Play Therapy Techniques with Adults in an Inpatient Setting

This research study explored the use of play therapy techniques with adults on an inpatient unit. Participants engaged with play figurines during a one-hour expressive art therapy session. A second-year expressive art therapy intern facilitated the groups. The intern guided the members through a warm-up activity, main directive and closing activity. The focus of the play therapy directives was on the current self and future self. Data was collected from three groups facilitated by the same group leader and involving two different hospital units. The play figurines chosen, environments created and participant’s body language were noted. Overall, the usage of play figurines was well received and appreciated; group members found it helpful to use symbolism in expressing their emotions and hopes for their personal growth. There was little resistance to participating in the group and engaging with the figurines. Noticeable differences were observed in patients who had a psychotic disorder versus mood disorder

Quand la réadaptation blesse? Éducateurs victimes de violence

Cette étude vise à comprendre le phénomène de la violence physique vécue par les éducateurs oeuvrant dans dix Centres Jeunesse (CJ) du Québec. Pour ce faire, un sondage de victimisation a été administré à 586 éducateurs en internat. En premier lieu, la prévalence de cette problématique sera établie. Par la suite, les facteurs individuels et environnementaux prédisposant aux agressions physiques seront identifiés. Des éducateurs sondés, 53,9 % rapportent avoir été victimes de violence physique au cours de la dernière année. Sur le plan individuel, être affecté par les manifestations agressives des clients et la fréquence des violences psychologiques subies augmentent les risques de victimisation physique. Quant au contexte, l’âge de la clientèle et le motif de l’intervention (basé sur la loi justifiant le placement) auprès de l’enfant ou de l’adolescent influencent l’occurrence des actes violents dirigés contre les éducateurs. Nos analyses montrent également que les violences physiques dont sont victimes les éducateurs affectent autant l’individu que l’institution. L’identification de facteurs permettant de prédire les risques de victimisation pourrait notamment servir à orienter les programmes de prévention de la violence dans les CJ, mais aussi à cibler les éducateurs les plus à risque afin de leur fournir un soutien adapté.The aim of this study is to understand violence directed against behaviour technicians in juvenile rehabilitation centres. The findings are based on a survey conducted among 586 educators working in one of ten youth centres across Quebec. In this article we will first assess the occurrence of violent acts. Then, we will examine individual and contextual factors that predict physical aggression. More than half (53.9 %) of the educators surveyed reported to have been physically assaulted at least once in the past year. Regarding individual factors, being affected by the exposure to aggressive behaviours and the frequency of psychological aggression increase the risk of victimization. With respect to situational factors, the age of the clientele and the legal basis for placement (i.e. civil or criminal) influence the occurrence of violent acts towards staff members. Our analyses also show that physical violence not only affects staff members but also the institution. The identification of predictors of violence can guide prevention programs in youth centres. Moreover, they can help target behaviour technicians who are at risk of being assaulted in order to prevent their victimization

Don’t Panic, It’s Organic*: Supporting Sustainable Agriculture and Hunger Relief Efforts at McQuade Library

How can libraries support sustainability, wellness, and social justice? Concern for health and the environment has increased interest in sustainable agriculture and the local foods movement. McQuade Library at Merrimack College became a distributor of local foods by partnering with a community supported agriculture (CSA) operation to provide fresh foods to the college and surrounding community. CSAs are a way to directly support local agriculture with sustainable growing practices. Joining a CSA is entering into a relationship with a farm and farmer whereby members are directly supporting the farm by purchasing a farm share. In exchange for providing monetary or labor support up front and/or during the growing season, farm members are provided with a share of the crops harvested. McQuade Library partnered with Farmer Dave’s CSA, a farm just eleven miles from the college. Farmer Dave’s utilizes sustainable growing practices and was willing to drop off the food at the library once a week for twenty weeks if we could recruit fifty members. Through our promotional efforts, we surpassed the number of shares needed to form the partnership. Weekly pick-ups commenced with two library staff volunteering as the distribution managers. As some shares of food were not picked up each week, the volunteers were able to distribute a considerable amount of local, fresh food to a nearby food pantry and senior center in the summer months. Once our semester began, students from Merrimack’s Campus Kitchens Project (a hunger-relief effort supported by the Sodexo Foundation) collected the food each week to make meals they delivered to an emergency shelter. This poster describes our process and best practices along with our positive results in faculty and community outreach

