Search

The climate crisis significantly impacts the health and well-being of older adults, both directly and indirectly. This issue is of growing concern in Canada due to the country's rapidly accelerating warming trend and expanding elderly population. This article serves a threefold purpose: (i) outlining the impacts of the climate crisis on older adults, (ii) providing a descriptive review of existing policies with a specific focus on the Canadian context, and (iii) promoting actionable recommendations. Our review reveals the application of current strategies, including early warning systems, enhanced infrastructure, sustainable urban planning, healthcare access, social support systems, and community engagement, in enhancing resilience and reducing health consequences among older adults. Within the Canadian context, we then emphasize the importance of establishing robust risk metrics and evaluation methods to prepare for and manage the impacts of the climate crisis efficiently. We underscore the value of vulnerability mapping, utilizing geographic information to identify regions where older adults are most at risk. This allows for targeted interventions and resource allocation. We recommend employing a root cause analysis approach to tailor risk response strategies, along with a focus on promoting awareness, readiness, physician training, and fostering collaboration and benchmarking. These suggestions aim to enhance disaster risk management for the well-being and resilience of older adults in the face of the climate crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Landslides are common across Canada and they pose hazards to human safety, economic activities, and the environment. Robust risk management strategies are necessary for sustainable development. A slope risk management framework has been adopted by the geotechnical community for approximately four decades allowing a systematic, consistent and transparent framework for managing risks. Implementing this framework is associated with uncertainties embedded in our estimates of risk. This paper presents a brief summary of the sources and categories of uncertainty in geotechnical slope engineering and focuses on two topics: (1) estimates of uncertainty in risk calculations and (2) temporal changes in landslide likelihood as a function of weather and steps towards estimating landslide risk changes with climate change. The paper argues that a quantitative risk assessment should not focus on the final risk calculation, but the overall knowledge gained. This allows comprehensive documentation of sources of uncertainty and how they impact geotechnical and risk assessments. Furthermore, the paper outlines approaches to define quantitative correlations between rock fall occurrences and weather, which can be leveraged to estimate changes in rock fall risk with climate change. The paper corresponds to, and expands on, the 2021 Canadian Geotechnical Colloquium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growth of Arctic shipping requires effective tools to assess the appropriateness of existing practices on safety and resilience levels, especially in the enforcement of the Polar Code. Understanding such, in this study, we develop a resilience index using the Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (FAHP). Data collection for the index's implementation started during a research voyage along the Northwest Passage in Canada. It resulted in 61 valid responses, upon which the relative importance and the level of satisfaction of resilience builders were investigated. The findings indicate that factors that rank high on importance are, in many cases, not that high on satisfaction. This presents dilemmas regarding the effectiveness of the current practices in promoting safe and resilient Arctic shipping management practices. This study fills an important gap in the monitoring of safety and resilience practices in Arctic shipping. In turn, this affects the future actions and research of researchers, stakeholders, and right-holders in the Arctic area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade, plastic pollution has been documented throughout the Laurentian Great Lakes basin. Here, we demonstrate the application of a published ecological risk assessment and management framework for microplastics in aquatic environments by comparing proposed thresholds for risk to monitoring data from the Great Lakes region. Our results suggest that there may be measurable risks from microplastics to aquatic communities in parts of the Great Lakes where current concentrations are relatively high. For example, 89% of surface water samples collected across the region exceed the proposed risk thresholds for food dilution toxicity. However, all sediment samples remain below the proposed risk thresholds. Accordingly, we suggest that an appropriate and necessary next step for management may include convening a working group of local experts to develop an ecological risk assessment and management framework for the region comprising thresholds of concern for microplastics in surface water and sediment. Ultimately, microplastic pollution should be addressed in the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement to ensure coordinated and sustained efforts are taken by the governments of Canada and the United States to reduce their release and impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community pharmacists worldwide operate with the continual risk of errors (Quality Related Events—QREs) occurring in their dispensing processes. Contemporary analysis of community pharmacy QREs tends to concentrate on the outcomes of the error, such as the degree of patient harm, rather than on the risks associated