Occupational therapy and its relevance in social projects. relationships, learning and opportunities: collection of experiences of University of Alberta Mscot students in Bogotá, Colombia

Occupational therapists are equipped to promote wellbeing through occupation and to enable participation and meaningful engagement of people in their social and physical environments (WFOT, 2012). As such, the role of the occupational therapists is profoundly linked to the social, cultural and environmental characteristics of the contexts in which occupations take place. The central role that context plays in occupational performance creates an interesting dichotomy for the occupational therapist: on one hand, a profound understanding of cultural and social factors is required from the Occupational Therapy (OT) in order to develop a meaningful and successful collaboration with the person; on the other hand, the ability of the occupational therapists to recognize and explore the contextual factor of an occupation-person dyad transcends cultural and spatial barriers. As a result, occupational therapists are equipped to engage in international collaboration and practice, and as such face unique and enriching challenges. International fieldwork experiences have become a tool through which occupational therapists in training can develop the critical skills for understanding the impact of cultural and social factors on occupation. An OT student in an international fieldwork experience faces numerous challenges in leading a process that is both relevant and respectful to the characteristics of the local context: language, cultural perceptions of occupation and personhood, religious backgrounds, health care access, etc. These challenges stand out as ethical considerations that must be considered when navigating an international fieldwork experience (AOTA, 2009). For more than five years now, the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine (FRM) of the University of Alberta (UoFA) and the School of Medicine and Health Sciences at the Universidad del Rosario (UR), Bogota, Colombia, have sustained a productive and meaningful international collaboration. This collaboration includes a visit by Dr. Albert Cook, professor of the FRM and former dean, to the UR as the main guest speaker in the International Congress of Technologies for Disability Support (IBERDISCAP) in 2008. Furthermore, Dr. Cook was a speaker in the research seminar of the Assistive Technology Research Group of the Universidad del Rosario. Following Dr. Cook’s visit, Professors Liliana Álvarez and Adriana Ríos travelled to Edmonton and initiated collaboration with the FRM, resulting in the signing of an agreement between the FRM and the UR in 2009, agreement that has been maintained to this day. The main goal of this agreement is to increase academic and cultural cooperation between the UR and the UofA. Other activities have included the cooperation between Dr. Kim Adams (who has largely maintained interest and effort in supporting the capacity building of the UR rehabilitation programs in coordinating the provision of research placement opportunities for UR students at the UofA), an Assistive Technology course for clinicians and students led by Dr. Adams, and a research project that researched the use of basic cell phones to provide social interaction and health information access for people with disabilities in a low-income community in Colombia (led by Tim Barlott, OT, MSc, under the supervision of Dr. Adams). Since the beginning, the occupational therapy programs of the Universidad del Rosario and the University of Alberta have promoted this collaboration and have strived to engage in interactions that provide further development opportunities for students and staff. As part of this process, the international placement experience of UofA OT students was born under the leadership of: Claudia Rozo, OT program director at UR, placement and academic leadership of Elvis Castro and Angélica Monsalve, professors of the occupational therapy program at UR; and Dr. Lili Liu, OT department director at UofA, Cori Schmitz, Academic coordinator of clinical education at the UofA; and Tim Barlott and Liliana Álvarez leading the international and cross-cultural aspect of this collaboration.This publication summarizes and illustrates the process of international placement in community settings in Colombia, undertaken by occupational therapy students of the University of Alberta. It is our hope that this document can provide and document the ethical considerations of international fieldwork experience, the special characteristics of communities and the ways in which cultural and social competences are developed and help international students navigate the international setting. We also hope that this document will stimulate discussion among professional and academic communities about the importance and richness of international placement experiences and encourage staff and students to articulate their daily efforts with the global occupational therapy agenda.

Prevalencia de riesgo psicosocial en personal civil y militar en una unidad militar de Bogotá Colombia 2014

El estudio se realizó en 2014 para establecer la prevalencia de los factores de riesgo psicosocial en el personal civil y militar en una unidad militar de Bogotá D.C. De una población universo de 632 funcionarios, se tomó por muestreo probabilístico aleatorio a 264 funcionarios a quienes se les aplicó los cuestionarios para la evaluación de Factores de Riesgo Psicosocial Intralaboral, extralaboral, síntomas de estrés y la ficha de datos sociodemográficos y ocupacionales, de la Batería de Instrumentos del Ministerio de Trabajo Colombia [1]. El estudio permitió establecer que los niveles de riesgo con síntomas de estrés son altos; el 61,74% presenta riesgo Muy alto y Alto, el 15,53% riesgo medio y 22.73% riesgo Bajo y Muy bajo. El riesgo más alto lo presentan los oficiales, seguido del personal civil y suboficiales. De mantenerse las condiciones actuales sin intervención fácilmente podrían incrementarse y de acuerdo con el modelo sistémico expuesto por Villalobos 2005, se podrían asociar a respuestas de estrés [2], por tanto se recomienda implementar un Sistema de Vigilancia Epidemiológica para riesgo psicosocial con base en los diagnósticos y sistema de gestión en seguridad y salud en el trabajo, donde se involucre personal con diagnóstico de patología mental.

