relay based on configuration changes in a DS with DGs can improve the sensitivity of the substation relay

The COVID-19 Crisis: Using the Cracks in Neoliberalism for Social Transformation Towards a More Just Society

Within the current COVID-19 pandemic, cracks observed in neoliberal dominant global economic paradigms reveal how austerity policies have crippled crucial social safety nets, such as health care, with capitalism continuing to adversely impact our climate with ad infinitum extraction of resources for overconsumption. In examining these associations, this collaborative paper critically applies social theories to explore ideas and approaches to creating transformative social change, in an effort to move towards a more just and sustainable society in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and other ongoing systemic crises. The paper presents the pandemic as a social crisis and explores theories of social justice and how they might be applied within the context of neoliberal capitalism, also known as neoliberalism. The authors of this paper argue that to move towards a just society, social transformation is needed, informed by the theories of decoloniality and intersectionality. A conceptual model is presented that demonstrates how these theories can be woven together to inform community psychology action and research, addressing COVID-19 specifically. Possibilities for transformation in the areas of mental health and climate justice are also presented. Finally, recommendations for community psychology researchers seeking social transformation, while navigating this challenging and complex new reality, are shared

The COVID-19 Crisis: Using the Cracks in Neoliberalism for Social Transformation Towards a More Just Society

Within the current COVID-19 pandemic, cracks observed in neoliberal dominant global economic paradigms reveal how austerity policies have crippled crucial social safety nets, such as health care, with capitalism continuing to adversely impact our climate with ad infinitum extraction of resources for overconsumption. In examining these associations, this collaborative paper critically applies social theories to explore ideas and approaches to creating transformative social change, in an effort to move towards a more just and sustainable society in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and other ongoing systemic crises. The paper presents the pandemic as a social crisis and explores theories of social justice and how they might be applied within the context of neoliberal capitalism, also known as neoliberalism. The authors of this paper argue that to move towards a just society, social transformation is needed, informed by the theories of decoloniality and intersectionality. A conceptual model is presented that demonstrates how these theories can be woven together to inform community psychology action and research, addressing COVID-19 specifically. Possibilities for transformation in the areas of mental health and climate justice are also presented. Finally, recommendations for community psychology researchers seeking social transformation, while navigating this challenging and complex new reality, are shared

Finding the Balance Between Agricultural and Trade Policy: Rwanda Coffee Policy in Flux

Coffee is the principal source of foreign exchange for Rwanda. Over the years the predominating coffee policy has been to remunerate coffee producing highly to ensure sufficient production and foreign exchange receipts. The current policy debate focuses on whether the government can remove or modify coffee laws in existence since 1978 in such a way as to reduce the burden of the State and return crop choice to farmers without bringing about a catastrophic collapse in foreign exchange inflows.food security, food policy, trade policy, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade, F14,