with the triggering of a QRE. Drawing on risk identification and mapping techniques from the information security sector, we conducted a risk mapping exercise of QREs occurring in Canadian community pharmacies as identified in publicly available accident investigations. The findings from the present study identified relationships and patterns between various risk factors, types of errors, and patient outcomes. For example, the risk factors most associated with errors that result in patient fatality were the "sound-alike/look-alike" medication labeling and the dispensing checking and verification processes in the pharmacy. Study findings support the application of risk identification and mapping techniques to community pharmacy risk and QRE mitigation practices and regulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A research project aiming to measure, describe, and monitor sex offender recidivism (SOR) rates across two waves of sex offender laws is briefly described and contextualized. A methodology was designed to examine the evolution of sexual recidivism rates since the 1940s. The findings of the study showed that, in Canada, sexual recidivism rates have dropped almost 70%. This historic recidivism drop appeared to have started during the 1970s, several decades before the enactment of the national non-public sex offender registration law. While the factors responsible for the sexual recidivism drop remain unclear, it is hypothesized that improved training, evidence-based practices, and university-corrections collaborations might have played a key role. The study points toward the importance of examining period effects on risk, risk management, and sexual offending. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction phase of onshore wind farm projects involves different types of risks that hinder their development. This study aims to identify and assess risk factors that affect the construction of onshore wind farm projects and rank them based on their severity as assessed from the Canadian perspective. Thirty risk factors were collected through an extensive literature review. Then, experts were asked to subjectively evaluate the probability and impact of each factor on project cost, time, quality, and safety. The fuzzy technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (fuzzy TOPSIS) and the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (fuzzy AHP) were used to rank these risk factors based on their severity. The closeness coefficient (CC) indicated that a lack of management expertise, a shortage of resources required for project delivery, adverse weather, material damage during construction, and failure to keep up with recent innovative technology are the most severe risks affecting onshore wind farm projects in Canada with CC values of 0.9710, 0.9642, 0.9635, 0.9575, and 0.9450, respectively. The findings of this study support the decision making of investors and contractors who work in the Canadian wind energy industry by highlighting the critical risk factors. Moreover, this study is beneficial for decision makers in other jurisdictions since a review and a list of risk factors that affect the construction of onshore wind projects are provided herein. [Display omitted] • Construction phase of wind projects is hindered by many risks. • Experts' evaluation acquired by fuzzy AHP, and fuzzy TOPSIS are used to assess these risks. • Assessment and prioritization of risks help the industry to properly manage risks. • Managerial risk factors are most critical to onshore wind construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Patient safety is a worldwide problem, and the patient contribution to mitigate the risk of patient harm is now recognized as a cornerstone to its solution. In order to understand the nature of integrating patients into patient safety and healthcare organizations and to monitor their integration, a Canadian survey tool has been co-constructed by patients, researchers and the Canadian Patient Safety Institute (CPSI). This questionnaire has been adapted from the French version of the patient engagement (PE) in patient safety (PS) questionnaire created for the province of Quebec, Canada.Methodology: The pan-Canadian PE in PS survey tool was developed in a five-step process: (1) a literature review and revision of the initial tool developed in the province of Quebec; (2) translation of the French questionnaire into an English version tool; (3) creation of a Canadian expert advisory group; (4) adaptation of the English version tool based on feedback from the expert advisory group (assessment and development of the construct's dimensions, wording assessment and adaptation for pan-Canadian use, technical testing of the online platform for the survey); and (5) pilot testing and pre-validation of the tool before pan-Canadian use.Results and Conclusion: Eight pan-Canadian PE in PS surveys were completed from five Canadian provinces by the expert advisory group and six surveys were completed during the pilot project by participants from different provinces in Canada. This survey tool comprises 5 sections: (1) demographic identification of the participants (Q1 to Q5); (2) general questions (Q6 to Q17); (3) the patient engagement process (experience level of participants and organizational incentives for PE in general) (Q18 to Q33); (4) PE in PS processes, such as current activities, strategies, structures, resources and factors (Q34 to Q67); and (5) the context and impact of PE in PS initiatives in Canadian healthcare organizations (CHOs) (Q68 to Q75), including outcome identification, improvement mechanisms and strategies, evaluation mechanisms, and indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accessible Summary: