Public Policy Advocacy in the Canadian Context: A Review of the Current Literature

Public Policy Advocacy in the Canadian Context: A Review of the Current Literature Background: Public policy advocacy is an important competency for students from healthcare and social service programs to develop; however, integration of policy advocacy within university curricula remains inconsistent. Identifying the knowledge and skills that healthcare and social service professionals use in policy advocacy supports the development of educational competencies to achieve entry-to-practice objectives. A review of the literature published on the topic of public policy advocacy in higher education was undertaken to determine the current state of this evidence. Methods: For this scoping review, CINAHL, Scopus, and Nursing and Allied Health (ProQuest) databases were searched using the following terms and Boolean phrases: “public policy” AND “advocacy” AND “physician*” OR “nurs*” OR “social worker*” OR “allied health profession*”. After applying limitations (full-text, peer-reviewed, English, last five years) and inclusion and exclusion criteria, 12 articles were retrieved. Two additional articles were included from a hand-based search for a total of 14 articles. Results: Findings were organized into three themes: ‘policy advocacy in higher education’, ‘facilitators and barriers to policy advocacy’, and ‘considerations for successful policy advocacy’. The literature review highlighted limited evidence as to how providers are prepared to engage in policy advocacy and there is little guidance on how such advocacy should be taught. Furthermore, few primary studies were available, and most research findings originate from the United States. Discussion: A new study is proposed to address this evidence gap by identifying the knowledge and skills used by Canadian-based healthcare and social service providers to advocate for public policy reform or development. Keywords: public policy, advocacy, university education, health care, social servic

Client or Volunteer? Understanding Neoliberalism and Neocolonialism Within International Volunteer Health Work

As international volunteer health work increases globally, research pertaining to the social organizations that coordinate the volunteer experience in the Global South has severely lagged. The purpose of this ethnographic study was to critically examine the social organizations within Canadian NGOs in the provision of health work in Tanzania. Multiple, concurrent data collection methods, including text analysis, participant observation and in-depth interviews were utilized. Data collection occurred in Tanzania and Canada. Neoliberalism and neocolonialism were pervasive in international volunteer health work. In this study, the social relations—“volunteer as client,” “experience as commodity,” and “free market evaluation”—coordinated the volunteer experience, whereby the volunteers became “the client” over the local community and resulting in an asymmetrical relationship. These findings illuminate the need to generate additional awareness and response related to social inequities embedded in international volunteer health work

Our roles are not at ease: The work of engaging a youth advisory council in a mental health services delivery organization

Objectives: There is growing policy impetus for including youth voices in health services research and health system reform. This article examines the perspectives of professionals in a mental healthcare organization charged with engaging young people as advisors in service transformation. Methods: An institutional ethnography of a youth mental health services organization in Ontario, Canada, was conducted. Fieldwork consisted of twelve months of observation of meetings, interviews with youth advisors and adult service providers, with subsequent text analysis of engagement training and policy materials. The present article reports data from six adult professionals and related field observations. Results: Service providers’ efforts to engage youth were observed in three areas: a) supporting youth\u27s development as advisors, b) retaining and deepening youth participation while waiting for organizational change and c) embedding relationships between youth and adults at various levels within the system of care. This work denotes existing tensions between the values and ideals of youth engagement and the everyday demands of services delivery. Conclusion: In this setting, a fundamental dimension of this work consisted of negotiating tensions between the policy enthusiasm for engagement and its realization in a health services context. In describing these contextual challenges, we outline implications for consideration by other youth mental health services. Engagement efforts that are authentic and sustained require resources and flexibility, and leadership commitment to instil service users’ perspectives throughout multiple levels within the organization

Gold mining on Mayan-Mam territory: Social unravelling, discord and distress in the Western highlands of Guatemala

This article examines the influence of a large-scale mining operation on the health of the community of San Miguel Ixtahuacán, Guatemala. An anti-colonial narrative approach informed by participatory action research principles was employed. Data collection included focus groups and one-on-one interviews from August to November of 2011. Over this period, we interviewed 15 Mam Mayan men and 41 women (n=56) between the ages of 18 and 64 including health care workers, educators, spiritual leaders, agricultural workers and previous mine employees from 13 villages within the municipality. Participants\u27 accounts pointed to community health experiences of social unravelling characterized by overlapping narratives of a climate of fear and discord and embodied expressions of distress. These findings reveal the interconnected mechanisms by which local mining operations influenced the health of the community, specifically, by introducing new threats to the safety and mental wellbeing of local residents. © 2014 The Authors

