Solowoniuk, Jason

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    Aboriginal Science Symposium: Enabling Aboriginal student success in post-secondary institutions
    (Rural and Remote Health Online, 2010) Kulig, Judith Celene; Duke, Michelle; Solowoniuk, Jason; Weaselfat, Roy; Shade, Cam; Wojtowicz, Bernadine; Lamb, Marilyn
    Context: Research in the sciences is now beginning to acknowledge what many Aboriginal educators and students have experienced or witnessed in educational curricula, a general dismissal of Indigenous knowledge as being considered scientifically ‘worthy’. This is the result of educational institutions’, and the systems within which they are placed, failure to teach from broad cultural orientations. Aboriginal persons are under-represented in post-secondary education programs, with a similar disparity in the limited number of Aboriginal persons holding careers in health, science and engineering occupations. Issues: The University of Lethbridge is attempting to increase the number of Aboriginal students who successfully complete programs in a variety of areas. To that end, the Support Program for Aboriginal Nursing Students (SPANS) commenced in Fall 2007 in order to increase the numbers of Aboriginal students who enter and complete the 4 year nursing program. At one time there were as few as 2–3 Aboriginal nursing students across the 4 years of the program. Since SPANS began there are now 34 students of Aboriginal background across all 4 years of the nursing program. This is noteworthy because statistically there are only 1200 Aboriginal Registered Nurses in Canada, a daunting statistic that is alarming low. One of the objectives of SPANS is to enhance the nursing faculty and clinical instructors’ understanding of Aboriginal science so that it can be integrated into the current curriculum. With this aim, an Aboriginal Science Symposium was held in May 2009 to bring nursing faculty together with other University faculty and experts in Aboriginal science. The symposium attempted to highlight the links between programs in nursing and health sciences and the need for integration with Aboriginal science. The 3 specific symposium objectives were to: (1) generate an understanding of traditional scientific knowledge; (2) bridge Aboriginal and Western scientific thought, toward and; (3) understand ways of implementing and raising awareness of how Aboriginal knowledge and understanding of science can be applied to help inform and improve teaching in all educational science settings. Lessons learned: From keynote addresses, panel group discussions, and breakout sessions, participant responses to the symposium objectives coalesced into 4 themes: (1) Aboriginal ways of knowing: informing Western science curricula; (2) Elders and community, enhancing science education; (3) Aboriginal student experience in the science classroom; and (4) strategies and advice to meet the needs of the Aboriginal science student.
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    An archetypal inquiry into the gambler's counterfeit quest for wholeness : a phenomenological-hermeneutics investigation
    (Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Faculty of Education, 2006, 2006) Solowoniuk, Jason; University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Education; Nixon, Gary; Gunn, Thelma
    A phenomenological-hermeneutic method of study was employed to ascertain whether archetypal psychology could contribute to the biopsychosocial model's understanding of gambling pathology. After analysis, four-stage process was brought to light, consisting of 16 themes. These themes chronologically illustrated the journey of becoming and recovering from pathological gambling disorder from inception to the present day. Equally, these themes illustrated developmental aspects of the individuation process and displayed how the archetypes' manifestation and integration helped to restore ego functioning leading to an established and sustained recovery process. In all, these stages demonstrate and suggest that archetypal psychology can make a viable contribution to the biopsychosocial model's understanding of gambling pathology. Therefore, the study's findings may support further study between archetypal psychology and gambling pathology, as this perspective may have important insights toward helping pathological gamblers gain a foothold on their addictive process leading to a meaningful and purposive future.
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    The Counterfeit Hero’s Journey of the Pathological Gambler: A Phenomenological Hermeneutics Investigation
    (Springer, 2006-07) Nixon, Gary; Solowoniuk, Jason; McGowan, Virginia Margaret
    This research study sought to interpret and strove toward understanding the lived experience of 13 pathological gambler from an archetypal–mythic perspective. Through a phenomenological hermeneutics inquiry, 11 clusters of themes were illuminated. These themes highlighted a three stage mythical journey that elucidated how gambling began as regular pastime, but ended in failure in regards to becoming extraordinary and financially secure. Thus, resulting in extreme gambling behaviors such as psychological distress, family disintegration, and self-effacement. Clinical implications from this inquiry suggest that understanding pathological gambling from a archetypal–mythical perspective not only encapsulates our current paradiagms of thought about gambling, but may offer a more a holistic approach to understanding the pathological gambler as it sets its theoretical tenets in a cultural, historical, and psychosocial world.
