research highlights: impactful work with communities
Anti-Racism
Data Act
Following extensive community consultations, I co-authored The Grandmother Perspective Report, which informs British Columbia’s new Anti-Racism Data Act. This Act is the first of its kind in North America and addresses the ways research can help to dismantle systemic racism and discrimination.
North American Opiate Medication
Initiative
As a young researcher I provided research support to the NAOMI Project. The NAOMI Project is North America’s first-ever clinical trial of prescription heroin treatment. When adopting harm reduction approaches to addiction services, decriminalization is effective when it is coupled with holistic supports.
Review of Seniors’ Care: Assisted Living
This study documents dire care conditions for seniors in Assisted Living residences; for example, the use of towels as adult diapers and for wound care, difficulties accessing appropriate nutrition, and frequent falls. The project resulted in a provincial review of Assisted Living by British Columbia’s Seniors Advocate.
Protecting Women and Gender Minorities in Elected Roles
This project documents the experiences of over 100 women and gender minorities serving in municipal elected roles in British Columbia and Alberta. Research findings document pervasive abuse, harassment and sexualized violence. Report findings went to Women and Gender Equality Canada and resulted in legal and policy recommendations to better protect women and gender minorities who serve in municipal governments.
Supporting Healthcare Workers
Under a presumptive clause, when a worker from an eligible occupation receives a formal diagnosis of PTSD or another mental health disorder as a result of a work-related traumatic event or events, it is easier to advance a Workers Compensation claim. I provided research services and helped to spearhead the Presumptive Coverage Campaign at the Health Sciences Association of British Columbia. This worked focused on expanding presumptive coverage to hospital social workers, respiratory therapists and other health science professionals.
Addressing Inequalities in Disaster Emergency Management
For five years I worked in applied research in disaster emergency management, helping to craft disaster plans, disaster mitigation strategies, and training exercises for emergency operation centre commanders and first responders. This work focused on calling attention to psycho-social supports to reduce suicide rates, community engagement frameworks, and an examination of the ways social inequalities contribute to a greater loss of human life when disasters strike. Organizations I worked with, including the Government of Canada, adopted an ‘all hazards’ approach, which included everything from pandemics, to nuclear bombs, and tsunamis. I also published as a social commentator and academic on community disaster resilience.
Bioethics and Clinical Virtual Reality
At Canadian hospitals full body immersion virtual reality is used for physiotherapy and the treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Patients and clinicians compare it to the "holodeck" in Star Trek, a digital environment that allows users to play games and explore interactive worlds. My research examines the question of body diversity and exclusion in virtual reality treatments, providing startling insights into the sights, sounds, movements and smells used clinically in new multisensory digital treatments. The project documentary can be viewed here and more fulsome research findings here.
The Olympics and Civil Liberties
In February 2010, the Olympics descended on Vancouver, British Columbia. At the time I was living in East Vancouver. When the Olympics arrived my neighbourhood was rendered unrecognizable. Armed security forces descended. Check points were established. Helicopters loomed in the skies above. Anti-Olympic activists, artists and business owners were increasingly silenced by law enforcement and emerging municipal legal frameworks. Homeless populations were forcibly relocated. Dr. Helen Kang and I spoke out about threats to civil liberties the Olympics posed in Canada and documented transformations in our community through photographic essays. We also published what we documented in a journal article and book chapter with Routledge Publishers in New York.
Building Economic Security for Everyone
From 2001 to 2017 British Columbia’s government undertook drastic cutbacks to social programs, impacting the Province’s most marginalized populations. The Economic Security Project was created by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives to document these transformations. I interviewed leaders in community-based organizations, conducted transcriptions, researched national and international policy alternatives, and contributed to a project report and journal article. This work resulted in changes to provincial supports available for people receiving Disability Assistance, including increases to earnings exemptions.
Honouring Indigenous Rights and Title
Some of my very first research roles were with the Te’mexw Treaty Association. I conducted historical and legal research for the Te’mexw Treaty Association and assisted with Elders’ interviews for treaty and land claim negotiations. Elders taught me about the abuses of research, in addition to the benefits of research when conducted with community-based frameworks and social justice-informed values.