Gold mining on Mayan-Mam territory: Social unravelling, discord and distress in the Western highlands of Guatemala

This article examines the influence of a large-scale mining operation on the health of the community of San Miguel Ixtahuacán, Guatemala. An anti-colonial narrative approach informed by participatory action research principles was employed. Data collection included focus groups and one-on-one interviews from August to November of 2011. Over this period, we interviewed 15 Mam Mayan men and 41 women (n=56) between the ages of 18 and 64 including health care workers, educators, spiritual leaders, agricultural workers and previous mine employees from 13 villages within the municipality. Participants\u27 accounts pointed to community health experiences of social unravelling characterized by overlapping narratives of a climate of fear and discord and embodied expressions of distress. These findings reveal the interconnected mechanisms by which local mining operations influenced the health of the community, specifically, by introducing new threats to the safety and mental wellbeing of local residents. © 2014 The Authors

How Does Diversity Affect Homelessness?

Diversities such as social class, culture, sexual orientation, disabilities and psychiatric conditions impact poverty and homelessness.York's Knowledge Mobilization Unit provides services and funding for faculty, graduate students, and community organizations seeking to maximize the impact of academic research and expertise on public policy, social programming, and professional practice. It is supported by SSHRC and CIHR grants, and by the Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation. [email protected] www.researchimpact.c

A critical narrative inquiry to understand the impacts of an overdose prevention site on the lives of site users

© 2021, The Author(s). Background: Globally, communities are struggling to gain support for harm reduction strategies being implemented to address the impacts of substance use. A key part of this discussion is understanding and engaging with people who use drugs to help shape community harm reduction strategies. This study focused on how an overdose prevention site has influenced the lives of people who use drugs. Methods: A critical narrative method was utilized, centred on photo-narratives. Twenty-seven individuals accessing an overdose prevention site were recruited to participate in preliminary interviews. Sixteen participants subsequently took photographs to describe the impact of the site and participated in a second round of interviews. Through independent coding and several rounds of team analysis, four themes were proposed to constitute a core narrative encompassing the diverse experiences of participants. Results: A key message shared by participants was the sense that their lives have improved since accessing the site. The core narrative proposed is presented in a series of four themes or “chapters”: Enduring, Accessing Safety, Connecting and Belonging, and Transforming. The chapters follow a series of transitions, revealing a journey that participants presented through their own eyes: one of moving from utter despair to hope, opportunity, and inclusion. Where at the outset participants were simply trying to survive the challenges of chaotic substance use, through the relationships and services provided at the site they moved towards small or large life transformations. Conclusions: This study contributes to an enhanced understanding of how caring relationships with staff at the overdose prevention site impacted site users’ sense of self. We propose that caring relationships are an intervention in and of themselves, and that these relationships contribute to transformation that extends far beyond the public health outcomes of disease reduction. The caring relationships at the site can be a starting point for significant social changes. However, the micro-environment that existed within the site needs to extend beyond its walls for true transformative change to take place. The marginalization and stigmatization that people who use drugs experience outside these sites remains a constant barrier to achieving stability in their lives

Laboring to Mother in the Context of Past Trauma: The Transition to Motherhood

The occurrence of interpersonal trauma is a reality for many women, with effects that often persist long after the traumatic events end. The purpose of this feminist grounded theory study was to examine how past trauma shaped the lives of women as they became new mothers. We recruited a purposive sample of 32 women from two Canadian communities and conducted semistructured, dialogic interviews during the second trimester of pregnancy. We analyzed data using thematic content analytic methods, including open coding whereby we read transcripts line by line and applied codes to portions of text that illustrated concepts or themes. The substantive grounded theory, “laboring to mother in the context of past trauma,” describes the exceedingly difficult emotional and cognitive work undertaken by pregnant women with histories of trauma as they anticipate becoming mothers. In this article, we present key components of the theory and offer recommendations for health and social service providers

2016 Research & Innovation Day Program

A one day showcase of applied research, social innovation, scholarship projects and activities.https://first.fanshawec.ca/cri_cripublications/1003/thumbnail.jp