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    "Double trouble": The lived experience of problem and pathological gambling in later life
    (Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, 2005) Nixon, Gary; Solowoniuk, Jason; Hagen, Brad F.; Williams, Robert J.
    Objective: The objective of this phenomenological qualitative study was to explore the lived experience of older adults who engage in problem or pathological gambling. Method and sample: Older adults who gambled were recruited and were administered two gambling screens to ensure that they met the criteria for problem or pathological gambling. Eleven problem-pathological gamblers were identified and contributed their narratives via in-depth interviews about their experiences of problem or pathological gambling. Results: Several themes arising from the interviews were similar to patterns identified with younger gamblers, yet distinct patterns emerged. Some older gamblers gamble as an opportunity to break away and escape from traditional roles and go to extreme measures to continue their gambling while hiding it from significant others. Conclusion: Despite research suggesting few seniors encounter problems with gambling, this qualitative study suggests that gambling can have devastating consequences. Older adults may have lessened ability and time to recover from these consequences or from hitting bottom.
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    Introducing the Hero Complex and the Mythic Iconic Pathway of Problem Gambling
    (Springer, 2008) Nixon, Gary; Solowoniuk, Jason
    Early research into the motivations behind problem gambling reflected separate paradigms of thought splitting our understanding of the gambler into divergent categories. However, over the past 25 years, problem gambling is now best understood to arise from biological, environmental, social, and psychological processes, and is now encapsulated under the biopsychosocial model. While, the biopsychosocial model brings a great degree of understanding regarding the etiology and process becoming a problem gambler, it is clear that further research is needed to improve theoretical perspectives that identify causal trajectories that underlie gambling related problems amongst sub-groups of problem gamblers. One line of research that has gone understudied with respect to exploring such causal paths is the Mythic Iconic Pathway of problem gambling. Such a pathway conceptualizes gambling pathology as a life-world phenomenon that arises within an individual who filters perceptions of the self and world through a hero’s complex. Thus, this paper will outline the Mythic Iconic Pathway, including its phenomenological processes, and describe the key therapeutic insights and implications to consider when adopting such a novel approach toward understanding and treating the problem gambler. Keywords Problem gambling - Biopsychosocial - Mythic - Icon - Hero’s journey
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    Transplanted Lives: Immigration Challenges and Pathological Gambling Among Four Canadian Chinese Immigrants
    (Tung Wah Group of Hospitals and The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007) Lee, Bonnie K.; Fong, Mary; Solowoniuk, Jason
    The contribution of immigration stress to the development of pathological gambling is complex to delineate. Four in-depth case studies of Chinese who emigrated from Hong Kong to Canada in the years 1968 to 1974 reveal a late onset of pathological gambling nearly 30 years after immigration. Immigration stresses in the form of language and cultural barriers, intensified work, lack of leisure and recreation, insecurity of employment, racial discrimination, and social isolation are described by the participants. Chronic stresses from immigration interact over time with dwindling psycho-social resources as a result of marital alienation and a thinning social support and extendedfamily network. Discordant marital relationships deprive these immigrants of comforting havens in a new land despite their financial and material success. In mid-adulthood (age 47-59) three decades after immigration, life crises, deaths, transitions, empty nest as well as job insecurity overtax these immigrants’ coping capacities. These major life challenges activate unresolved early psychological trauma resulting in overwhelming distress for these individuals. Ignorant of the risks, these immigrants found gambling to be an outlet for their dysphoria and for meeting psychological needs. This study is limited by the small sample size of a specific cohort of four Chinese immigrants in Canada. Findings therefore serve only as a hypothesis for future studies. In-depth family assessment in the treatment of pathological gamblers and the addressing of marital relationships in problem gambling prevention and treatment programs for immigrants are recommended.
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    Value of a health behavior change reflection assignment for health promotion learning
    (Network: Towards Unity for Health, 2011-08) Lee, Bonnie K.; Yanicki, Sharon M.; Solowoniuk, Jason
    This article reports on the value of a reflection assignment in an undergraduate health promotion course for Addictions Counseling students at the University of Lethbridge, a mid-sized university in Western Canada. The Addictions Counseling Program (ACP) was developed in the mid-1990s as a response to the widening crisis of addiction globally6. Currently, this program is the only Bachelor’s Degree program in Canada that prepares addictions counselors for front-line work in the areas of prevention, assessment and treatment of substance dependency, problem gambling, sex addiction and other addictive behaviors.