Journal Articles by Sarah de Leeuw
Emotion, Space, and Society, 2013
This paper engages our struggles with the discipline of medicine. Specifically, and sometimes fro... more This paper engages our struggles with the discipline of medicine. Specifically, and sometimes from very personal perspectives, we question if the geographies in which undergraduate medical education unfolds are healthy. As three women broadly trained as geographers who are emotionally, politically, personally, and professionally tied to the discipline of medicine, we wonder if undergraduate medical curriculum is meeting the competencies to which is aspires. Anchored in broader literatures about medical education and the potential of medical humanities, and in our own and others’ observations and experiences about medicine being – at least to some degree – a discipline in crisis and in some state of ruin and disrepair, we reflect in this paper on two things. First, we consider how undergraduate medical education disciplines its students and scholars in specific ways that often sublimates emotional knowledge. Second, we reflect on how the discipline’s undergraduate curricular structures might improve through creative interventions that encourage non-linear, creative, possibly emotive, ways of knowing and understanding.
Cultural Geographies, 2014
This is a paper about child-welfare regulations, policies, and practices as they impact Indigenou... more This is a paper about child-welfare regulations, policies, and practices as they impact Indigenous families and communities. I take as my starting point that child welfare, and geographies of Indigenous homes and families, are under-scrutinized ontologies worthy of more investigation especially by geographers interested in understanding neo settler-colonial power – and how to unsettle it. I track historical logics of state intervention into Indigenous families through to the present day, reviewing the empirics of child removals and state interventions into contemporary Indigenous families in British Columbia, Canada. Curtailing the state’s ongoing disruption of Aboriginal families and communities, I conclude, requires understanding child welfare ontologically, as historically contiguous with other colonial projects, and as premised in great part on ungrounded logics of ‘common sense’ that (re)produce Indigenous families and communities as rarified and othered geographies in constant need of intervention.
Cultural Geographies, 2014
The Canadian Family Physician, 2014
The Scientific World Journal, 2014
Objective. Mental health service users experience high rates of cardiometabolic disorders and hav... more Objective. Mental health service users experience high rates of cardiometabolic disorders and have a 20–25% shorter life expectancy than the general population from such disorders. Clinician-led health behavior programs have shown moderate improvements, for mental health service users, in managing aspects of cardiometabolic disorders. This study sought to potentially enhance health initiatives by exploring (1) facilitators that help mental health service users engage in better health behaviors and (2) the types of health programs mental health service users want to develop. Methods. A qualitative study utilizing focus groups was conducted with 37 mental health service users attending a psychosocial rehabilitation center, in Northern British Columbia, Canada. Results. Four major facilitator themes were identified: (1) factors of empowerment, self-value, and personal growth; (2) the need for social support; (3) pragmatic aspects of motivation and planning; and (4) access. Participants believed that engaging with programs of physical activity, nutrition, creativity, and illness support would motivate them to live more healthily. Conclusions and Implications for Practice. Being able to contribute to health behavior programs, feeling valued and able to experience personal growth are vital factors to engage mental health service users in health programs. Clinicians and health care policy makers need to account for these considerations to improve success of health improvement initiatives for this population.
The Canadian Journal of Optometry, 2015
There are a variety of barriers to eye-care service access in rural Northern First Nations commun... more There are a variety of barriers to eye-care service access in rural Northern First Nations communities. Semi-structured, opened-ended key informant interviews were conducted on the topic of eye care, with eight First Nations individuals employed by the health office in a small Northern British Columbian First Nations community. Data analysis comprised identifying themes by analyzing similarities and dissimilarities in participants’ narratives, including comparing and contrasting viewpoints of participants and placing themes within broader sociocultural and historic contexts. Themes identified in the data included the current state of community eye care, facilitators and barriers to accessing eye care, and community needs and preferences. The theme of “facilitators and barriers” was further analyzed, resulting in subthemes of awareness, attitudes, social, economic, and service related. Better understanding of the barriers and their interactions would provide a foundation upon which innovative eye-care programs might be developed.
Political Geography, 2016
The Canadian Geographer, 2017
Gender, Place, and Culture
AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples, 2017
Journal of the Motherhood Initiative, 2017
The Canadian Geographer, 2017
Emotion, Space, and Society, 2019
UBC Medical Journal, 2019
The Canadian Geographer, 2020
International Journal of Indigenous Health, 2021
ACME: A Journal of Radical Critical Geographies, 2021
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Journal Articles by Sarah de Leeuw