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Living with mental illness often subjects individuals to stigma and exclusion. While leisure plays an important role in supporting inclusion and mental health recovery, we know little about leisure initiatives designed explicitly to promote inclusion by countering stigma and exclusion. This study examined participant experiences in a leisure-based initiative known as a living library. This initiative provides opportunities for individuals living with mental illness to become living books and talk openly about their experiences of illness and recovery. Findings highlight participants' initial feelings of fear and uncertainty around sharing their stories, their perceptions of the living library as an effective method of education, and their newfound willingness to embrace identities as individuals living with mental illness who are proud of their lived experiences. These findings advance our thinking about storytelling as a powerful tool for recovery and suggest leisure initiatives supporting connection and understanding set the stage for inclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Living with mental illness often results in varying levels and experiences of stigma. Stigmatizing experiences in health care settings are particularly detrimental because they cause reluctance to seek mental health care, which impedes recovery. While therapeutic recreation (TR) services and programs aim to support recovery, there is a gap in what we know about TR's role in combatting the stigma of mental illness. To address this gap, this study examined the experiences of TR students who participated in a contact-based initiative known as a living library. This initiative provides opportunities for individuals living with mental illness to become living books and talk openly to readers about their experiences of illness and recovery. In this study, TR students undertook the role of readers. Findings highlight how students shifted their focus from the diagnosis to the person and started questioning their previously held stereotypes about mental illness. Findings also capture how the living library helped to contextualize students' classroom learning by humanizing course material. We draw from these findings to demonstrate the merit of using contact-based approaches in TR to combat stigma of mental illness. This study has implications for practice and suggests that initiatives aimed at unlearning stigma can be impactful for TR students embarking on careers in health care settings that support the recovery of individuals living with mental illness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The ways in which friends behave can greatly influence the experience of living with dementia. For example, previous research has highlighted the negative implications that dwindling friendships have on one's leisure engagement after a diagnosis of dementia. In this study, we share findings from a study that highlights the interplay between leisure, friendship, and dementia to demonstrate the complementary relationship that can exist. Specifically, we describe ways friendship can be a bridge to maintaining leisure engagement and how leisure can, in turn, support the maintenance of friendships for individuals with dementia. Data were gathered through individual, dyad, and group interviews conducted with individuals with dementia and their friends and family. Our findings have implications for friends of individuals with dementia who may be searching for ways to support the continuation of mutually enjoyable leisure experiences. Findings also have implications for the ways leisure providers can more fully attend to the relational needs of individuals with dementia in order to help support their continued friendships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leisure is increasingly recognized for its role in social justice. Scholars have highlighted specific leisure contexts as sites for social justice, and calls have been made for academics to apply a social justice perspective to their research. The article explores the experiences of women who have been criminalized and their engagement in social justice through a community arts project located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. This article focuses on how women who have been incarcerated experience leisure as a political act by engaging in conscientizaçao and contentious dialogue. Findings, which are presented through Margaux's Story, emphasize the simultaneous experiences of internalizing stigma, resisting the punitive discourse, and being deserving of a second chance. The discussion contends social justice involves a contentious yet liberating collective experience achieved through shared responsibility between individuals who are oppressed and the greater community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women leaving prison are disadvantaged in many respects as they attempt to reintegrate into the community. In the absence of supportive relationships, women are more likely to experience exclusion and isolation which puts their chances of remaining in the community at risk. In this paper, we present findings of a phenomenological study that examined the nature of relationships within Stride Circles, social support networks for women returning to the community after incarceration. Findings capture the essences inherent in the journey of a Circle with respect to changes in Circle relationships when a woman enters community, the type of support provided during the transition phase, the ways in which Circle members learn to be a support network, and how Circles transform over time when women's need for support diminishes. This study highlights the possibilities for inclusion and belonging that emerge when women leaving prison