To promote accessible veterinary care in the community and to help students refine their communication skills, the University of Calgary, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (UCVM) partnered with the Calgary Urban Project Society (CUPS), a human services organization, to develop the UCVM-CUPS Pet Health Clinics. These clinics are a service-learning experience where third-year students provide services to those facing barriers to veterinary care in Calgary, Alberta. The clinics are offered at CUPS for 6 weeks at 1 day per week. Each student participates in one 4-hour lab; running two 90-minute appointments. In this mixed-methods article, the question was asked: How does a communication-based veterinary service learning program impact students’ perception and knowledge of their skills and their perceived role in community outreach to underserved populations and their animals? All third-year veterinary students (N = 30) participated in the 2018 UCVM-CUPS Pet Health Clinics. Students completed a demographics survey, and a pre- and post-clinic questionnaire. Statistical analysis was used to compare pre- and post-clinic responses, and to determine relationships between questionnaire responses and the demographics survey data. Students were significantly more in agreement with statements that demonstrated confidence in their medical knowledge, technical abilities, and communication skills after participating in the program. There was significantly more disagreement to continue volunteering after graduation, but many planned on providing community outreach. Overall, students felt a strong sense of social responsibility and were motivated to help underserved populations. The findings suggest that communication-based, service-learning experiences are related to greater social awareness and enhance students’ clinical skills including communication.
Above and underwater inspections of the Interstate Grain ship dock indicated that the foundations supporting the tower structures for the grain off-loading conveyor system were tilting northward towards deeper water. The existing foundations consisted of a pile-supported system constructed in a clay soil slope, and there was concern that the damage was due to movement of the slope. A barge-based exploration program was conducted adjacent to the existing foundations to evaluate the soil conditions, which included borings, cone penetration test (CPT) soundings and pressuremeter testing. In addition, laboratory testing was conducted to estimate the peak and residual strength values for the clay soils for both undrained and drained soil conditions. The results from the marine exploration and the laboratory tests indicated that a surficial upper soft clay (mud) layer had moved in the past and is likely to move in the future. However, the explorations confirmed that a deep-seated global failure was likely not a concern. The marine exploration and the laboratory testing helped better understand the slope performance and provided a new design solution that reduced the deep foundation costs by approximately $3,000,000, for an exploration cost of around $180,000. This paper presents a summary of the work conducted for the new foundation design, and discusses the lessons learned in developing an economical foundation design.
Abstract If people express salient beliefs and values in caring for pets then it is worth considering that dogs and housecats are routinely treated using the biomedical armamentarium. To investigate animal-human connections in the treatment of dogs and housecats for diabetes, we conducted ethnographic interviews in Canada with 12 pet owners and six health professionals in conjunction with a review of documentation on diabetes in cats, dogs, and people. Treating dogs and housecats for diabetes, we conclude, pivots on recognition of these animals as sentient selves. At the same time, treating diabetes in dogs and housecats helps to produce a named disease as a physical thing. In treating a housecat or a dog for diabetes, pet owners breach one of the foundational distinctions of Western science: human and nonhuman bodies exhibit continuity in terms of physicality, but a fundamental discontinuity exists when it comes to interiority. Key Words: anthrozoologybiomedicineCanadacognitive anthropologycompanion animalsdiabetes mellitusexplanatory modelsmedical anthropologypetsscience and technology studiesvaluationveterinary medicine ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The authors would like to thank the pet owners and the health care professionals who were interviewed for this study as well as those who helped with recruitment. They also thank Melissa Jakobfi, Bonnie Phoung, and Shanna Sunley for assisting with the research; Lisa Kozleski for her help with copy-editing and with shepherding this article through the publication process; and Steve Ferzacca, Eric Mykhalovskiy, Thomas Schlich, and three anonymous reviewers for their incisive comments. Funding for this research came from a Population Health Investigator award from the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research to Melanie Rock (AHFMR-200600378); the 2006 Petro-Canada