The persistent colombian conflict bubnational analysis of the duration of violence

The growing empirical literature on the analysis of civil war has recently included the study of conflict duration at the cross-country level. This paper presents, for the first time, a within-country analysis of the determinants of violence duration. I focus on the experience of the Colombian armed conflict. While the conflict has been active for about five decades, local violence ebbs and flows and areas experiencing continuous conflict coexist with places that have been able to resile and where violence is mostly absent. I examine a wide range of factors potentially associated with violence duration at the municipal level, including scale variables, geographical conditions, economic and social variables, institutions and state presence, inequality, government intervention, and victimization variables. I characterize a few variables robustly correlated with the persistence of localized conflict, both across specifications and using different econometric models of duration analysis.

Violence and growth in colombia : a review of the quantitative literature

This is a critical review of the empirical literature on the relationship between violence and economic growth in Colombia: an interesting case study for social scientists studying violence, conflict, crime and development. We argue that, despite the rapid development of this literature and the increasing use of new techniques, there is still much room for research. After assessing the contribution of the most influential papers on the subject, we suggest directions for future research.

Don't make war, make elections : Franchise extension and violence in XIXth-century Colombia

This paper studies the effect of strengthening democracy, as captured by an increase in voting rights, on the incidence of violent civil conflict in nineteenth-century Colombia. Empirically studying the relationship between democracy and conflict is challenging, not only because of conceptual problems in defining and measuring democracy, but also because political institutions and violence are jointly determined. We take advantage of an experiment of history to examine the impact of one simple, measurable dimension of democracy (the size of the franchise) on con- flict, while at the same time attempting to overcome the identification problem. In 1853, Colombia established universal male suffrage. Using a simple difference-indifferences specification at the municipal level, we find that municipalities where more voters were enfranchised relative to their population experienced fewer violent political battles while the reform was in effect. The results are robust to including a number of additional controls. Moreover, we investigate the potential mechanisms driving the results. In particular, we look at which components of the proportion of new voters in 1853 explain the results, and we examine if results are stronger in places with more political competition and state capacity. We interpret our findings as suggesting that violence in nineteenth-century Colombia was a technology for political elites to compete for the rents from power, and that democracy constituted an alternative way to compete which substituted violence.

Behavioral differences in violence: the case of intra-group differences of paramilitaries and guerrillas in Colombia

In most studies on civil wars, determinants of conflict have been hitherto explored assuming that actors involved were either unitary or stable. However, if this intra-group homogeneity assumption does not hold, empirical econometric estimates may be biased. We use Fixed Effects Finite Mixture Model (FE-FMM) approach to address this issue that provides a representation of heterogeneity when data originate from different latent classes and the affiliation is unknown. It allows to identify sub-populations within a population as well as the determinants of their behaviors. By combining various data sources for the period 2000-2005, we apply this methodology to the Colombian conflict. Our results highlight a behavioral heterogeneity in guerrilla’s armed groups and their distinct economic correlates. By contrast paramilitaries behave as a rather homogenous group.

Psycological violence against women in Colombia

Although violence against women has gain attention, there is little evidence of studies about phycological violence against a partner. This paper uses data from Encuesta Nacional de Demografíay Salud (ENDS) to assess empirically models of violence against a partner. One of the main findingsis that the higher the economic independence of the women, the lower the phycologicalviolence against a partner. Some other results show that women with higher education level, belongingto a violent or low income family and living in cities different from Bogotá is correlatedwith higher probability of phycological violence.

Projet transnational CONVIVIR ES VIVIR : Prévention de la violence à lïécole 1997-1999.

Recoge una serie de prácticas estudiadas y desarrolladas en el Proyecto Transnacional 'Convivir Vivir, formación del profesorado para la prevención de la violencia escolar'. El objetivo fundamental de este proyecto es la actualización y formación del profesorado para enfrentarse a estos problemas, contando con la colaboración de todos los miembros de la comunidad educativa en el proceso de búsqueda de vías de convivencia armónica.

La violencia en el ??mbito escolar = La violence dans l'??cole = Violence in School

Percepciones y preocupaciones del profesorado con respecto a la violencia en la Educaci??n Secundaria y a las posibilidades de la educaci??n para elaborar estrategias y alternativas v??lidas para educar en favor de la paz, la justicia y el desarrollo. 42 profesores de Educaci??n Secundaria, seleccionados en funci??n de: cobertura geogr??fica, disponibilidad y criterios de tipo pr??ctico. La investigaci??n se distribuy?? en cuatro fases, la primera de car??cter exploratorio y de inmersi??n en la comunidad, en la segunda se realiz?? una din??mica con un grupo de discusi??n formado por educadores con circunstancias personales, profesionales y acad??micas distintas, en la tercera la realizaci??n de entrevistas pretest y selecci??n de la muestra y en la cuarta la interpretaci??n y categorizaci??n de la informaci??n obtenida de las entrevistas. Investigaci??n cualitativa de car??cter cuasi-etnogr??fico. No se puede afirmar que se disponga de un paradigma conceptual capaz de interpretar la naturaleza del problema de la violencia escolar en todas sus dimensiones. Su estudio requiere de una reflexi??n profunda sobre el alcance del problema que ponga las bases para comprender su naturaleza y gu??e el camino de la intervenci??n educativa para prevenirla; para ello es necesario multiplicar los procesos de investigaci??n y de intervenci??n que permitan acceder, de forma democr??tica y no traum??tica a su comprensi??n y erradicaci??n.

Effectiveness of a treatment programme for immigrants who committed gender-based violence against their partners

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Gender-based violence against women with visual and physical disabilities

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Development and validation of the Occupational Hardiness Questionnaire

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Justification beliefs of violence, myths about love and cyber dating abuse

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Gender and cultural effects on perception of psychological violence in the partner

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Sexting, psychological distress and dating violence among adolescents and young adults

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