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Emergency Department (ED) usage among people who are homeless is higher than in the general population; however, myths regarding people who are homeless inappropriately using the ED are present in public and scholarly discourse. Further, minimal research has investigated ED use among those who are homeless in a Canadian context, or regarding how those who are homeless understand the role of the ED in their healthcare. Study 1 explores the question of which factors predict ED use among people who are homeless in a Canadian sample. Participants (n = 483) from a local, longitudinal Housing First demonstration project consented to the linkage of their survey responses regarding housing, health and social service use to the provincial administrative health data repository. Predictor relationships were analyzed using negative binomial longitudinal mixed modelling. In the full model ED visits were positively and reliably predicted by Indigenous ancestry, high needs mental illness, pre-baseline ED use, and concurrent increased social assistance, primary care visits, ratings of physical health, substance use problems and case management visits. Study 2 addresses the question of how participants understand the role of the ED in their healthcare and day-to-day lives. A subset of participants from Study 1 were recruited (n = 16) to participate in semi-structured interviews regarding their ED stories and experiences. Interviews were analyzed using narrative analysis. Set within the context of narratives of disempowerment, participants storied the ED in differing ways. The findings indicate that participants understand the ED to be a public, accessible space where they could exert agency in obtaining necessary healthcare. ED narratives were also paradoxical, storying it as a fixed place of transient care in their transient lives; as a result, they were isolated, and yet belonged. Each study is accompanied by a discussion of the implications of their respective findings. The thesi

Infertile heterosexual couples comprise the majority of those pursuing parenthood via adoption. While research into the experience of adoptive parenthood has focused on adoptive mothers and couples, the research on either group has not fully captured the experience of adoptive fathers. The present study was aimed at understanding how men perceive adoption, and its pursuit, following failed infertility treatment. Sixteen established and prospective adoptive fathers were recruited to participate in individual semi-structured interviews. Narrative analysis was used to evaluate the men’s meaning-making process related to fatherhood. The men told stories which indicated they both believed and countered western culture’s master narrative that fatherhood is constructed via genetic reproduction. I elaborate on the implications of these narratives for understanding the experience of adoptive fatherhood in specific, and fatherhood in general. Following this, recommendations are made for infertility treatment practitioners, adoption service providers, and future researchers based on these implications.