Jade Boyd

Policing ‘Vancouver’s mental health crisis’: a critical discourse analysis

In Canada and other western nations there has been an unprecedented expansion of criminal justice systems and a well documented increase in contact between people with mental illness with the police. Canadian police, especially in Vancouver, British Columbia (BC), have been increasingly at the forefront of discourse and regulation specific to mental health. Drawing on critical discourse analysis, this paper to explores this claim through a case study of four Vancouver Police Department (VPD) policy reports on ‘Vancouver’s mental health crisis’ from 2008 to 2013, which include recommendations for action. Analyzed is the VPD’s role in framing issues of mental health in one urban space. This study is the first analysis to critically examine the VPD reports on mental health in Vancouver, BC. The reports reproduce negative discourses about deinstitutionalization, mental illness and dangerousness that may contribute to further stigma and discrimination of persons with mental illness. Policing reports are widely drawn upon, thus critical analyses are particularly significant for policy-makers and public health professionals in and outside of Canada.

Women’s activism in a drug user union in the Downtown Eastside

Marginalized women in Canada who use criminalized drugs are often defined through institutional discourses of addiction, disease, poverty, sex work, and violence. Framed by many researchers as an at risk population, the fullness of these women’s lives is often rendered invisible, and the complexity, diversity, and range of experiences of their political and community work and their movement through the city are less often a topic of interest. This gap is addressed through an exploration of how some marginalized women come to know and experience themselves politically and physically, as part of a reflection upon their movement in and through the Downtown Eastside (DTES) of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Drawing from community-based research in the DTES over a four-month period with women in leadership roles at the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, a drug user union, this paper highlights the results from focus groups and brainstorming sessions. The participants disrupt conventional notions of addiction and criminalization through their political and community activities and their ongoing resistance to systemic discrimination.

Pathways to criminalization for street-involved youth who use illicit substances

Abstract Illicit drug use and homelessness among street-involved young people remain community and public health concerns, in part because of their association with ‘public disorder’, as well as increased encounters between youth, police, the criminal justice system, and the associated health-related harms. In the public imagination, illicit drug use, homelessness, and police encounters (including incarceration) are often understood as problems rooted in individual biographies. In general, there has been a lack of attention to the larger historical, institutional, and social-spatial contexts that converge across time, to increase young people’s risk of coming into contact with police and the criminal justice system. Drawing from a longitudinal ethnography with street-involved young people who use illicit drugs in Vancouver, Canada, we highlight two qualitative case studies that illustrate some of the ‘pathways’ to criminalization among this population. Specifically, these case studies reflect the complex linkages between child apprehension, foster care, homelessness, illicit substance use, and incarceration (juvenile detention and prison) across time. Our findings highlight the role of state interventions in perpetuating the marginalization that occurs across young people’s lives, in ways that increase their vulnerability to police and criminal justice encounters.

Surviving the housing crisis: Social violence and the production of evictions among women who use drugs in Vancouver, Canada

Single room accommodation (SRA) housing is among the only forms of accessible housing to marginalized women who use illicit drugs in many urban settings. However, SRA housing environments may create specific health and drug risks for women. Little research has examined the gendered mechanisms contributing to housing vulnerability for women who use drugs and the subsequent ways they aim to mitigate harm. This study examines the gendered vulnerabilities to, and harms stemming from, evictions from SRAs in Vancouver, Canada. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 56 people who use drugs who were recently evicted (past 60 days) from SRAs in Vancouvers Downtown Eastside neighbourhood, 19 of whom identified as women which informed this analysis. Participants were recruited by Peer Researcher Assistants for baseline and follow-up interviews three to six months later. Interview transcripts were analyzed thematically and interpreted by drawing on concepts of social violence. Findings underscore how gendered violence and forms of social control operationalized within SRAs normalized violence against women and restricted their agency. Surveillance mechanisms increased womens experiences of violence as they sought to evade such interventions. Post-eviction, women faced pronounced vulnerability to harm which reinforced their social and spatial marginality within a drug scene. Collectively, womens experiences within SRAs highlight how the hybrid forms of disciplinary mechanisms used within these housing environments significantly impacted womens experiences of harm. Greater attention to the impacts of housing and building policies on women who use drugs is needed to better address the morbidity and mortality of this population.

Negotiating space & drug use in emergency shelters with peer witness injection programs within the context of an overdose crisis: A qualitative study

ABSTRACT Vancouver, Canada is experiencing an overdose crisis due to the proliferation of fentanyl and related analogues and novel overdose response interventions are being implemented across multiple high overdose risk environments, including emergency shelters. We draw on ethnographic fieldwork and qualitative interviews to examine how social, structural, and physical contexts at two emergency shelters implementing a peer‐based supervised injection intervention influenced injection drug use and overdose risks. Findings reveal that the implementation of this intervention reduced stigma and shame through the normalization of drug use in shelter spaces, and yet underlying social norms and material constraints led people to inject alone in non‐designated injecting spaces. Whereas these spatial dynamics of injection drug use potentially increased overdose vulnerability, an emerging sense of collective responsibility in relation to the overdose crisis led to the routinization of peer witnessing practices across the shelter environment to extend the impact of the intervention. HIGHLIGHTSThe overdose crisis requires novel and targeted public health interventions.Social, structural, and physical contexts can create barriers and opportunities.Harm reduction and peer‐led interventions can normalize drug use in shelters.Experiences of surveillance are internalized by homeless people who use drugs.These experiences impact drug use in normalized spaces.

Performing “East Van” Spatial Identifications and Class Anxieties

This article draws upon theories of performance and (sub)cultural capital to explore the intersections of class identity and urban spatial practices. Based on interviews and participant observation, this contemporary ethnography explores how some young adults experience the stigmatized neighborhoods of East Vancouver, Canada, imbuing their spatial identifications with subcultural significance and class meaning. Interviewees’ spatial and embodied relationships with East Vancouver reveal a complex articulation of class positioning involving “East Van” pride, class denial, spatial performances and anxieties over class location.