Intra-group Stigma: Examining Peer Relationships Among Women in Recovery for Addictions

This grounded theory study explores how women with histories of addiction perceive stigma while in treatment. In-depth interviews were conducted with 30 women participating in a residential drug treatment centre. Previous research has found that support from peers during recovery can be critical to managing illnesses. In fact, researchers have postulated that peers can be a more effective form of support than even family. This study extends existing literature indicating that peer support systems can be supportive, however they can also can be perceived as negative support that impose stigmas. Findings reveal that women perceive stigmas due to how various types of drug use violate societal expectations and conflict with notions of deservingness. Specifically, the hard users\u27\u27 (i.e. women who use heroin or crack cocaine) perceive stigmas regarding how their drug use violates norms of womanhood. Moreover, the soft users\u27\u27 (i.e. those who use alcohol or marijuana) perceive stigmas that their drug use is considered undeserving of support. This article explores the factors that contribute to stigma amongst populations who potentially face marginalisation from larger society. Implications for treatment and group work are discussed

How Equity-Oriented Health Care Affects Health: Key Mechanisms and Implications for Primary Health Care Practice and Policy

Policy Points A consensus regarding the need to orient health systems to address inequities is emerging, with much of this discussion targeting population health interventions and indicators. We know less about applying these approaches to primary health care. This study empirically demonstrates that providing more equity-oriented health care (EOHC) in primary health care, including trauma- and violence-informed, culturally safe, and contextually tailored care, predicts improved health outcomes across time for people living in marginalizing conditions. This is achieved by enhancing patients’ comfort and confidence in their care and their own confidence in preventing and managing health problems. This promising new evidence suggests that equity-oriented interventions at the point of care can begin to shift inequities in health outcomes for those with the greatest need. Context: Significant attention has been directed toward addressing health inequities at the population health and systems levels, yet little progress has been made in identifying approaches to reduce health inequities through clinical care, particularly in a primary health care context. Although the provision of equity-oriented health care (EOHC) is widely assumed to lead to improvements in patients’ health outcomes, little empirical evidence supports this claim. To remedy this, we tested whether more EOHC predicts more positive patient health outcomes and identified selected mediators of this relationship. Methods: Our analysis uses longitudinal data from 395 patients recruited from 4 primary health care clinics serving people living in marginalizing conditions. The participants completed 4 structured interviews composed of self-report measures and survey questions over a 2-year period. Using path analysis techniques, we tested a hypothesized model of the process through which patients’ perceptions of EOHC led to improvements in self-reported health outcomes (quality of life, chronic pain disability, and posttraumatic stress [PTSD] and depressive symptoms), including particular covariates of health outcomes (age, gender, financial strain, experiences of discrimination). Findings: Over a 24-month period, higher levels of EOHC predicted greater patient comfort and confidence in the health care patients received, leading to increased confidence to prevent and manage their health problems, which, in turn, improved health outcomes (depressive symptoms, PTSD symptoms, chronic pain, and quality of life). In addition, financial strain and experiences of discrimination had significant negative effects on all health outcomes. Conclusions: This study is among the first to demonstrate empirically that providing more EOHC predicts better patient health outcomes over time. At a policy level, this research supports investments in equity-focused organizational and provider-level processes in primary health care as a means of improving patients’ health, particularly for those living in marginalizing conditions. Whether these results are robust in different patient groups and across a broader range of health care contexts requires further study

What Happens to Mental Health Court Noncompleters?

Mental health court (MHC) research consistently finds that defendants who successfully complete and graduate from the court are less likely to recidivate than those who do not. However, research has not assessed what happens to these noncompleters once they are sent back to traditional court. Using follow-up data on six years of noncompleters from pre-adjudication MHC, we examine what happens to these defendants in traditional court. Findings suggest that 63.7% of defendants' charges were dismissed, 21.0% received probation, and 15.3% were sentenced to incarceration. We examine the time to disposition and differences in defendant characteristics and disposition outcome as well as the relationship between disposition and subsequent recidivism. Results suggest that more severe punishments in traditional court are associated with recidivism. Logistic regression analysis shows that defendants whose charges were dismissed in traditional court were less likely to recidivate than those who were sentenced to probation or incarceration. Our findings highlight the need for future MHC evaluations to consider traditional court outcomes and support trends towards post-adjudication courts. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Copyright Consultations Submission

The entertainment software industry is one of the fastest growing market segment in the global economy, with Canada rapidly establishing itself as a world leader in the multi-billion dollar global video game industry. The employment opportunities in this industry, as well as its investments in research and technology are also significant. These investments are not without risk – in the highly competitive industry of video game production the chance of a video game being a commercial failure outweighs the chances of its success. Internet piracy of video game software has also undergone explosive growth and represents a significant problem for the entertainment software industry. Video game piracy drastically reduces the industry\u27s capacity to sustain the enormously high creative costs associated with video game production, potentially leading to lost revenue, lost jobs, or worse. In an effort to protect their products from piracy, the video game industry has implemented various measures, including technological protection measures and other copy protection techniques, yet such measures are not fail-safe and are subject to circumvention. Compounding this problem, copyright law in Canada does not provide sufficient protection. Consequently, the Entertainment Software Association of Canada herein presents ways in which Canadian legislators can use copyright law to reduce piracy. Modernizing copyright law will, in turn, allow for a fair and vibrant marketplace and, in so doing, enhance both Canada‘s competitiveness and the public interest

Anxiety and depression in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic: A national survey.