What is known?: Police and mental health services benefit from meaningful service user engagement.Partnerships with organizations that are representative of community members—such as service users—are the most empowering model of collaboration. What this paper adds?: Describes how a service user organization can effectively advocate for change in the policing and mental health systems through both mutual collaboration and external pressure. Implications for practice?: Methods of creating change that can save lives through partnerships with service user organizations can be applied by service user organizations, police and mental health services.The methods described have the potential to reduce deaths and injury as a result of police action or mental healthcare practices [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to ask how HIV/AIDS is arranged as a public threat in and through Canadian law, particularly in relation to transmission, and how strategies of capture extend the affective force of criminalization leading to poor health outcomes for persons living with HIV/AIDS.Design/methodology/approach: This is a conceptual paper with a focus on applying affect theorist Jasbir Puar's work on assemblage and debility. The authors use Puar's work to frame the conditions that persons with HIV/AIDS experience in the Canadian criminal justice context as debilitating.Findings: The authors found that while HIV transmission is not itself a criminal act in the Canadian criminal justice context, activities where transmission is prevalent or possible have been criminalized, particularly in relation to nondisclosure of health status, sex work and substance use. Further, the authors found that when the activities associated with HIV transmission are criminalized, strategies of capture extend the affective force of criminalization first in the inadequate provision of health-care and pharma-care services, second in state resistance to implement harm reduction measure and third in punitive population management strategies.Originality/value: Persons living with HIV/AIDS have historically experienced stigmatization, especially intersecting with neoliberal, white supremacist and heteropatriarchal axes of power. This paper uses assemblage theory to shore up how these relations operate in ways that close off possibilities, by constituting the HIV/AIDS assemblage as a criminal - rather than a health phenomenon. This paper, thus, holds Canada to account for debilitating a historically disadvantaged and multiplying marginalized population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The resources used in treatment for sex offenders with intellectual disabilities have had much research attention, but less has been written about how participants are expected to respond (programme mechanisms). Methods: A realist evaluation of seven programmes from the UK, Canada, USA, Switzerland and Germany was conducted. In semi‐structured interviews, programme designers elucidated how they are intended to work. The data analysis was driven by the realist concern to expose programme mechanisms and intended outcomes. Results: Two main outcomes are increasing risk management capacities and cultivating prosocial identities. These are achieved through developing insights into a person's risks, work on (sexual) self‐regulation skills, sexual boundaries and personal values and by developing meaningful social roles and positive relationships. Conclusions: Over time, there have been changes to some of the treatment resources used. However, there were little differences in terms of the intended programme mechanisms and outcomes, which remained surprisingly consistent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The methodology developed in this study presents an approach to the concurrent evaluation of Risk Management (RM) effectiveness during project execution. The method proposed is an adaptation of an approach developed and advocated by Khlebopros et al. (2007) for the mathematical modelling of complex systems, namely the analysis and effects of natural catastrophes. Hence, the method utilizes a phase portrait approach to identify the Prime Cost (PC) of RM of a project. Furthermore, the method provides an approach for comparing the individual identified risks with this PC, and subsequently highlighting a way of classifying and prioritising risks into a rank order for RM attention. The MERA (Multiple Estimating Risk Analysis) approach was utilized for the quantification of risk impact and ultimately the creation of the phase portrait. Besides being accurate and intuitively understandable, the methodology is relatively simple to implement and provides a rapid visualisation of the overall risk extent of a project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vigilance is a key to the early detection of predators, but may be costly if it impairs foraging efficiency. Hence, we would expect vigilance to be suppressed and/or counter-selected in predator-free environments, although this might depend on the environmental drivers influencing perceived predation risk. We studied vigilance in two populations of Sitka black-tailed deer ( Odocoileus hemionus sitkensis) on Haida Gwaii (Canada) which have not been exposed to predators since they colonized the study islands approx. 