Jacques Rhéaume

Strategies to develop and maintain occupational health and safety measures in small businesses employing immigrant workers in metropolitan Montreal

Purpose – In large urban centres, immigrants are employed by businesses in which there is a high incidence of serious or fatal occupational injuries. This paper aims to present findings on the lack of knowledge and understanding in terms of: explanations for the implementation or lack of, procedures; technical expertise in prevention and the inability of the internal actors to implement changes.Design/methodology/approach – A study design with a comparison group is used. The observation sample is comprised of 21 small businesses (SB), of which 16 meet the following criteria: the enterprise had fewer than 50 employees; and at least 25 per cent of the workers were born outside the country. The other five serve as a comparison group; the only difference in these SB is that they employ fewer (<25 per cent) immigrant workers.Findings – The findings indicate that SB employing immigrants have totally or partially failed to implement health and safety management in area of occupational health and safety.Practical...

Occupational Safety and Health in Small Businesses in Urban Areas: The Non-Participation of Immigrant Workers

Abstract An analysis of worker participation was carried out as part of a larger study on strategies for managing occupational safety and health in small businesses that hire immigrant workers. This analysis was based on the triangulation of three data sources: interviews with those who answered the questions on behalf of the small business owners or managers (n = 28); occupational health professionals who gave advice to the same small businesses (n = 26); and questionnaires completed by the immigrant workers (self-administered, n = 181). The results converged in that immigrant workers, compared to workers of Canadian origin, received less initial training when hired and were less able to identify risks. Immigrant workers informed their employer less often when they were injured and participated less in investigations following an accident. Many did not have protective equipment and, where the employer did provide it, they were less inclined to wear it. Generally, insufficient effort was made by small businesses to protect or inform immigrant workers of their rights and obligations, or to integrate them into the workplace. The study shows that it would be useful if company directors provided support to manage the occupational safety and health of immigrant workers and compliance with regulations, as well as endeavouring to understand the issues underlying equal labour and management representation in occupational safety and health.

Enhancing Critical Reflection of Brazilian Community Health Agents’ Awareness of Social Determinants of Health

This project aims to assess how Brazilian community health agents’ critical awareness of the social determinants of health was enhanced and led to a greater understanding of the major structural changes necessary to sustain health promotion initiatives. Educational workshops inspired by Paulo Freire’s ideas on critical pedagogy were delivered to 82 community health agents in three Brazilian cities. The workshops utilized evocative objects to link and develop participants’ conceptual and experiential knowledge. The participants exchanged connections and experiences and created hypothetical action plans to be implemented in collaboration with community members. The discussions were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim, and submitted to content analysis. The connections provoked by evocative objects were related to required assets for the development of a healthy community. As social advocates, they are already committed to a social movement for health equity to catalyze a more equitable distribution of social goods, promote social inclusion, and liberate communities.

The Project of Clinical Sociology in Quebec

This article presents a historical overview of clinical sociology in Quebec, describing the basic theoretical assumptions of this approach. Cultural anthropology and social ethnography are looked at first, followed by theories of social intervention and psychosociology. From the 1980s onwards, clinical sociology appears to be an integrating framework for a diversity of theoretical views related to the study of social practices. Three basic characteristics of clinical sociology are emphasized: the relation of involvement between researchers and social actors, the relation to action and the notion of complexity as a theoretical point of view.

From early detection to rehabilitation in the community: reading beyond the blog testimonies of survivors' quality of life and prostate cancer representation.

BackgroundSurvivors’ testimonies can reveal much about men’s experiences of prostate cancer and impacts on their quality of life (QOL) during the clinical trajectory of the disease. These survivors’ shared thoughts and views were hypothesized to reflect salient features of their lived social representation of prostate cancer.ContextWe explored the content of testimonies posted by men to a public blog hosted by a French national prostate cancer patients’ association. The study question, “What do French bloggers’ testimonies reveal about their lived experiences with prostate cancer, especially regarding their quality of life in community settings, that underpin their social representation of prostate cancer?” guided the exploration and analysis of the textual data. The aims were to better understand men’s experiences and predominant thoughts and views, to elucidate patients’ behaviours, and to enlighten medical policy and practice.PurposeExplore issues of QOL as reported by French prostate cancer survivors in a public blog by: (a) identifying the salient aspects and issues of the experience of living with prostate cancer from the perspective of survivors; and (b) analyzing the content in the posted testimonies regarding perceived and lived impacts of prostate cancer on QOL.MethodsA critical ethnographic study guided the selection of textual data from 196 male bloggers’ testimonies about prostate cancer posted in the period from 2008 to 2013. Media content analysis method was undertaken on blog testimonies, framed by a multidimensional conceptual framework of QOL.ResultsTestimonies focused mainly on medical care and rehabilitation, recovery, health education and self-care, as well as on a global vision of prostate cancer and its impacts on personal views of manhood and masculinity. The language used indicated that political, educative and compassionate discourses were intertwined to create a complex representation of the experience and effects of prostate cancer; this multi-faceted representation can inform the public and professional debate about men’s capacity to provide emotional support and problem-solve within a community of interest.ConclusionFindings, while based on data limited to mostly one-time entries to a French blog, contribute to understanding a unique, collective expression of men’s lived experiences of prostate cancer. These anonymous survivors shared their varied reactions, ways of coping, and thoughts on needed change.

Santé mentale et travail, entre plaisir et souffrance: quand le normal devient pathologique

Mental health in the workplace introduces a basic viewpoint to better understand the actual dynamic relationship between the individual and work in highly productive organisations. It is particularly visible in a hypermodern society, that is, a society where performance and productivity count on the workers’ free involvement and creativity. Concepts of mental health, social norms, normality and pathology, work and organisation are first defined. The main argument is then developed around the different dimensions describing the neoproductivist trend in many societies, in the occidental world but also in many others countries, like Japan, to name one. This neoproductivist ideology, based on neoliberal economy and the neo-Taylorist social approach of work organisation, produces for many workers a syndrome called ‘hyperactivity’ at work. There is a specific combination of great demands on the workers’ performance and involvement in the organisation on one end, and a great appeal to excellence and self-development on the other end. Studies in different organisations, unions, highly-technological enterprises, a television station and universities indicate that this syndrome of hyperactivity comes to be the norm, the reference, for the majority. Performance union leaders, leading scientists, television performers, highly-skilled technicians are some examples of people who become models of working behaviour in the workplace. This new ideology has consequences in all spheres of society and calls for a critical appraisal and research: clinical sociology can be a proper tool to address this challenge.

« Situation paradoxale dans l'organisation du travail : une menace pour la santé mentale des travailleurs »

For the past decades, in a world of high competition, firms struggle to regain an advantage over foreign competition. Thus, new management trends, usually based on price reduction, high quality products and speed production are now part of strategic reorganization plans of high impact on work organization particularly in terms of large demands put on workers, and take a heavy toll on workers. Thus the incidence of mental health problems in the work place has risen sharply in recent years and currently counts as one of the leading causes of work absenteeism. A study based on the psychodynamic of work was conducted among machine operators working in a high-technology company in the aviation sector. Important management and technological transformations were recently introduced in the factory. The content analysis of the study shows that the work organization places the operator in a double bind situation. They are caught between an injunction where the capacity of making a high quality product is directly opposed to that demanding speed production. Moreover, severe and arbitrary sanctions are applied when the operators do not comply with either injunction. The operators are put in a deadlock situation that creates fear and anxiety. They are obliged to turn to defensive psychological strategies such as individualism and cheating. Those defensive strategies have negative impacts on social relationships.