experience openness from members of the community and when women as well as community members are willing, and supported, to enter into mutual relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on the work of a community-based culture change coalition affiliated with the Partnerships in Dementia Care Alliance, a research network committed to strengthening dementia care through supporting relationship-centered care approaches. Research to date emphasizes negative aspects of dementia care relationships. Drawing on data the culture change coalition collected as part of their culture change work using participatory action research guided by appreciative inquiry, this article examines what relationship qualities contributed to positive dementia care experiences and how positive relationships were created. Five types of care partners participated in the study through questionnaires, focus groups, and a mini appreciative inquiry summit. Data were analyzed collaboratively with culture change coalition members. Early in the analysis process, the aspiration statement "Relationships are at the heart of dementia care in [name of] County," was developed and informed further thematic analysis. Findings revealed several relationship characteristics including friendship, commonality of experience, developing trust and feeling appreciated, reciprocity, and taking time/making time for relationships. As this article illuminates, relationship-centered programs and policies have the potential to foster positive dementia care experiences among diverse care partners in community settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In promoting high physical activity and productive engagement as the motto of successful aging, society has cast individuals living in long-term care (LTC) homes as agingunsuccessfully[Holstein, M. B., and M. Minkler. 2003. “Self, Society and the ‘New Gerontology’.”The Gerontologist43: 787–796]. The purpose of this paper is to explore ways natural leisure spaces within an LTC home can challenge deficit-based assumptions of decline and dependence in later life. Interviews were conducted with 9 residents, 8 family members and 11 staff recruited from one mid-sized LTC home in Ontario, Canada. The study used a hermeneutic phenomenological method, as described by van Manen [1997.Researching Lived Experience: Human Science for an Action Sensitive Pedagogy. London, ON: The Althouse Press]. Lived experiences of participants throughout the interviews revealed how natural leisure spaces sparked continued expressions of individuality, opportunities to nurture relationships and maintain family social roles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reflexive forms of field research acknowledge the impact of the researcher in the production and interpretation of ethnographic data. In this article we highlight and discuss issues that stemmed from their critical reflection while conducting field research in a small sports club in rural Canada. We give consideration to the nature of their role relationships, participation, performances, and negotiation of balance and distance. The resultant self-revealing text provides the basis for discussion on issues relating to power, representation, subjectivity, and interpretation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women in prison are among the most marginalized of populations, and the general perception of women who have come into contact with the criminal justice system as either mad or bad is fairly persistent. Therapeutic interventions that are in place for this population are designed with rehabilitation and re-integration in mind. In large part, the rationale for this is that these women will one day return to the community, and the goal is to ensure that their behaviour is 'normalized' so they can return as law-abiding citizens. This exploration critically examines a leisure intervention known as Stride that is brought into a federal prison for women in Canada. Using data from qualitative interviews, the paper employs the women's voices to consider whether the leisure and recreation they experience through the Stride intervention is functioning to normalize behaviour and ultimately make good girls out of women who are deemed bad by society. The authors, employing critical criminology and creative analytical practice, conclude that leisure and recreation opportunities do not seek to change or normalize behaviour of the women. Instead, the activities provide a setting for recreation participation that fosters friendships among incarcerated women and women in the community. Implications for practice point to the relevance of informal opportunities for recreation participation and friendship development, which can provide critical support to women in their reintegration efforts once released from prison. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Belonging is a pervasive human need that is vital to our well-being as we age. Ageist attitudes, stereotyping, and life transitions tend to jeopardise older adults' experiences of belonging. Although community involvement can lead to the development of social relationships that support belonging in older adulthood, little is known about how belonging is perceived and experienced by older adults. The purpose of this article is to share findings from research conducted with members of a community centre for people 50 years of age and older who shared their perceptions and experiences of belonging. Findings highlight the ways that age-related life transitions affect experiences of belonging. Findings also reveal that features of a belonging experience include feeling worthwhile, being welcomed and accepted, having opportunities for connection, and seeking to belong. We draw from these findings to suggest ways to enhance belonging for older adults.