Pivot, and Pivot Again: Ever-Nimble Library Leadership

Pressures continue to build for academic library leaders. Leaders face re-purposing of library spaces, staffing shortages, and increasing expectations to respond to a widening variety of library needs. Leaders must not only manage day-to-day library operations, but also successfully guide and lead within a sea of unpredictable, evolving institutional forces and activities, frequently at a late stage in the journey. How do leaders stay on course while constantly recalculating the route? What competencies are needed to stay afloat during turbulent times in higher education? This poster will offer real-world examples of “pivoting” in response to space repurposing, new and changing academic programs, and unexpected opportunities for collaboration. Enrollment has grown almost 50% in the last five years at this institution, and the library director has reported to 8 different administrators in that same period. This poster will highlight how this library’s experimental mindset and pivoting keeps this library positioned for success and growth. Attendees will be encouraged to weigh in and share their own stories of “pivoting” or leading through challenges that they didn\u27t anticipate. Attendees will consider that some of the best opportunities in their library may come as the result of circumstances that they cannot plan for or predict

Aggressive incidents inside a Montreal barroom involving patrons, barmaids and bouncers : a micro level examination of routine activity theory

Objectives: This article further examines the phenomenon of aggression inside barrooms by relying on the “bouncer-ethnographer” methodology. The objective is to investigate variations in aggression through time and space according to the role and routine of the target in a Montreal barroom. Thus, it provides an examination of routine activity theory at the micro level: the barroom. Methods: For a period of 258 nights of observation in a Canadian barroom, bouncers completed reports on each intervention and provided specific information regarding what happened, when and where within the venue. In addition, the bouncer-ethnographer compiled field observations and interviews with bar personnel in order to identify aggression hotspots and “rush hours” for three types of actors within barrooms: (a) bouncers, (b) barmaids and (c) patrons. Findings: Three different patterns emerged for shifting hotspots of aggression depending on the target. As the night progresses, aggressive incidents between patrons, towards barmaids and towards bouncers have specific hotspots and rush hours influenced by the specific routine of the target inside the barroom. Implications: The current findings enrich those of previous work by pointing to the relevance of not only examining the environmental characteristics of the barroom, but also the role of the target of aggression. Crime opportunities follow routine activities, even within a specific location on a micro level. Routine activity theory is thus relevant in this context, because as actors in differing roles follow differing routines, as do their patterns of victimization

Le populisme et la démocratie

La montée du populisme dans le monde suscite la confusion quant à savoir si le populisme est une menace à la démocratie. La définition actuelle du populisme ne précise ailleurs pas sa relation avec la démocratie. Ce mémoire tente donc de valider si le populisme est opposé à la démocratie dans laquelle nous vivons, c’est-à-dire la démocratie libérale. Nous avons procédé en deux études distinctes. D’abord, nous avons vérifié si les indicateurs de démocratie de Freedom House et de Reporters sans frontières se détériorent dans les pays gouvernés par des populistes. Nos résultats indiquent que la grande majorité des cas n’implique aucune détérioration. Ils démontrent toutefois aussi que les gouvernements populistes majoritaires semblent avoir plus d’impact négatif sur la démocratie que ceux en coalition, peu importe le rang occupé dans celle-ci. Ensuite, notre seconde étude tente de vérifier si ce faible impact est simplement dû à l’absence de propositions de réformes démocratiques dans les programmes des populistes. Cette analyse de contenu révèle, d’une part, l’absence de dénominateur commun dans le traitement réservé à la démocratie par les populistes étudiés, et d’autre part, que la nature populiste de leur discours s’adapte au fil du temps. Ainsi, comme aucun dénominateur commun ne semble permettre de distinguer les populistes sur le plan démocratique, notre contribution à la littérature est de défendre la théorie selon laquelle le populisme serait davantage un discours, une stratégie de mobilisation, plutôt qu’une vision du monde, une idéologie durable.The rise of the populism in the world arouses the confusion as if populism is a threat to democracy or not. The current definition of the populism does not specify somewhere else its relation with the democracy. This master’s thesis thus tries to validate if populism is set against the democracy in which we live, that is the liberal democracy. We proceeded in two different studies. At first, we verified if the indicators of democracy of Freedom House and Reporters without borders deteriorate in countries ruled by populists. Our results indicate that the great majority of the cases involve no deterioration. They demonstrate however also that majority populist governments seem to have more negative impact on the democracy than those in coalition, no matter the rank occupied in this one. Then, our second study tries to verify if this low impact is simply due to the absence of democratic reform proposals in the programs of the populists. This analysis of contents reveals, on one hand, the absence of common denominator in the treatment reserved for democracy by the studied populists, and on the other hand, that the populist nature of their speech adapts itself over time. So, as no common denominator seems to allow to distinguish the populists on the democratic plan, our contribution to the literature is to defend the theory according to which the populism would be more a speech, a strategy of mobilization, rather than a vision of the world, a long-lasting ideology

