V - CURRENT RESEARCH PROJECTS
FUNDED BY MRCPOWH

The report entitled Healthy Work Environments in Community Based Health and Social Service Agencies Stage One Report: Focus Group Findings is now complete and is available as a MRCPOWH Technical Report. It presents the findings from 19 focus groups with 121 homecare workers who met to discuss their work and health. Findings from these focus groups have been used to develop a questionnaire which will be mailed to all paid employees and a sample of volunteers from the three participating agencies. Questions address both work-related stress and phyiscal health problems as well as possible work-related sources of these health problems. Those interested in the project may contact:
Margaret Denton, 525-9140, ext. 23923, mdenton@mcmaster.ca.

Intergenerational Advisory Group

MRCPOWH is working together with seniors, and the Department of Public Health Services in a participatory action research project to promote seniors to volunteer to work with children in schools in Hamilton-Wentworth. In a survey in 1991 and later in a Forum in 1993, a group of seniors identified loneliness and isolation as their primary concern. The goal of this project is to provide an opportunity for older adults to decrease their loneliness and isolation by participating in intergenerational activities. The group is working to develop opportunities in schools for seniors to volunteer and to find seniors to fill these volunteer positions. We will be working to evaluate our progress over the next year. Those interested in the project may contact: Margaret Denton, tel 525-9140, ext. 23923, e-mail: mdenton@mcmaster.ca, or Lily Shalmi-Dolina, tel. 546-3588.

Violence Prevention in Hamilton-Wentworth Working Conference

MRCPOWH is one of a number of participating agencies who are working together to prepare for a working conference on violence prevention in Hamilton-Wentworth to be held on October 31, and November 1, 1996 at the Hamilton Convention Centre. Through the collaborative efforts of the many agencies concerned with violence and violence prevention, the Working Conference will help identify the issues that contribute to violence locally, and the practical actions that could be taken to prevent violence in Hamilton-Wentworth. Those interested in the project may contact: Ronald Bayne at (905) 525-2663.

Immigrant Women/Work and Health

Maroussia Hajdukowski-Ahmed, Principal Investigator, Myrna Pond, Research Assistant, and Isik Urla Zeytinoglu, Consultant, are working on the reports of the following projects which are completed or near completion:

Myrna Pond, with Maroussia Ahmed and the parti-cipants of the Worksite/Action group have completed their report on the process of resolving occupational health and equity issues in a food plant. After being approved by the participants, the report will be submitted to MRCPOWH as a working paper.

Myrna Pond, Maroussia Ahmed and Isik Urla Zeytinoglu (as a consultant) are completing a report on the coordination of health promoting activities of the Advisory Group (Capacity building, networking, advising action/research groups, "Share and Tell" meetings with immigrant women organisations).

Maroussia Ahmed is preparing a report on the work accomplished by the Shanti Niketan Action/ Research group on South Asian women and mental health issues.

Maroussia Ahmed, with the members of De Mujer a Mujer Action/Research group, is preparing a report. For the past two years, De Mujer a Mujer has functioned as a support group, as a focus group to identify and research issues relevant to the health of Latin American Women in the community, as an advisory and planning committee for its health promoting activities. Following an outreach programme, in the Spring of 1996, the group has organized eleven workshops, nine on self-esteem; "Rediscubriendo mi potencial" conducted by Patricia Grunauer-Spinner, a social worker from the Hamilton Catholic Family Services; one workshop on breastcare conducted by Linda Currie from the Department of Public Health; and one workshop on Sexual Care conducted by Betty Vance and Betty Valens from the Department of Public Health. Rebeca Rivera acted as translator for the last two workshops. One workshop on parenting is planned for the Fall, conducted by Patricia Grunauer-Spinner. The North Hamilton Community Health Centre and the Hamilton Catholic Family Services have supported those activities by offering space, childcare facilities and community support. We are most grateful to them.

