In the spring of 2015, a new Carleton University Research Centre, named the Canadian Health Adaptations Innovations Mobilization (CHAIM) Centre was launched. The CHAIM Centre is aimed at communication, facilitation of health research partnerships, knowledge mobilization and outreach. The Centre encourages faculty and graduate students from across the disciplines to blog about environmental, social and cultural determinants of health.
Master’s student Ariel Root is the blogger behind Ariel’s Adventures in Northwestern Ontario.
She was tasked with writing about her interpretation of the determinants of health in First Nations while working in Kenora, ON. She wanted to include her observations of the social, cultural and environmental conditions in northwestern Ontario in the blogs.
Root’s first blog introduced her primary observations from working as a firefighter in Kenora. Since then, she has skillfully woven personal experiences with in-depth reflections on issues relating to homelessness, food scarcity, social connectedness, culture and gender inequality, among other topics.
Root spent the winter of 2013-14 working and volunteering in Kenora, where she spoke with successful locals, colleagues and friends seeking inspiration for potential career paths or directions. “All I knew was that I should continue to seek and accept opportunities that would promote growth and development that I would enjoy and that would provide good opportunities to meet new people—pretty much the foundations of the HSTP program.”
Root is a second year student in the Health: Science, Technology and Policy (HSTP) program. This pioneering program was created to meet a growing demand in the health sector. The collaborative nature of the HSTP program is designed to train students to work effectively in cross-disciplinary teams.
“When you think about helping people, or improving health, you have to take an interdisciplinary approach,” says Root. “The HSTP program seemed like it would be a great fit to continue my interests in the health of Aboriginal populations.”
photo credit: Michael Nugent
Root is currently working with four other students in her program, along with supervisors Paul Villeneuve and Renate Ysseldyk, researching and studying “built environments” – the physical structures and elements in our daily living, working and recreational environments and their influence on physical and mental health. The group is reviewing the implementation and integration of complete streets in Ottawa, their effectiveness, how they serve the public, and how they can be improved. They created this website to feature their research study.
You can read Root’s full blog series by clicking here.
View from Ariel Root’s rear view car mirror while she drives home at season’s end.
This story was written by Ashley Wenyeve and Lin Moody.
Friday, January 8, 2016 in Grad Student blogs, Grad Student Research, News
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