Young Innovator in Community Health research prize to Rock; a New Investigator in Societal and Cultural Dimensions of Health Award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to Rock (CIHR-200609MSH-83745); and a Standard Research Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada to Rock as principal investigator and to Eric Mykhalovskiy and Thomas Schlich as co-investigators (SSHRC-410-204-2152). Notes In this article, we use the more conventional terms of "pet" and "pet owner" and not terms such as "companion animal" or "human companion." We are certainly aware, however, that many people value these animals for their companionship. For further discussion of companion and companionship in cross-species relationships, see Haraway's (2003, 2008) recent work. The dogs used in the research that culminated in insulin therapy were not diabetic, however, until the surgical removal of their pancreas (Bliss 2000 [1982]). The Calgary map shows six, rather than nine, dots because four of the pet owners residing in Calgary volunteered to be interviewed as couples, and because two additional pet owners live in separate households but share the same postal code. "Neighborhood" is defined in this table as the "dissemination area" for census data collected for the Government of Canada in 2000. These dissemination areas were linked to pet owners' postal codes using the Statistics Canada's postal code conversion file, September 2006 update. Two of the postal codes linked to more than one dissemination area. To choose the most appropriate location for these two postal codes, the single link indicator function from the conversion file was used. The table shows neighborhood median household income and dominant educational attainment for the neighborhood at the time of recruitment. Two pet owners have moved, however, since being recruited in 2006. This research project has been approved by the University of Calgary's Conjoint Health Research Ethics Board (tracking number, 18060). All transcript excerpts have been lightly edited to make them easier to read. Mol titled her book The Body Multiple, but in a crucial passage, refers to "manyfoldedness" in reality: "This, then, is what I would like the term multiple to convey: there is manyfoldedness, but not pluralism. In the hospital the body (singular) is multiple (many). The drawing together of a diversity of objects that go by a single name involves various modes of coordination." (Mol Citation2002, 84) In using a word like "decide," we do not mean to imply that diabetes treatment or euthanasia are matters of unfettered or free choice (Mol 2006; Mykhalovskiy Citation2008). Disease enactments, according to Mol, take place in and as a result of extensive networks made up of practices, techniques, and so on. People form part of these networks but they are not the subjects. Additional informationNotes on contributorsMelanie Rock MELANIE ROCK holds the position of Assistant Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada. Additional affiliations include the University of Montreal's interdisciplinary health research group and the University of Calgary's Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Social Work, Centre for Health and Policy Studies, and Population Health Intervention Research Centre. Her current research focuses on animal-human connections in health care and in health promotion. She may be reached at: mrock@ucalgary.ca Patricia Babinec Patricia Babinec originally trained as a pharmacist at the University of Alberta and remains active in the profession. More recently, she completed a BA followed by an MA in communication studies at the University of Calgary. In September 2008, she entered the PhD program in the Graduate Division of Educational Research at the University of Calgary. Ms. Babinec has also taught as a sessional instructor in the Faculty of Communication and Culture at the University of Calgary and is a member of the Southern Alberta Primary Care Research Network team (SAPCReN). She may be reached at pmbabine@ucalgary.ca
Genetic research on type 2 diabetes serves as a point of departure in this paper. Drawing together classic work in the anthropology of medical epistemologies and the recent revitalization of kinship studies, the paper has two main objectives: (1) further unsettling a portrait of biomedicine as having a single overarching epistemological orientation that locates the origins of disease squarely within individual human bodies; and (2) inviting further reflection and discussion about history, social structures and cultural norms as bona fide causes of disease. The paper shows that causal roles ascribed to history, social structures and cultural norms through genetic research on diabetes hinge on underscoring evolutionary 'blood relations' between people, as well as between human and 'lower' nonhuman beings. It is argued that type 2 diabetes has not thoroughly undergone geneticization, but, partly through genetic research, it has undergone greater medicalization. Despite broad consensus that 'the environment' is the root cause of increased type 2 diabetes incidence, proposed remedies still tend to privilege clinical management.
