Enhancing Response Ability: Dietetics as a Vehicle for Social Justice—A Primer

2021 ◽  
Vol 82 (4) ◽  
pp. 159-166
Author(s):  
Jennifer Brady ◽  
Tanya L’heureux

Recent world events have shone a spotlight on the social and structural injustices that impact the lives, health, and well-being of individuals and communities under threat. Dietitians should be well positioned to play a role in redressing injustice through their individual and collective “response abilities”, that is, the combination of responsibility for and ability to be responsive to such injustices due to the varying privilege and power that dietitians have. However, recent research shows that dietitians report a lack of knowledge, skill, and confidence to take on such roles, and that dietetic education includes little knowledge- or skill-based learning that might prepare dietitians to do so. This primer aims to introduce readers to concepts that are fundamental to socially just dietetics practice, including privilege, structural competence, critical reflexivity, critical humility, and critical praxis. We assert that when implemented into practice and used to inform advocacy and activism these concepts enhance dietitians’ individual and collective response ability to redress injustice.

Social Work ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 293-300
Author(s):  
Erika L Sabbath

Abstract Protecting the health and well-being of workers naturally aligns with the social work mission to advance human dignity. The workplace can both create and perpetuate health disparities by shaping health and well-being at multiple levels and in socially patterned ways. Yet workplace issues are rarely on social work research and practice agendas. This article serves as a call to action for social work, as a discipline, to engage with the workplace as a means of advancing the field's core values. It first provides evidence for why engagement with workplaces is critical for advancing social justice. It then presents evidence for the ways in which workplace exposures and experiences, at multiple levels, shape worker health and well-being. Finally, it provides concrete steps for how the skills and values of the social work profession can be applied to the workplace through research, practice, education, and policy efforts, and by extension improve population health and well-being.


Author(s):  
Sandra Edmonds Crewe ◽  
Julie Guyot-Diangone

This article provides an overview of the phenomenon of labeling and stigma. Research studies are used to illuminate the many ways devalued or discredited identities negatively affect the health and well-being of stigmatized groups and additionally burden the socially and economically marginalized. In addition to conveying an understanding of the social process by which a stigma is developed and the role that culture plays in defining and determining any given stigma, this article offers ways in which social work professionals may counter stigma through education/awareness campaigns and in routine client interactions. Anti-stigma work is presented from social justice and ethical perspectives. Stigma as a social construct is discussed, along with its link to discrimination and prejudice. The article helps to unpack the meaning of stigma, including descriptions of the various forms, levels, and dimensions it may take, affecting all spheres of life, including the social, psychological, spiritual, and physical.


2020 ◽  
Vol 81 (3) ◽  
pp. 120-126
Author(s):  
Jennifer Brady

Purpose: To explore dietetic practitioners’ perceptions of their education and training in the knowledge, skills, and confidence to understand social justice issues and to engage in socially just dietetic practice and social justice advocacy. Methods: An online semi-qualitative survey sent to Canadian dietitians. Results: Most respondents (n = 264; 81.5%) felt that knowledge- and skill-based learning about social justice and social justice advocacy should be a part of dietetic education and training. Reasons given by respondents for the importance of social justice learning include: client-centred care and reflexive practice, effecting change to the social and structural determinants of health, preventing dietitian burnout, and relevance of the profession. Yet, over half of respondents either strongly disagreed or disagreed that they were adequately prepared with the knowledge (n = 186; 57.4%), skills (n = 195; 60.2%), or confidence (n = 196; 60.5%) to engage in advocacy related to social justice concerns. Some questioned the practicality of adding social justice learning via additional courses to already full programs, while others proposed infusing a social justice lens across dietetic education and practice areas. Conclusions: Dietetic education and training must do more to prepare dietitians to answer calls for dietitians to engage in social justice issues through practice and advocacy.


