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Assessing recovery capital: Changes to internal and external resources during residential treatment

Digital Document

Early recovery from drug addiction is synonymous with strides in growth and self-awareness. One construct, recovery capital, attempts to identify changes by assessing strengths and resources available to initiate and sustain abstinence. This research sought to investigate how recovery capital changes over the course of a residential treatment. The researchers anticipate that due to the biopsychosocial nature of treatment an increase in capital will occur. Our sample consisted of residents (n = 38) at an adult men’s treatment center for alcohol and drug addiction. This study utilized a repeated measures design wherein the Assessment of Recovery Capital (ARC) was administered at two different points of a participant’s treatment. The results suggest there was a statistically significant difference between the two assessments [t (25) = 7.10, p < .001, d = 1.39]. This study concluded a residential treatment stay benefits building and maintaining recovery capital. Further research is required to investigate how recovery capital changes post-treatment and how best it can be used to support individuals through the early stages of recovery. Utilizing a control group would strengthen the claim about the influence of residential treatment upon the development on recovery capital.

Balancing act: Revitalization without gentrification

Video

Part of a series of forums that Douglas College is hosting in partnership with SFU and the City of New Westminster. The goal of these forums is to provide an occasion for frank discussion on important issues facing urban and suburban communities, to both inform and learn from academics, practitioners, and citizens. The physical landscape of New Westminster isn’t the only thing changing. With a boom in development, the city is also going through a cultural metamorphosis – one that isn’t welcomed by all. How can a community evolve to appeal to new buyers and businesses without pushing long-time residents out of the very place they call home? Welcome: Dr. Shaun Tyakoff, Associate Dean, Humanities and Social Sciences (Douglas College). Moderator: Michael McPhee, Humanities and Social Science (Douglas College). A Geography teacher at Douglas College, he teaches courses related to environmental issues and urban sustainability. He’s a former partner and principal of Quadra Planning Consultants Ltd, a land use and environmental planning consultant firm. He also previously held positions with the Fraser River Estuary Management Program, Environment Canada, and the West Water Research Centre at UBC. (3:19) Panelists: Dr. Tiffany Muller Myrdahl, Language, Arts and Social Sciences (SFU). A senior lecturer teaching Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s studies, she’s trained in public policy and geography. Her work combines interests in municipal social policy, participatory planning, and collaborative approaches to researching and responding to urban change. (5:39) John Stark, Senior Social Planner (City of New Westminster). John is responsible for a number of areas such as accessibility, child care, homelessness, housing, multi-culturalism, seniors, and youth. In his eleven years in this position, he has actively worked to ensure that the city maintains its liveability while undergoing significant growth and redevelopment. (26:25) Q&A with panelists (43:48)

Digital Document

This article examines the social and political implications of the geographically widespread and cross-cultural oral narratives related to the releases of salmon into the rivers of the Pacific Northwest through the destruction of weir-dams. Key themes in these narratives provide insights into indigenous concepts of reciprocity and authority. These narratives explicitly foreground the inevitable tensions between communities that relied on salmon and also sought to prioritize their own interests, seeking exclusive use of weirs, occasionally to the detriment of other groups. This study illustrates how these narratives convey episodes of contradictory interests, exploitation, social struggle, reconciliation, and a moral charter for communities over a broad area. The analysis also highlights how the messages of these narratives are just as pertinent today as they were in the past.

Digital Document

This study applies the semi-automated method of sentiment analysis in order to examine any quantifiable changes in the linguistic, topical, or narrative patterns that are present in the English-language Islamic State-produced propaganda magazines Dabiq (15 issues) and Rumiyah (10 issues). Based on a sentiment analysis of the textual content of these magazines, it was found that the overall use of language has remained largely consistent between the two magazines and across a timespan of roughly three years. However, while the majority of the language within these magazines is consistent, a small number of significant changes with regard to certain words and phrases were found. Specifically, the language of Islamic State magazines has become increasingly hostile towards certain enemy groups of the organization, while the language used to describe the Islamic State itself has become significantly more positive over time. In addition to identifying the changes and stabilities of the language used in Islamic State magazines, this study endeavours to test the effectiveness of the sentiment analysis method as a means of examining and potentially countering extremist media moving forward.

Digital Document

This study examines videos produced by the al-Hayat Media Center, a branch of the Islamic State’s (IS) larger media campaign aimed more specifically at Western audiences. Using a thematic analysis approach, recurring themes of 10 al-Hayat videos were identified with conclusions made regarding the specificities of the message and the target audience. It was found that al-Hayat videos cater to potential Western recruits and sympathizers by portraying life in the IS as spiritually and existentially fulfilling, while simultaneously decrying the West as secular, immoral, and criminal. By utilizing well-produced propaganda videos that tap into the dissatisfactions of Western Muslims, al-Hayat was shown to deliver a sophisticated and legitimate message that may play a role in the larger radicalization process.

Digital Document

Objectives:Replicate previous experimental findings on the causal effect of deviant peer modeling and assess whether the gender of peer models is an important determinant of theft.Methods:A randomized control trial (n = 329 university students) in which participants were randomly placed into one of four deviant peer modeling groups (control, verbal prompting, behavioral modeling, verbal prompting plus behavioral modeling) and one of three confederate gender similarity groups (same gender, different gender, mixed gender) (4 × 3 factorial design, equal randomization). The outcome was theft of a gift card. Each session included two confederates and a single participant. This feature reduced measurement error over more common approaches where groups of participants take part in the study at the same time and in which uncontrolled interactions and/or threshold effects may act as confounders.Results:Participants were more likely to steal when exposed to confederates who behaviorally modeled theft (15.1% stole) or offered verbal support for theft and modeled it (11.1%) compared to controls (2.5%) or when confederates only talked about stealing (1.2%) (p = .001). Participants exposed to same-gender peers (7.3%) were as likely to steal as those exposed to different gender peers (5.5%) or mixed-gender peers (9.9%) (p = .464).Conclusions:Behavioral modeling was found to be an important determinant of theft. This replicates previous research in the area and offers arguably the strongest support to date for the influence of deviant peer modeling. Peer gender, however, was not found to be an important etiological component of theft. External validity is a limitation.