During disasters, the behaviour of pet owners and of pets themselves may compromise the ability of emergency responders to perform their duties safely. Furthermore, pet loss can have deleterious effects on personal and community recovery. To explore these issues and their implications for health promotion and disaster management practice, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 27 emergency responders in Australia, where disaster policy embraces shared responsibility yet does not acknowledge pets. We found that responders commit to being responsible for protecting human lives, especially members of their teams. Frontline emergency responders did not regard pets as their responsibility, yet decisions made with tragic consequences for pets exacted an emotional toll. Emergency managers consider community education as a pivotal strategy to support building people's capacity to reduce their own risk in disasters. While important, we question whether this is sufficient given that human life is lived in more-than-human contexts. Reformulating the parameters of the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion as 'One Health Promotion' may help to account for the intermeshed lives of people and pets, while acknowledging human priority in public policy and programming. To acknowledge the influence of people's pets in disaster responses and recovery, we recommend five overlapping spheres of action: (i) integrate pets into disaster management practice and policy; (ii) create pet-friendly environments and related policies; (iii) engage community action in disaster management planning; (iv) develop personal skills by engaging owners in capacity building and (v) reorient health and emergency services toward a more-than-human approach.Pets can influence people’s decision-making during disasters, potentially impacting the ability of emergency service responders to safely perform their duties. The loss of pets in disasters also has detrimental effects on people’s health and wellbeing post-disaster. To better understand these issues and their implications for health promotion and disaster management practice, we conducted in-depth interviews with 27 emergency responders in Australia. We found that responders commit to a ‘humans first’ tenet, and while they do not consider themselves responsible for pets, decisions made with tragic consequences for pets exact an emotional toll. Community education was considered a key strategy for building people’s capacity to reduce their risk in disasters. We question whether this is sufficient and adapt the five action areas of the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion to account for the intermeshed lives of people and pets, while acknowledging human priority in disaster management policy and programming.
Fitness centers are a viable option for physical activity, particularly in climates with significant weather variation. Due to variation in economic and social expressions of exclusivity, fitness centers may have some relation to social inequalities in physical inactivity and related health outcomes; thus, our objective was to explore this relation. Using publicly available data and guided by Bourdieu's theory of habitus, we classified fitness centers in Calgary, Canada, on three dimensions of exclusivity (economic, social, and appearance). We found that, although some highly exclusive centers exist, most demonstrated low exclusivity based on our dimensions. An overall contribution of centers to inequalities appears to be limited; however, caution is warranted in light of cutbacks to municipal budgets that can have an impact on publicly funded facilities.
Type 2 diabetes mellitus is a condition that both results from and produces social and psychological suffering. As 'diabetes' increases among low income patients in poorer nations, new challenges arise that drive, co-occur, and result from the condition. In this article, we describe how social suffering produces diabetes by way of addressing the varied social, psychological, and biological factors that drive diabetes and are reflected in diabetes experiences among patients seeking care at a public hospital in Nairobi, Kenya. We recruited a non-probability sample to participate in a cross-sectional study of 100 patients (aged 35–65 years), where half of the participants sought care from a diabetes clinic and half sought care from the primary healthcare clinic. We obtained informed consent in writing, and collected life history narratives, surveys, anthropometrics, and biomarkers. This paper evaluates survey data using frequencies and regression tables. We found that social factors as opposed to disease factors were major drivers of psychological distress among those with and without diabetes. Psychological distress was associated with female gender and feelings of financial and personal insecurity. We also found insulin resistance was common among those undiagnosed with diabetes, suggesting that many seeking primary care for other health conditions did not receive a routine diabetes test (most likely because it is an out-of-pocket cost, or other competing social factors) and therefore delayed their diagnosis and care. Thus, social and economic factors may drive not only emotional distress among people with diabetes but also delayed care seeking, testing, and self-care as a result of cost and other social challenges.
