Gilmer, Cyndi

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Black People in Toronto: Informing Public Health Nurses on what they can do: A Scoping Review

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Creator (cre): Thompson, Fitzroy Hugh, Thesis advisor (ths): Gilmer, Cyndi, Degree committee member (dgc): Firang, David, Degree granting institution (dgg): Trent University
Abstract:

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Black People in Toronto: Informing Public Health Nurses on What They Can Do: A Scoping Review by Fitzroy H. Thompson MScN, explores Black people in low-income neighbourhoods being at increased risk of COVID-19 infection and death due to longstanding health inequity. The research consisted of white and grey literature from Canada between March 2020 and November 2022 using the Social Determinants of Health (SDH) framework. Falk-Rafael's Critical Caring Theory (CCT) guides the critical review of the research collected from the systematic search (Butcher, 2022). The SDH plays a vital role in health outcomes for Black people's access to optimal health services. Community nursing practice can optimize COVID-19 research to advocate for structural interventions tailored to improve SDH access and develop solutions to address needs for policy evolution. The findings act as the foundation for a systematic review and a scholarly synthesis of the evidence on the research question, which would further contribute to the enhancement of nursing care for Black people in low-income neighbourhoods.

Author Keywords: Black people, COVID-19, public health, race, racism, social determinants of health

2024

Examining Strategies of New Public Management in Homelessness Policy

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Creator (cre): Porter, Madeline, Thesis advisor (ths): Buccieri, Kristy, Degree committee member (dgc): Gilmer, Cyndi, Degree committee member (dgc): Greene, Jonathan, Degree granting institution (dgg): Trent University
Abstract:

This research is a critical analysis of coordinated access as an approach to addressing homelessness focusing on Peterborough, Ontario as a case study. This study is situated in scholarship that explores the presence of strategies of New Public Management in social service and healthcare delivery. Balancing the methods of Smith's (2005) Institutional Ethnography and Bacchi's (2009) What is the Problem Represented to Be approach I investigate the way that Federal, Provincial and Municipal homelessness policies organize themselves as instruments of power and I connect this analysis to the accounts of staff working within the homelessness response system. I discover the frame of vulnerability through which homelessness is addressed to be an individualizing mechanism that facilitates the downloading of responsibility for social welfare to local governments without adequate resources. I argue that the consequence of an under resourced system is that only the most extreme forms of suffering can be addressed, and the tools used to decipher who is most vulnerable do not account for structural inequalities.

Author Keywords: Coordinated Access, Homelessness, Homelessness Policy, Institutional Ethnography, Neoliberalization, New Public Management

2021