De Mujer a Mujer is entering the next stage of its action/research. The group will incorporate their experience and the voices of community women in the collective writing of an educational and health promoting play which will be performed in 1997. The play will be written with the collaboration of a Spanish expert in popular theatre. Mona Nahmias, director of the Alchemist Theatre of Hamilton will act as a consultant.

The Survivors of Torture Action Group (Minoo Farragheh, Myrna Pond) continues to function as a support group. Myrna Pond and Minoo Farragheeh have conducted in-depth interviews of six women survivors and a report will follow.

Nazilla Khanlou and Maroussia Ahmed have completed nine focus groups in a local high school on "South Asian High School Women Research the Effects of their Contextual Experiences on their Mental Health and Design and Implement Strategies to Promote their Mental Health". Nazilla Khanlou, a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Nursing, has written a course paper on the project. With Maroussia Ahmed she will write a report which will be submitted to MRCPOWH as a working paper.

Barbara Dabrowska-Chudyk, with Maroussia Ahmed, Denise Maraj, Carolina Vidal, have collected data, conducted an outreach programme, conducted two focus groups with eight immigrant/refugee/ foreign trained female physicians. Issues of accreditation and integration of female physicians were discussed and researched. At the end of the second focus group, ten recommendations were drafted and work has began to implement those recommendations. The four researchers are writing a joint report for MRCPOWH and will submit it as a working paper.

For more information contact: Maroussia Hajdukowski-Ahmed, 525-9140, ext. 23758, ahmedm@mcmaster.ca

Women with Chronic Physical Disabilities: Women and Multiple Sclerosis.

Funded by MRCPOWH, Hamilton-Wentworth Home Care and by the McMaster Arts Research Board, this participatory action research allowed women with MS to come together to discuss their support needs and to decide on further action. A report entitled, "Support Needs for Women with Multiple Sclerosis," has been submitted to Hamilton Wentworth Home Care and is now available as MRCPOWH's Technical Report Series #2. Academic papers are being presented at conferences and submitted to journals by Mary O'Connor, Jacqueline Low and Julia Shelley. Discussions about changes in services are now being undertaken. The women themselves have continued to meet as a support group. Contact person:
Mary O'Connor, 525-9140, ext. 23731, (e-mail: moconnor@mcmaster.ca).

Grassroots Communities Action and Research Program

This community led initiative funded by MRCPOWH has collected a series of powerful stories from women in the Hamilton Region about women, work and health. Authors of the stories include social service workers, teen mothers, immigrant women, native women, women in prison, workers in women's shelters, and activists, among others. An introduction is being written and the collection will be submitted to a publisher this term. Contact person: Mary O'Connor, 525-9140, ext. 23731 (e-mail:moconnor@mcmaster.ca).

Positive Work Environments for Women with Disabilities

A Steering Committee consisting of academic and community investigators are continuing to work on this project funded by MRCPOWH and McMaster Arts Research Board. Six focus groups with persons with disabilities in paid jobs or in volunteer jobs met in Spring 1995. In the Summer, focus groups data were transcribed and coded for analysis. Data is now being analyzed and a draft report of the results will be prepared shortly. Those interested in the project may contact:
Isik Urla Zeytinoglu, telephone 525-9140 ext. 23957, e-mail: zeytino@mcmaster.ca

A Consumer-Designed Program to Address
the Needs of Mothers who Access the Family Law System:
Community Consultation Phase 1

This participatory research project conducted by Karen Bridgman-Acker, community researcher and MSW student, and Jane Aronson, School of Social Work, was completed in 1995-96. Nine focus groups were held to encourage women to voice their experiences, their concerns and their suggestions for reform to services and programs that could assist women as they navigate the family law system. Current initiatives in this areas are being monitored by the Mothers Family Law Advocacy Project, the advisory group formed to steer this research project. A final written report is in process as part of Karen's research project for graduate studies. A presentation on the research methodology, the issues and the results, was made in Montreal in June at the Canadian Health Promotion & Population Health conference. Any women interested in the research can contact Karen Bridgman-Acker at 527-3823 ext. 3433.