Re-chercher l’amour transnational

This article explores the lived experience of Canadian women in transnational love relationships with a non-Western partner. Periods of physical co-presence and geographical separation were contrasted. It emerges that the Canadian women divide their relationship into two main phases: times of togetherness, which are associated with positive, even euphoric, emotional states; and times of separateness, which are mainly associated with toxic emotions. Hence, for the women, a conjugal life with their partner under the same roof, in the same country, becomes an ultimate goal. However, due to the mobility constraints their non-Western partner often faces, their goal can only be achieved through the « sponsorship » of their spouse’s immigration to Canada, a cumbersome and time consuming process.Cet article explore l’expérience vécue de la relation amoureuse transnationale chez des femmes canadiennes en couple avec un homme non-occidental. Les périodes de co-présence physique et de séparation géographique avec l’amoureux ont été contrastées. Il en émerge une polarisation entre l’être-en-couple ensemble, temps associé aux émotions positives, euphoriques ; et l’être-en-couple séparé, temps associé aux émotions négatives. Ainsi, pour ces femmes, une vie commune avec leur partenaire, sous un même toit, dans un même pays, devient l’objectif ultime de leur relation amoureuse transnationale. Cependant, vu les contraintes à la mobilité de leur conjoint, cette vie commune ne peut se réaliser qu’à travers le processus laborieux de « parrainage » de l’immigration de leur conjoint au Canada

Femmes blanches en Afrique subsaharienne

Les couples transnationaux composés d’un individu originaire d’un pays du Nord et d’un individu originaire d’un pays du Sud font l’objet de critiques sociales, tant dans les médias populaires que dans la littérature scientifique sur le tourisme sexuel. Les partenaires sont souvent figés dans les stéréotypes du bourreau (du cœur) et de la victime. Or, si ces couples présentent effectivement des rapports de force inégaux — par rapport à la classe, la race et la nationalité —, mettre l’accent sur le contexte (affectif) de la rencontre amoureuse permet de complexifier la représentation de ces couples. En se basant sur les récits de parcours amoureux de treize jeunes femmes canadiennes qui ont rencontré, puis épousé, un homme « local » lors d’un séjour de longue durée en Afrique subsaharienne, cet article explore l’expérience vécue d’attachement et d’intégration de ces femmes « à leur place » en Afrique.Transnational mixed couples whereby one of the partners is from a developed country and the other one from a developing country have been the targets of social criticisms in the media as well as in the scientific literature on sex tourism. The stereotypes of the love-struck victim and the calculating seducer are often used to describe partners involved in such intimate relationships. Power inequalities—based on race, nationality and class—do exist and structure such relationships to a certain extent. However, by focusing on the (emotional) context of the initial intimate encounter allows us to bring out the complexity of North-South relationships. In this article, I focus on the narratives of thirteen young Canadian women who have met and married a “local” man during their stay in an African country. I explore their embodied experience of attachment and integration into African communities