Eduardo Chachamovich - Wellness: Conceptualization and Measurement скачать в хорошем качестве

Eduardo Chachamovich - Wellness: Conceptualization and Measurement

Well-being (WB) and Quality of life (QOL) have emerged as two of the most important concepts in fields such as sociology, medical anthropology and medicine. Increasing quality of life of one individual or a community is the ultimate goal of any intervention (political, social, or health-related intervention). Quality of life cannot be defined as the mere absence of negative aspects in one’s life. It is a multidimensional construct, and encompasses several distinct domains such as physical, psychological, social, religious, personal beliefs, and expectations. Moreover, quality of life is subjective since the same phenomenon can be perceived differently by two individuals, therefore having a different impact on their lives. The United Nations define quality of life as the notion of welfare (well-being), and stress that it should not be measured by “quantitative measures of income and production.” The World Health Organization also emphasizes the subjective nature of quality of life, defining quality of life as the “individuals’ perceptions of their position in life in the context of their culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards and concerns.” Studies that apply QOL scales that were designed for non-Aboriginal populations to Indigenous peoples are fundamentally flawed. This is true for several reasons. Firstly, those scales are designed to address domains that are relevant to the population for which they were created. One would expect that the reality of Indigenous populations is significantly different from populations in the US or Europe, for example. Secondly, traditional practices and values are not included in those measures, and they are fundamental to the lives of Indigenous peoples. Therefore, these scales only access a narrow portion of the complexity of Indigenous life. Finally, by simply applying a scale that is not culturally sensitive, one might be reenacting the history of cultural oppression and colonialism. In this workshop, we will explore the research findings on WB/QOL of Indigenous peoples. We will focus on methodological strategies to develop (or adapt when possible) measures to adequately capture WB/QOL, from qualitative approaches to conceptualize it, to modern psychometric strategies to validate its measurement properties. Eduardo Chachamovich, MD, PhD, is a clinical psychiatrist and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at McGill University. He completed his PhD in Brazil and the UK, where he explored modern psychometric approaches to measure multidimensional health phenomena in a large, multicenter, World Health Organization project. He has worked on suicide prevention and mental health promotion strategies in Nunavik, Nunavut and the Cree Territory in Quebec, for several years. He is currently the medical director for the Great North Mental Health Program based at the Douglas University Mental Health Institute (McGill). Dr. Chachamovich’s work focuses mainly on social and clinical determinants of mental health in Aboriginal populations, as well as on strategies to develop valid and culturally-appropriate measures for mental health in Aboriginal contexts.