60 yr ago. In this context, anti-predator behavior should not have any obvious current benefit. Moreover, its maintenance should be particularly costly in our study populations because these deer have depleted their food resources and, thus, anti-predator behaviors should interfere with time spent searching for scarce resources. We used bait stations equipped with camera traps to assess vigilance under standardized feeding conditions. We expected to observe lower vigilance levels than those observed elsewhere in locations with predators. We investigated how vigilance varied in relation to the amount of bait, the level of visibility, and between day and night. During the day, deer spent, on average, 14% of their time in overt vigilance during foraging bouts, a level similar to, although in the lower range of, values reported at sites where predators are present. Levels of vigilance were lower at night, and decreased with increasing visibility, but not during the day. Deer were less vigilant when bait availability was high, but only when visibility was also high. We discuss why the maintenance of vigilance is here best explained by the ghosts of predators past, and how, at the temporal scale of a few generations, the ecological factors driving vigilance levels might override the absence of significant risk from large predators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT.Risk management and challenges of volunteer roles in an oncology support program in Montreal, Canada, were explored using a phenomenological approach involving 65 service volunteers. Fourteen focus groups were held representing oncology services in the hospital and the wellness center. Self-reported questions were administered to assess the risks perceived by the volunteers. Findings revealed 4 major themes: comfort level, daily frustrations, risk and environmental issues, and suggestions. Suggestions included: better communication with staff, a safer health-related environment, and improved role-specific training to mitigate the risks. Additionally, for each group, 1 specific change was implemented during a 6-month period. Health care professionals should focus on job-training issues to address safety, comfort level, and role capacity. Future research should investigate an enhanced training curriculum with strategies to address concerns about risk management. Volunteers who are better equipped to perform their roles will be able to offer a higher quality of service to patients and families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite several years of targeted interventions, First Nations drinking water systems in Canada remain under-resourced and require substantial improvements in both infrastructure and management to provide communities with safe drinking water. The purpose of this study was to co-develop a risk assessment process integral to the water safety planning methodology to determine if proactive risk assessment provides a beneficial management tool for First Nations water systems. We co-developed a risk assessment web-application with First Nations stakeholders to identify hazards and assess risk in six Atlantic region First Nations communities. Using this application, we were able to successfully identify high-risk hazards in each community, both risks specific to individual systems, and risks common at a regional level. Through semi-structured interviews we identified the following benefits of a risk assessment web application: increased communication, data ownership and centralized data management. However, challenges remain, including current fragmented governance realities, and liability concerns associated with adopting a new risk management strategy. Successful adoption of proactive risk management strategies in First Nations communities will depend on strong co-development of risk assessment tools, transparent communication between stakeholders and clearly defined data ownership and management practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 1992, interventions within the Canadian correctional system have been guided by the Risk Management Model ( RMM). This article presents a critical analysis of that model. In the view of the authors, the RMM does not focus on rehabilitating offenders, but rather on ensuring their social compliance. Moreover, the Model is not clinical or professional in nature; it is essentially a techno-bureaucratic model. From an empirical perspective, the authors bring into question several aspects implied by the Model, specifically those having to do with human qualities, rationality, relevance, effectiveness and efficiency. In conclusion, they wonder what could explain that such a model continues to prevail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does the Parole Board decide a sex offender is rehabilitated and can be released into the community? This case study of a parole hearing reveals the significance the Parole Board gives to a sex offender's management of his arousal as a clear sign of his rehabilitation. To explain the Board's preoccupation with a sex offender's sexual fantasies and arousal, I draw on a prison ethnography of a sex offender treatment program. Rehabilitation as risk management relies on the development of a crime cycle and relapse prevention plan designed to grasp the connection between fantasies, arousal, and offending. I argue the parole hearing and treatment program exist in a symbiotic relationship that fabricates the sex offender into a species larger than life, one at risk of offending all the time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The assessment and management of risk for violence among individuals with a mental illness, traditionally the responsibility of specialized forensic institutions, are now becoming increasingly necessary in civil mental health services. The Short Term Assessment of Risk and Treatability (START) is a patient-centered scheme informing multiple risk domains through a comprehensive assessment of dynamic risk factors and strengths, based on a fixed set of definitions. However, there is a dearth of literature on the implementation of such tools in real life mental health