Border officer training in Canada: identifying organisational governance technologies

Digital Document

While recent scholarship has begun the difficult task of unpacking the sociology of frontline border policing, literature examining how frontline border officers are governed through training and organisational governance technologies is sparse (particularly in terms of how officers are trained to interact with and form perceptions of the public they serve). This article provides the first concrete examination of border officer training by conducting a Foucauldian discourse analysis of various officer training and other documents to determine the contours of organisational governance technologies and how they serve to guide border services officers (BSOs) employed by Canada Border Services Agency in interacting with and perceiving of members of the travelling public. Findings indicate that governance technologies include training documents, manuals, public policy, and a bifurcated agency governance hierarchy serving to enable, support, and constrain BSO frontline duties, public interactions, as well as potentially perceptions. Findings also reveal that officers receive very little training related to interacting with members of the travelling public on the frontline. Officers also receive very little instruction related to how they should prioritise their disparate duties related to interacting with the travelling public. Findings ultimately indicate that when training is present, governance technologies – alongside recent shifts in agency organisational governance – contain systematic biases that produce officer worldviews and social interactions that are rooted exclusively in security provision, while leaving BSOs without the tools necessary to handle other types of public interactions that regularly occur at the border.

Digital Document

Criminologists have extensively researched the problems generated by licensed establishments. Violent offending and disorderly behavior resulting from pubs, taverns, dance clubs and bars are of particular interest to this field of study. The relative density of these liquor establishments has been found to be associated with the level of violence and disorder in surrounding areas. A complex systems approach can be used to further understand the dynamic interplay between licensed establishments, violent offending and disorder, and urban planning decisions. The model presented here utilizes cellular automata as the mathematical framework to view the varying impact of liquor licensing density on crime. This study uses a sample of liquor establishments and crime data from the City of Vancouver in British Columbia. The cellular automata model incorporates transition rules which govern the change of city blocks from low-risk blocks to high-risk blocks. The results represented by a 50 × 50 cellular grid show that high-risk blocks multiply when liquor licenses are grouped. Two scenarios are presented to contrast the impact of grouping high-risk blocks which contain more liquor establishments and dispersing such blocks. A third scenario demonstrates how increasing the positive influence in a grouped scenario stops high-risk blocks from taking over the entire grid. Future iterations of this model will incorporate census data, public transportation data, land use data and entertainment districts from other cities to further analyze the effect of licensed establishments on the distribution of crime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A cost-benefit/cost-effectiveness analysis of proposed supervised injection facilities in Montreal, Canada

Digital Document

Background: This paper will determine whether expanding Insite (North America’s first and only supervised injection facility) to more locations in Canada such as Montreal, cost less than the health care consequences of not having such expanded programs for injection drug users. Methods: By analyzing secondary data gathered in 2012, this paper relies on mathematical models to estimate the number of new HIV and Hepatitis C (HCV) infections prevented as a result of additional SIF locations in Montreal. Results: With very conservative estimates, it is predicted that the addition of each supervised injection facility (up-to a maximum of three) in Montreal will on average prevent 11 cases of HIV and 65 cases of HCV each year. As a result, there is a net cost saving of CDN$0.686 million (HIV) and CDN$0.8 million (HCV) for each additional supervised injection site each year. This translates into a net average benefit-cost ratio of 1.21: 1 for both HIV and HCV. Conclusions: Funding supervised injection facilities in Montreal appears to be an efficient and effective use of financial resources in the public health domain.

A cost-benefit/cost-effectiveness analysis of proposed supervised injection facilities in Ottawa, Canada

Digital Document

Background: Supervised injection facilities (SIFs) are venues where people who inject drugs (PWID) have access to a clean and medically supervised environment in which they can safely inject their own illicit drugs. There is currently only one legal SIF in North America: Insite in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The responses and feedback generated by the evaluations of Insite in Vancouver have been overwhelmingly positive. This study assesses whether the above mentioned facility in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver needs to be expanded to other locations, more specifically that of Canada’s capital city, Ottawa. Methods: The current study is aimed at contributing to the existing literature on health policy by conducting cost-benefit and cost-effective analyses for the opening of SIFs in Ottawa, Ontario. In particular, the costs of operating numerous SIFs in Ottawa was compared to the savings incurred; this was done after accounting for the prevention of new HIV and Hepatitis C (HCV) infections. To ensure accuracy, two distinct mathematical models and a sensitivity analysis were employed. Results: The sensitivity analyses conducted with the models reveals the potential for SIFs in Ottawa to be a fiscally responsible harm reduction strategy for the prevention of HCV cases – when considered independently. With a baseline sharing rate of 19%, the cumulative annual cost model supported the establishment of two SIFs and the marginal annual cost model supported the establishment of a single SIF. More often, the prevention of HIV or HCV alone were not sufficient to justify the establishment cost-effectiveness; rather, only when both HIV and HCV are considered does sufficient economic support became apparent. Conclusions: Funded supervised injection facilities in Ottawa appear to be an efficient and effective use of financial resources in the public health domain.

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