Therapeutic Recreation

<p><b>Background</b> Appropriate health services and health promotion strategies for young people with mental health and substance use (MHSU) concerns are critical for recovery. Foundry, an integrated youth services (IYS) initiative for young people ages 12-24 in British Columbia (BC), Canada, has recently added leisure and recreational activities (referred to as the Wellness Program) into its services. The objectives of this study were to: (1) describe how the Wellness Program was implemented over a two-year period into IYS (2) provide an overview of what the Wellness Program is, who accessed the program since inception and initial evaluation results.</p> <p><b>Methods</b> This study was part of the developmental evaluation of Foundry. A phased approach was used to implement the program at nine centres. Data was accessed from Foundry’s centralized platform ‘Toolbox’ and included activity type, number of unique youth and visits, additional services sought, information about how youth found out about the centre, and demographics. Qualitative data was also accessed from focus groups (n=2) conducted with young people (n=9).</p> <p><b>Results</b> Over the two-year period, 355 unique youth accessed the Wellness Program, with 1319 unique visits. Almost half (40%) of youth identified the Wellness Program as the first point of access to Foundry. A total of 384 different programs were offered targeting five wellness domains (physical, mental/emotional, social, spiritual, and cognitive/intellectual). The majority of youth identified as young girls/women (58.2%), 22.6% as gender diverse, and 19.2% as young men/boys. The mean age was 19 years, and most participants were between the ages of 19-24 years (43.6%). From the thematic analysis of focus groups, we found young people enjoyed the social aspect of the program with peers and facilitators, and identified program improvements that are being considered as the program grows.</p> <p><b>Conclusions</b> This study provides insight into the development and implementation of leisure-based activities (known as the Wellness Program) into IYS and can be used as a guide by international IYS initiatives. The initial reach of programs over two years is promising, and these programs are acting as a potential gateway for young people to access other health services.</p>

The lived experience of dementia includes loss of identity due to the negative and pessimistic social narratives that are stigmatizing and socially isolating. In the community-based participatory research (CBPR) project Raising the Curtain on the Lived Experiences of Dementia, eleven individuals living with dementia participated as ‘peer collaborators’ in weekly co-creative workshops over two years. The purpose of this study was to investigate how peer collaborators described their involvement in Raising the Curtain in relation to their social participation and ability to effect social messages about dementia. Data gathered from the workshops, including transcripts (8) and one-on-one evaluation interviews (103), were used for analysis. Research findings revealed that the participants’ engagement as peer collaborators fostered their ability to enact resistance and social citizenship, including sharing lived experiences, combating the stigma of dementia, engendering inclusion and belonging, and promoting advocacy. Using CBPR to foster social citizenship suggests that meaningful and purposeful approaches to leisure are possible for individuals living with dementia.

The COVID-19 outbreak and related public health guidelines have changed the daily lives of Canadians and restricted opportunities for healthy movement behaviours for children. The purpose of this study was to explore how parents experienced the pandemic-related restrictions and how they impacted their children’s movement behaviours. Methods: Twenty-nine semi-structured one-on-one interviews were conducted (June–July 2020) with parents of children (5–11 years old) in Ontario and British Columbia. Interviews lasted between 24–104 min, were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and thematically analyzed. Results: Findings emphasized various individual (e.g., motivation), interpersonal (e.g., parent work schedule), built (e.g., closure of parks) and natural environment (e.g., weather) factors related to children’s movement behaviours. The findings highlighted the loss of structured activities and destinations for children’s physical activity, and restricted opportunities for outdoor play exacerbated by shrinking childhood independent mobility. Conclusion: Families are adapting to many pandemic-related challenges including adhering to public health restrictions, parents juggling multiple roles, conducting work and school from home, as well as exacerbating factors like weather. It will be important to continue to encourage outdoor time, support policies and practice that facilitate independent mobility, and develop centralized resources that help families in the maintenance of healthy movement behaviours.

The chapter, "Raising the curtain: at the intersection of education, art, health care and lived experience of dementia" was written by the listed authors including Colleen Reid (Douglas College Faculty). This chapter uses the case study of Raising the Curtain (RTC), a community based participatory research project (CBPR), to explore the opportunities and insights that resulted from an education – arts – health care collaboration. RTC occurred in a long-term care facility located in rural British Columbia and was a collaboration between researchers, artists, health care workers, and people with lived experience of dementia. The project’s goals were to: (1) increase understandings of the lived experience of dementia by highlighting the sociocultural constructions of the disease; (2) uncover innovative strategies for building an education – art – health care collaboration; and (3) spawn creative and innovative approaches to participation, engagement and advocacy for individuals with lived experience of dementia. Insights gained from RTC point to the promise of integrating creative and social justice-oriented community engagement into leisure practice. Ultimately RTC created a ‘third space’ – one that achieved a true nexus between education, art, and health care – and provided a vision for advancing leisure practice in the context of dementia-care in a long-term care (LTC) facility. --From publisher description.

In the last two decades health researchers have paid increasing attention to the social determinants of health and health inequalities. Broadly, two hypotheses attempt to explain health inequalities--the materialist hypothesis and the psychosocial hypothesis. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between poverty and women's health from the perspectives of a group of poor women. Our qualitative study with 20 diverse women on low-income included 32 one-on-one interviews, 15 group meetings, and 30 sets of field notes. We used the analysis program Atlas.ti to sort, code, and conduct a content analysis. Overall, our findings revealed that both hypotheses were deeply connected with the dominant ideology of poverty and the concomitant social construction of 'welfare bum' and 'welfare mom'. Socioeconomic factors limited the women's access to health promoting resources and influenced their health behaviours (such as what they ate and how much they exercised). Ideologies that promulgated negative stereotypes legitimized the systemic barriers the women faced, enforced their material scarcity, and limited their entitlements to health-promoting services and resources. Our findings also indicated that the stereotype led the women to feel shamed, stressed, and depressed, and to adopt negative health behaviors as a way of coping and finding comfort.