settings, their relation to future behavior and their perceived usefulness in clinical settings. In this article, we describe the process of implementing the START on a civil psychiatric hospital unit in Canada taking into account typical barriers to the dissemination of evidence-based practices. The results of a longitudinal prospective mixed method (qualitative and quantitative) implementation study indicate that the START was well integrated into the unit's clinical and administrative activities. In these times of financial constraints in mental health services, as well as the increased pressure of mental health services to manage a wide variety of challenging behaviors, risk management tools can provide help in improving patient care and empowering staff to better understand violence and other challenging behaviors. This paper concludes with a discussion of the need to develop implementation research in the field of forensic mental health services in order to reduce the gap between research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated the impact of neighborhood and community factors on the reintegration of forensic patients leaving custodial care in British Columbia, Canada. Using geographic information systems (GIS) techniques, the residential locations of a sample of forensic patients were tracked over time and mapped in relation to each other. The frequency of a patient's return to hospital was monitored and the reasons for these returns were recorded after each unsuccessful community placement. The analysis of the findings suggested that patients who were released to certain, socially disorganized neighborhoods returned to inpatient care at a higher frequency. These neighborhoods exhibited many destabilizing features that may have significant influence on the long-term success or failure of discharge patients, such as low income, high unemployment, poor educational achievement, and concentrated rental accommodation. Further research is needed in order to explore not only the influence of neighbourhood destabilizers on the length of community placements for forensic mental health patients, but also the underlying rationale for locating patient services in socially disorganized areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flood risk maps are essential sources of information for flood risk management (FRM) decisions. Commercial flood models used by the insurance industry are rarely studied in the academic literature which has led to difficulties in understanding their sources of uncertainty and opportunities for improvement. This paper compares regions and residential properties identified as exposed to floods by an insurance industry model and by government authorities responsible for FRM in three Canadian cities. Findings show that the insurance model is identifying substantially greater number of regions and properties as at-risk of flood, and little overlap exists between public and private flood maps. The paper discusses opportunities for data integration and increased data transparency for supporting flood resiliency efforts in Canada. • This study leverages flood maps used by governments and insurance companies to detect residential flood exposure. • Findings show large differences in the number and location of residential properties in flood zones recognized by each sector. • The paper discusses opportunities for cross-sectoral collaboration in data management for improving flood risk management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

RCMP executives and the Canadian government promoted community justice forums (family group conferences) in the late 1990s. They did so because CJFs offered a process consistent with the national community-policing strategy. When this strategy changed, executives cut their support for the program. This paper argues that this “rise” and “fall” was a function of the program's theoretical and procedural alignment with shifting strategies of national governance. This raises a question about the role of restorative forums in Canadian governance. If such programs remain desirable, multi-agency forums (police, public schools, child welfare, immigration) may well align with the nascent governmental framework of public safety interoperability. The paper also considers another possibility: non-state local peacemaking forums. The conclusion discusses potential benefits and limits of these possibilities. It also offers general theoretical observations on the role of alignment in governmental programming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In 2000, the Government of Canada issued the “Framework for Science and Technology Advice” (FSTA). This official government policy directive mandates that decision-making to protect human health and the environment should be carried out in a timely, predictable, and efficient manner. It also leaves no doubt that quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) are required for both technical data and the decision-making process itself. Since current publicly available Canadian risk assessment guidance does not directly address quality management for the decision-making process, an evaluative scheme for CEPA risk assessments was created. For each of the six FSTA principles (early issue identification, inclusiveness, sound science and science advice, uncertainty and risk, openness and transparency, review) specific expectations were developed for performance measurement purposes. This scheme addresses the FSTA requirement for a policy compliance checklist. It could serve as the basis for quality assurance audits during risk assessment production and quality control audits in subsequent review of the risk assessment process. Among other things, it could also improve the integration of science advice, policy objectives and general risk communication by enhancing decision-making openness and transparency. