Human Ecology Week 3

the process of life the ceaseless flow of energy and matter through a network of chemical reactions which enables a living organism to continually generate, repair and perpetuate itself. Aka involves intake, digestion, and transformation of food. · central characteristic of bio life.

Metabolism

Ultimate goal of all literacies (2)

(ex: financial literacy, food literacy) • Is behaviour change (ex: if people aren't eating a good diet, might need to give them some tips on how they can change their diet/ their behaviour); however, this is a difficult and complex phenomenon (ex: changing your diet means changing how you grocery shop, cook, how you portion the meals, how many times a day you eat, what's available when you go to work, etc. many things that influence a simple behaviour of eating). • We must, therefore, also understand the role of values, attitudes, beliefs, habits, experiences, and cultural backgrounds • In other words, we must take a holistic or 'systems' approach! o Ex: middle aged man has been eating one way all his life and comes to you for guidance on changing his diet, its hard to change what you've been doing for 50 years. Not going to overnight. Must think where he works, where his wife buys groceries, how does she cook the food, etc.

effects on societal influence on work c) Stress

*Some see it as positive (e.g., as a source of creativity or an opportunity to meet challenges, motivation to meet a deadline) • Others feel overwhelmed by it- can sink you • Often triggered by - Unreasonably long hours - Role ambiguity (not sure what you're supposed to do. Ex: during Trump admin many bureaucrats didn't know what they were supposed to do cause everything was turned upside down and he would make statements that were policy statements and the people who actually write the policies and run the gov were caught off guard because its their job to write the policy and he just put it on twitter. Very stressful for them because their jobs weren't running the way they normally were in admin). - Poor communication b/n management & staff (don't know what boss wants and they keep changing their mind). - Negative office politics (ex: gossip. Can be detrimental for office moral and create stress) · Stress can occur when theres conflict between work and fam responsibilities o Ex: comic below mom got job at library. Her kid is sick and now she has to call daycare and the library to let them know she can't come and she says it was easier when she wasn't working, and the kid says, "yeah when you were a real mom." This is the tension and stress that occurs when mom has a full-time job outside the home but is also responsible for childcare duties so it creates stress • Prolonged stress weak immune system - Risk factor for chronic disease (in addition to diet but prolonged stress is stronger predictor) - Poor mental health - Burnout (ex: in our health care workers) - Family & marital problems - Accidents (because not thinking straight or focusing) - Alcohol & substance abuse

Historical Perspective on Hestian and Hermean systems CLASSICAL ERA

- 7th century BC rise of Christianity fall of the Roman Empire early Middle Ages - Private and public world are being more separated but still of an equal value. Ex: politicians at this time had their meetings in their homes and had their fams there. Roman men worked outside the home (fighting battles) but missed their fams dearly. So more of a separation but still an equal value. - State and private world becoming separated - Household still connected to public world; equal value to society

• Interdependent components

- All members affected by a change in one member (mutual influence). Ex: all members in a fam are affected by a change in another member. Ex: when you went to uni, that changed your fam, their dynamic. More ex: kid goes to school for first time, someone gets married, someone dies= all things that happen. Ex: if a kid gets in trouble and goes to jail, it doesn't just affect them, it affects the whole fam. - Causes of problems are ALL complex; therefore, we need to look at problems holistically and in context (because of these interdependent components). Ex: you have a client, they come into your office, shes middle aged and having issues with weight and wants guidance. You need to be asking what her fam situation is, how many kids does she have to take care of, is her husband working, is she taking care of her parents or husband's parents= All adds pressure and maybe her eating is in response to the pressure she feels from all this extra responsibility.

Asking for Help

- All need help when having demands on our time. - finding ways to protect our time for fams and ourselves= crucial. · hire household help for laundry, cooking, etc (if finances allow). · Live near parents/ other relatives for support. · Investing in good childcare= essential to emotional well-being at work. · Get help with emotional or spiritual issues o Stigma of counselling= receding. encouraged in palliative care community for patients and providers to explore their feelings/ values. Seek help from colleagues/mentors at work when overwhelmed/at risk of burnout

Cognitive Reframing and Building Resilience

- Be aware of common cog distortions that get in the way at work, home and in attempts to find good work-life balance. · Easy to let negative internal message derail momentum and discourage us from reaching goals ("failed," "I'm a bad parent," etc.). · May appear colleagues= thriving in their balance. May think "what's wrong w me?" - The critical voices= unhelpful - Identifying negative messages= first step in moving forward. Learning how to counter them with more balanced thoughts, on our own or with help if friend/ therapist = powerful tool in problem solving and making positive changes. - Negative thoughts, when analyzed= overgeneralizations, black and white thinking, or catastrophizing - Dwelling on what we "should" be able to do leads to insecurity and guilt. · "How can I do this better?" is better than "I really should have gotten this work-life balanced figured out by now." Leads to curiosity and problem-solving mentality, rather than self-defeat. o Many cog techniques enable us to accept ourselves and find better balance