Depression and anxiety are the most prevalent mental health problems in Canada. The COVID-19 pandemic will likely result in a large increase in the incidence and prevalence of anxiety and depression and experts are already warning of an “echo pandemic” of mental health problems. The objective is this research was to explore how Canadians are managing with the COVID-19 outbreak and determine the impact of the pandemic on levels of anxiety and depression. A nationally representative sample of 1,803 participants completed an online survey that was offered in both official languages. The percentage of respondents who indicated that their anxiety was high to extremely high quadrupled (from 5% to 20%) and the number of participants with high self-reported depression more than doubled (from 4% to 10%) since the onset of COVID-19. Although current anxiety levels are expected to remain the same, respondents predicted that depression would worsen if physical distancing and self-isolation continue for another 2 months. One-third of Canadians with anxiety and depression also report an increase in alcohol and cannabis use during the pandemic. Canadians with depression and anxiety also indicate that the quantity and quality of mental health support systems has decreased. Finally, a sizable proportion of Canadians believe that the federal and provincial governments should do more to support the mental health of Canadians. Recommendations for psychologists responding to mental health needs during and following the pandemic are provided

The Exposure of Counseling Practicum Students to Humanistic Counseling Theories: A Survey of CACREP Programs

An article written by Trey J. Fitch, Richard Canada and Jennifer L. Marshall and published in the September issue of Journal of Humanistic Counseling, Education & Development, pages 232-242

Optimal seismic upgrade timing in seaports with increasing throughput demand via real options

A real options (RO) formulation is proposed for decision-making on the timing to upgrade the seismic performance of existing seaports with increasing throughput demand in earthquake prone areas. The pay-off of the seismic upgrade investment option is estimated based on projected net earnings, repair cost, and downtime for a damaging reference seismic event having a pre-specified annual probability of occurrence. These projections inform a discrete-time RO binomial tree, following the American option valuation framework, which propagates the probability of the reference seismic event assuming Poisson temporal distribution of earthquake occurrence. The net present value of the expected annual payoff of the considered investment is used as an index supporting risk-informed decision-making discounted by the weighted average cost of capital (WACC). Numerical examples pertaining to decision makers with different capital cost, namely port authorities and terminal operators, operating in different economic environments typical of developed and developing countries are furnished to illustrate the applicability of the proposed RO formulation. It is found that high WACC and/or low throughput growth bring the optimal seismic upgrade timing forward, while earthquake consequences and upgrade cost have almost no influence on this timing

The minimum energy expenditure shortest path method

This article discusses the addition of an energy parameter to the shortest path execution process; namely, the energy expenditure by a character during execution of the path. Given a simple environment in which a character has the ability to perform actions related to locomotion, such as walking and stair stepping, current techniques execute the shortest path based on the length of the extracted root trajectory. However, actual humans acting in constrained environments do not plan only according to shortest path criterion, they conceptually measure the path that minimizes the amount of energy expenditure. On this basis, it seems that virtual characters should also execute their paths according to the minimization of actual energy expenditure as well. In this article, a simple method that uses a formula for computing vanadium dioxide ($VO_2$) levels, which is a proxy for the energy expenditure by humans during various activities, is presented. The presented solution could be beneficial in any situation requiring a sophisticated perspective of the path-execution process. Moreover, it can be implemented in almost every path-planning method that has the ability to measure stepping actions or other actions of a virtual character

Epidemias: un nuevo objeto sociotécnico

This the final version. Available from Universidad autónoma del estado de México via the URL in this recordRecently, epidemics have become an important concern in social sciences. They currently have two important ways of conceptualizing epidemics: a) as a panic object; or b) as a bio-political situation. Nevertheless, these two perspectives disregard that epidemics basically are a way of transforming our daily life. In order to grasp this impact we put forward to conceptualize epidemics as a socio-technical object. Our paper will show this perspective. Analyzing mass media, information from academic journals, such as Science, or from Health Institutions we will explain how epidemics change the main borders of our everyday life. That is, the tension between animal-human, local-global, politics-nature and healthy-pathological. We will argue that after the aforementioned rupture appears a new redefinition of said limits with the following elements: a) medicine appears as the most relevant dimension in that redefinition; b) it is defined a kind of “biological emergency” as the way to understand the aforementioned process of redefinition; and c) a specific body regime is update