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper summarizes the major findings of the special issue entitled “Contaminants in Canadian Arctic Biota and Implications for Human Health.” The individual papers and reviews in this special issue present a large amount of new information on contaminants in biota primarily from the Canadian arctic as well as from Alaska, Greenland and the European Arctic. Temporal and spatial trends are examined and potential biological effects on wildlife are assessed. The special issue also presents new and updated data on human exposure to and possible health effects of current levels of environmental contaminants in the Canadian Arctic. As part of the assessment of the human health implications, the unique structures and processes that have developed in the Canadian Arctic under the Northern Contaminants Program (NCP) of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada to build partnerships and manage and communicate the benefits and risks associated with contaminant exposure are discussed. Application of this information in international forums to reduce anthropogenic emissions of contaminants to the environment is also discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This article examines the governance programme of an in-house security department on a mass private property in Canada. Under the auspice of state laws, diverse zones of autonomy are constituted and powerful governance programmes are authorized to police communities of patrons, staff and other service providers within and beyond property boundaries. Analysis of this particular security programme reveals a primary concern with the maintenance and promotion of a corporate image rather than justice. This aim is supported by the in-house security department as it actualizes various forms of risk management, both through informal and systematic risk-based patron profiles and classification schemes. In addition to providing physical security and managing populations through risk, security officers are also involved in “information work” necessary for the reproduction of the programmatic risk management formula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Like any other form of social response, harm reduction strategies must be analysed within a wider social and political context. The popularity gained by harm reduction strategies since the 1980s may be explained by the fact that these strategies fulfilled the political requirements of the emerging social contract that followed the decline of the welfare state. It seems that a political shift occurred in the field of harm reduction, moving from humanistic rhetoric to a diverted logic serving incapacitation ends towards high-risk practices. Although the humanistic approach to drug intervention guarantees that the drug user is regarded as an individual in need of support, such strategies also contribute to the reinforcement of the security-oriented ideal by neutralising practices that represent harm to community. In this way, harm reduction strategies can be considered as manifestations of the tendency towards risk minimisation that characterises late modernity. This hypothesis will be validated by a comparative study of the goals of methadone programmes created in Canada under the welfare and the post-welfare eras. The results of this research revealed that methadone programmes created in the 1960s were established in order to respond to drug users’ needs, such as social and professional integration into the community. By contrast, programmes that were created in the 1980s and the 1990s were above all driven by the need for the neutralisation of practices that represented a risk to the community. From this perspective, we can conclude that harm reduction strategies have been diverted away from their humanistic roots and have become security-oriented strategies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Risk maturity evaluation is an efficient tool which can assist construction organizations in the identification of their strengths and weaknesses in risk management processes and in taking necessary actions for the improvement of these processes. The accuracy of its results relies heavily on the quality of responses provided by participants specialized in these processes across the organization. Risk maturity models reported in the literature gave equal importance to participants' responses during the model development, neglecting their level of authority in the organization as well as their level of expertise in risk management processes. Unlike the existing models, this paper presents a new risk maturity model that considers the relative importance of the responses provided by the participants in the model development. It considered their authority in the organization and their level of involvement in the risk management processes for calculating the relative weights associated with the risk maturity attributes. It employed an analytic network process (ANP) to model the interdependencies among the risk maturity attributes and utilizes the fuzzy set theory to incorporate the uncertainty associated with the ambiguity of the responses used in the model development. The developed model allows the construction organizations to have a more accurate and realistic view of their current performance in risk management processes. The application of the developed model was investigated by measuring the risk maturity level of an industrial partner working on civil infrastructure projects in Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]