Historical perspective on hestean and Herman systems INDUSTRIAL AGE

- Complete separation of domestic & political worlds. Private world became private and had to go outside to get a job (ex: had to go to factory to get a job, no longer producing things within the home). - Work now centred outside the home - Impetus for the Home Economics movement. What started the home economics movement= the separation of public and private sphere. Family shifted from production to consumption

• Boundaries

- Exist around each family system - Boundaries exist to distinguish this system from another system. Same for fams. There's a boundary around each fam. One way to understand= when going to a restaurant that's a fam restaurant and you decide to go and sit with another fam (maybe they look like theyre having a good time and you're not where you are)- that wouldn't be acceptable. There's (an invisible) a boundary around that fam, they're sitting at a table enjoying their dinner and the expectation is you go to another table and sit with your own fam. The boundaries are there but invisible. - Boundary= Interface between the family and its environment (we cannot understand families apart from the context in which they are found). So you're trying to help fams, and you're talking to the kids and the parents, but if you want to understand that fam you need to understand its environment like where are they living, are the parents working, is there a kid with disabilities in the fam- there's lots of things that can have an effect on how that fam functions. - Varying degrees of permeability (how much matter / energy / information is allowed in / out of the system). Some fams are very closed. And some fams with young kids typically are closed until kids go to school and then the world opens up to them and parents don't have as much control as they did when the kids were young. Some fams are open- theres kids staying there all the time and staying overnight, and the doors open. So there's different degrees of permeability around fam systems - Boundaries between subsystems also of interest (e.g., intergenerational boundaries between parental subsystem and sibling subsystem). Ex: theres a difference between the parental subsystem and sibling subsystem- ex: siblings can talk to each other and have their own system apart from their parents, things they don't tell their parents, and then parents have their own subsystem where they are handling many things they don't tell their kids. So, you can have boundaries even within the boundary of the main fam.

• Hierarchy

- Families are part of neighbourhood suprasystems; neighbourhoods are part of community suprasystems. Fam might be the smaller unit as part of the larger neighborhood, as part of the community, as part of the world. - Subsystems also reflect patterns of relationships among family members. Ex: parents have stronger and higher hierarchy than kids but not always true. Kids have strong nagging power (ex: to get what they want), but they're powerful enough to affect parents when buying a vehicle because they now advertise in a way to kids these new vehicles (ex: kid gets excited about one because it will fit their whole soccer team and they want that one). Surprising the power kids have even though parents are higher on hierarchy in that fam. - Various subsystems may hold differing levels of power within the family system (e.g., parental subsystem). Ex: sometimes parents might be strict like "curfew is 11 no exceptions." In other systems, kids have strong say in, are very vocal and say this is what we're gonna do and how we'll do it and parents may not be as strong to resist that. In older times there was expression that kids were seen and not hears which was true kids didn't talk back to their parents, didn't speak at dinner, but now that's much different because kids are more vocal and have actually a lot of power over parents.

• Goals

- Families strive to achieve goals - Change over time as family members grow and change, mature, over time. (ex: early goal might be getting kids into a good school, but over time might be to make sure they get good nursing home for their seniors because that will occur over time so goals have to change) - Exist at the family system level (ex: to have dinner together every Sunday night) and may not always coincide with goals of individual members (ex: kid wants to be with her friends on Sunday because we watch the football game together). So can create tension.

historical perspective on hestean and Herman systems PRESENT DAY

- Family and household overshadowed by business and commercial world - Family values not always high on gov't agenda (ex: they usually talk about economy, or foreign policy or environment, etc. not fams and what could help fams) Families get little attention until something goes wrong. Ex: no one payed attention to the fact that the man was living out of his car with his daughters until he accidentally killed the variety store clerk and then it was big news. Why wasn't it big news before that and no one was helping him take care of his fam