Author(s):  
Kátia M. Costa-Black ◽  
Chris Arteberry

Ergonomics applies a set of ambitious frameworks and robust body of evidence for integrating different practices to optimize worker health and well-being. One recognized framework is the participatory approach, which delves into sociotechnical workplace actions – developed from the ground up – to achieve improved human performance outcomes and acceptability across the organization. Much of what is known about the value of participatory ergonomics centers on return-on-investment analyses related to injury prevention. Outside this spectrum, little has been discussed. This paper imparts how a participatory approach can lead to various positive impacts beyond financial gains, mainly by focusing on continuous improvements at the management systems level and on proactively motivating people and organizations to embrace healthy working conditions and behaviors. Issues such as the social-ethical value of involving workers in work design and return-to-work solutions are discussed to illustrate the holistic value of participatory ergonomics in the context of Total Worker Health.


2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (7) ◽  
pp. 789-802 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jolanda Jetten ◽  
S. Alexander Haslam ◽  
Tegan Cruwys ◽  
Katharine H. Greenaway ◽  
Catherine Haslam ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Samantha Bates

This article is a personal reflection about being a single woman in academia during the COVID-19 pandemic. I describe how the pandemic has influenced my mental health and well-being and my feelings of connectedness to my institution, colleagues, and students. I discuss how gender, relationship status, and singlism may have influenced the social support and workload of single female faculty during the pandemic, and the need to explore these phenomena more intentionally to support and retain diverse women in the academy. By tying research examples to my personal experience, I hope to inform a conversation about how institutions can be more inclusive and intentional about challenging inequities associated with gender, relationship status, and singlism, along with combating social isolation and supporting better work-life balance for female faculty members who are not partnered and do not have children.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-235
Author(s):  
Felipe da Silva Triani ◽  
Glhevysson dos Santos Barros

ResumoA dança é a arte de movimentar expressivamente o corpo seguindo movimentos ritmados, em geral ao som de música. Dessa forma, o significado da dança vai além da expressão artística, podendo ser vista como um meio para adquirir conhecimentos ou como opção de lazer. No campo de atuação do bacharelado, as investigações acadêmicas ainda são tímidas, urgindo de produções científicas que possam alimentar o campo científico sobre o tema. Dessa forma, o objetivo do estudo foi identificar e analisar as representações sociais que um grupo de bacharelandos do curso em Educação Física compartilha sobre a dança. A metodologia da pesquisa envolve uma abordagem qualitativa, tendo o estudo de campo como procedimento técnico. A amostra foi constituída por 200 indivíduos, sendo 85 homens e 115 mulheres com médias de idade entre 17 a 45 anos. A coleta de dados ocorreu através de questionário com associação livre de palavras, cujo termo indutor foi ”dança”. A análise foi feita por meio dos conteúdos das respostas. O resultado principal do estudo apontou que a maioria dos estudantes emprega sentido de dança como uma atividade técnica e a associam com saúde mental e bem-estar. Palavras-chave: Representação Social. Educação Física. Dança. AbstractDance is the art of expressively moving the body following rhythmic movements, usually to the sound of music. Thus, the meaning of dance goes beyond artistic expression, and can be seen as a means to acquire knowledge or as a leisure option. In the field of performance of the bachelor's degree, academic investigations are still timid, urging scientific productions that can feed the scientific field on the theme. Thus, the objective of the study was to identify and analyze the social representations that a group of Physical Education course bachelors shares about dance. The research methodology is a qualitative approach, with the field study as a technical procedure. The sample consisted of 200 individuals, 85 men and 115 women with a mean age between 17 and 45 years. Data collection was carried out through a questionnaire with free association of words, whose inducing term was, "dance". The analysis was done through the responses content. The main result of the study pointed out that most students use dance as a technical activity and associate it with mental health and well-being. Keywords: Social Representation. PE. Dance.


Author(s):  
Michael Bennett

AbstractThis chapter draws on the author’s personal experience together with the findings from his qualitative research, to explore the cultural values driving problems of mental health and well-being among professional footballers. The study makes explicit the way in which players are expected to hide their experiences of being objectified—of being subject to gendered, racialised and other forms of dehumanisation—and denied a legitimate lived experience, an authentic heard voice. The chapter illustrates the importance in values-based practice of knowledge of values gained as in this instance by way of qualitative methods from the social sciences being used to fill out knowledge derived from individual personal experience.


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