Rich Janzen

Moving forward: negotiating self and external circumstances in recovery.

This article presents a framework for understanding the concept of recovery from serious mental illnesses and other life struggles. The framework is based on findings from a longitudinal, qualitative study that involved in-depth interviews with 28 people who experienced serious mental health challenges. The purpose of this article is to clarify the concept of recovery by presenting a grounded theory analysis of the components of recovery. The framework recognizes the experiences of struggle constructed through the words of study participants and captures four main components of recovery: a) a drive to move forward, b) a spiral of positive and negative changes, c) the context of recovery, and d) a dialectical process of ongoing negotiation between self and external circumstances.

Developing Theory From Complexity: Reflections on a Collaborative Mixed Method Participatory Action Research Study

Research studies are increasingly complex: They draw on multiple methods to gather data, generate both qualitative and quantitative data, and frequently represent the perspectives of more than one stakeholder. The teams that generate them are increasingly multidisciplinary. A commitment to engaging community members in the research process often adds a further layer of complexity. How to approach a synthesizing analysis of these multiple and varied data sources with a large research team requires considerable reflection and dialogue. In this article, we outline the strategies used by one multidisciplinary team committed to a participatory action research (PAR) approach and engaged in a mixed method program of research to synthesize the findings from four subprojects into a conceptual framework that could guide practice in community mental health organizations. We also summarize factors that hold promise for increasing productivity when managing complex research projects.

Immigrant Parenting: A New Framework of Understanding

ABSTRACT This article presents a new orienting framework for understanding immigrant parenting. The framework was developed and tested through a qualitative research study that involved 50 focus group interviews with immigrant parents who have resided in Canada for less than 3 years. The article begins by reviewing the existing parenting models found in academic literature and noting the limitations of these models. Next it describes the components of our constructed framework for understanding immigrant parenting. The article ends with the presentation of research results based on a large focus group data with 317 newcomer parents to Canada.

Putting Values into Practice: Public Policy and the Future of Mental Health Consumer-run Organizations

The purpose of the paper is to reflect on value dilemmas in mental health consumer-run organizations and to discuss implications for research, policy, and practice. We review the roots of consumer-run organizations in the self-help movement and the psychiatric survivor liberation movement, focusing on the distinctive values espoused by consumer-run organizations. We also discuss evidence-based and value-based approaches to mental health policy formulation and mental health reform, noting the particular importance of value-based approaches and the role that consumer-run organizations can play in mental health reform. Based on our experiences conducting a participatory action research study of four mental health consumer-run organizations, we identify and examine several value dilemmas, discuss the lessons that we learned about these value dilemmas, and note their implications for future directions in research, policy, and practice

Participatory Action Research and Evaluation with Mental Health Self-Help Initiatives: A Theoretical Framework

In deciding whether or not to collaborate with one another in a research partnership, researchers and members of mental health self-help (MHSH) initiatives should address several questions. What values will underlie the partnership? How will power be shared? What will the focus of the research be? What type of knowledge will be sought? How will the knowledge be used? What roles will the different partners play? In this chapter, we present a theoretical framework that aims to clarify how researchers and mental health self-helpers might answer these questions as they co-construct a research project. The framework consists of six elements: (a) values, (b) participation and power-sharing, (c) social programming, (d) knowledge construction, (e) knowledge utilization, and (f) practice. For each element, we discuss the main issues; we illustrate these issues with examples from both our work and that of others; and we note lessons learned and provide recommendations for future research and evaluation with MHSH initiatives.

Canadian Christian Churches as Partners in Immigrant Settlement and Integration

ABSTRACT This article discusses the role of Canadian Christian churches in immigrant settlement and integration and discusses implications for the settlement sector. A total of 34 denominations responded to an online survey. Findings show that many churches are intentionally involved in immigrant ministry, motivated by their Christian and social concern. Existing immigrant supports are wide ranging and holistic, include the unique contribution of immigrant congregations but are limited by underdeveloped partnerships. It is in the equipping processes of leadership development, training, planning, and evaluation that churches are weakest and could benefit most from partnerships with other settlement players.

Building a community-based culture of evaluation

In this article we argue for a community-based approach as a means of promoting a culture of evaluation. We do this by linking two bodies of knowledge - the 70-year theoretical tradition of community-based research and the trans-discipline of program evaluation - that are seldom intersected within the evaluation capacity building literature. We use the three hallmarks of a community-based research approach (community-determined; equitable participation; action and change) as a conceptual lens to reflect on a case example of an evaluation capacity building program led by the Ontario Brian Institute. This program involved two community-based groups (Epilepsy Southwestern Ontarioand the South West Alzheimer Society Alliance) who were supported by evaluators from the Centre for Community Based Research to conduct their own internal evaluation. The article provides an overview of a community-based research approach and its link to evaluation. It then describes the featured evaluation capacity building initiative, including reflections by the participating organizations themselves. We end by discussing lessons learned and their implications for future evaluation capacity building. Our main argument is that organizations that strive towards a community-based approach to evaluation are well placed to build and sustain a culture of evaluation.