Strategies That Can Assist with Work-Life Balancing Work Environment

- Flexibility in timing and location of work (full or part time) = promotes work-life balance in business world. - Clinicians= job flexibility may be difficult to achieve- patients must be seen in clinic or hospital, during business hours. - Clinician-educators or researchers= more opportunity for flexibility in timing and location of academic work. Teleconferencing tech allows participation in meetings from home, mobile tech offers flexibility in addressing urgent issues that arise during the day. - Academic work can be done in evening- gives people flexibility to pick up kids from school or care for ailing parent during day. - Part time work gives physicians the opportunity to shape careers in ways that meet individualized personal and professional needs. · Part time physician in outpatient internal medicine clinics have higher productivity and provide equal quality care. - People who choose part time work at some point in career will become full time employees again later. - Recruitment of new employees to replace part timers= expensive and leads to loss of talented, dedicated people. - Part time clinicians work dedication can be shown by objectively measured outcomes, not working a certain number of hours. - With part time/ flexible work, there will be trade-ffs. Decreased face time with employers/colleagues may mean missing spontaneous project or leadership opportunities, or not being thought of when new opportunities arise. - In academic medicine, researchers and clinician-educators may need to renegotiate expectations for productivity temporarily. Career goals like promotion= take longer to achieve, but other values-congruent life experiences may be more achievable and lead to greater work fulfillment. · institutions can support part time faculty by extending time limit for promotion, appreciating/rewarding collab work, providing fam-friendly supports like onsite child/elder care.

- Ellie Boulds (?)= spheres of influence map = - Challenges with this map/ module=

- Great variety of influences on us and are interconnected under power sphere she has institutions and industry. But individuals have a great deal of power too not just industry. Kids have power over parents at times and individuals can have power when they decide to do things like boycott products or the way people vote. So individuals have a lot of power also.

Hestia -goddess of

- Greek goddess of the hearth (fireplace) and home and the systems that sustain it (ex: food, shelter, fam relationships, caring etc.) - Private world

Historical perspective on Hestian and Hermean systems PRE-CLASSICAL ERA

- Household is a self-contained unit (small unit) in a self-contained biosystem - Little 'public / political' world (basically just taking care of your own fam) - Characteristic of primitive societies - POLIS = Public domain - OIKOS = Private domain

· Inputs and outputs

- Information / energy / matter that is imported into the system or exported from it - Inputs (food, goods, info, etc.) are transformed into outputs (behaviours of family members (ex: when in the workforce), garbage (fams create garbage), contributions in the workplace, socialized offspring (what's taught to kids at home and how are they taught to eat dinner, etc, then when they go into the world like in school or other fams, are they socialized into being productive members of society etc.). - inputs (what comes in gets transformed into outputs). - Inputs, outputs and then the transformational processes= what happens in that fam life, that you transform your baby into a functioning, well-adjusted adult.

Timeshifting and Mindfulness (assisting to work-life balance)

- Our society= high-paced. Feel pressured to make good use of our time. we rarely slow down and if we do we feel guilty that we wasted time. this= contrast to our ancestors. · Earlier societies, esp agricultural ones dominated by the season, had rhythms that imposed hard work and rest. · Our society= work takes larger and increasing % of our time. despite techs to make our lives easier/more efficient, we feel "time poverty." feel we're at mercy of time - Rechtschaffen scenario: group of successful professionals have trouble relaxing during their vacations; slowing down has become foreign and uncomfortable. · we must develop ability to "downshift" and move fast to be refreshed/ productive · How to downshift= first develop awareness of our bodies (lost in high-speed world) · Timeshifting requires mindfulness/ cultivating awareness of our thoughts and sensations in present time. wherever (ex: waiting for elevator, etc.), train yourself to notice sights, smells, sounds around you. feel time slows and feel less stress. Alternating between periods of intense activity and relaxation can be renewing · ability to timeshift allows one to feel happier and more efficient.

Affordable high quality childcare is (6)

- Parents able to be gone and know their kids are being properly cared for - Important for society to move forward. Needs to be good quality, not someone down the street not regulated and you don't know what they're doing. - rare in some countries - an investment in our future workforce - an important component of an effective population health & human development strategy -Mom might be getting older and cant keep up with kids

• Adaptability of a system is

- Positively related to the amount and variety of resources available. It must be flexible to change with the environment (e.g., a baby grows up, subsystems change over time. must adapt your fam system- can't have same toys, or routine (ex: 10-year-old won't go for nap. 2-year-old yeah). This is where fam system is constantly changing so you must be aware and flexible. The more aware, the easier it is to adapt and change the system. - Negatively related to conflict and tension (e.g., if there is no communication, inputs are not transformed into outputs). System isn't adaptable if no one communicates/ talks to each other-Not adaptable in terms of transferring inputs- ex: food comes in the house and transforming that to kids who are fed when they go to school, if no one talks to each other and no one decides to get the breakfast ready). So, systems must be adaptable because changes are constant. More flexibility people have and more resources available, the easier that is to do.

Hestian side=

- Private domain - Has to do with our domestic life. About all invisible things that happen in our world privately. How we connect with and care about people. There are intrinsic rewards- ex: if I want to make cookies for my kids because I love them. feel a sense of pride and accomplishment that you did something nice for them. - Concrete things that happen in the home. Ex: someone has to get the food ready and take out garbage, etc.= all concrete things you can see and you knew when they're not done. - Domestic economy= your household budget (many don't understand how to manage a household budget and end up in trouble so can you afford to buy a coffee every day, or eat dinner out every night? Not likely. So most people have to judge that and see how they can match what they spend with what they earn. - Domestic science= food safety issues and doing laundry well so kids are clean and well taken care of. - Home economics fits within this private domain.

• Hestian response to problems=

- Proactive (try to prevent them from happening in the first place. Ex: if kid isn't getting to school on time it's because/ root cause= they're not waking up on time. - Look at the root causes and remove them to prevent problems - Hestian domain= Private domain

Hermean side=

- Public domain. Things that happen in the public sphere. It's our civic life. - Visible and audible. Ex: you can see the roads, can see what happens in the court system or the police stop you for speeding. - Ideology of control- Gov that makes laws for how our system works - Ethics of justice- we have to have policing and courts and judicial system- important because it keeps the word from anarchy. - Extrinsic rewards= getting a paycheck, recognition from your boss. - Abstract world= stock market, the economy (I know how to manage my budget but how are politicians managing the billions of dollars in budgets), insurance, etc. - Political economy, political science, economics= things that happen in our civic life - Not to say this isn't valuable. public domain is valued, and we are part of the public domain. What's happened= private domain has been devalued. People haven't valued it as much even though it should be equal, and we live in both worlds. The home life is about sustenance, making sure people are fed and clothed and taking care of people (things we do in our private world). in public world we have government, dominance, police to tell me I can't do certain things and that's the way it is a different discourse, a different way. but it's not wrong. Challenging thing= we haven't valued the private domain enough and we have suffered because of this. Ex: man was living with his kids in his car in New York. They had no home, he'd lost his job. We're afraid to go to a shelter because of fear of violence. He needed help but wasn't getting it so he was frustrated and decided he would rob a convenient store but because he was so nervous he ended up pulling the trigger of his gun and killed the clerk. He didn't mean to hurt/ kill her. So headlines in the newspaper was man shoots store clerk in robbery but nobody said anything about what was happening with that guy trying to feed his kids and take care of them living in his car. so family issues only seem to come to the fore front when there's a problem but otherwise there's this expectation that everything will go well, parents will be able to take care of the kids, kids grow up to be great citizens without any support and that's whats been the problem. Thus we have to value both these systems of interaction

· Hermean response to problems=

- Reactive - Implement quick, short-term solutions (ex: building more prisons. Doesn't solve the root cause of why people are in prison in the first place). - Hermean domain= Public domain

• Rules

- Reflect repeated patterns in family systems - Some fams have different rules than other fams. Something to consider when moving in with someone/ starting a fam with someone who was raised with different rules than you were. - Can be explicit (known to people inside and outside). Ex: people know when they come into my house to take their shoes off because all shoes are at the front door. - Can also be implicit (often develop over time). ex: one family might put dirty dishes on one specific side of the sink and clean ones on the other but it might be the reverse side for another fam so if someone came to the house, they wouldn't know that they do it differently. - Note: must be tolerant and patient because all fams do things differently. Every fam has their own little culture. And as people start to live together there might be culture clashes. Prescribe all aspects of family member interactions

Shifts in perspectives from parts to whole in systems thinking= (6)

-From objects to relationships -from measuring to mapping -from contents to patterns -from quantity to quality -from objective knowledge to contextual knowledge -from emphasis on structure to process

strategies for work place balance must be addressed by (4)=

-employees -governemnt -employers -partners

Family Systems theory consists of=

-interdependent components -inputs and outputs -boundaries -hierarchy -rules -nonsummativity -goals -equifinality -feedback mechanisms -adaptibility

3. Common Systems Models in Home Economics

-spheres of influence -hestian and hermean -co-responsible option

Personal approaches to Assist work-life balance 5=

-timeshiftimg and mindfulness -setting goals -cognitive reframing and building resilience -taking care of ourselves -asking for help

- Must find variety of strategies (personal+professional) to assist us in negotiating balance. goals=

1) Aim to maximize the fit between ourselves and jobs by looking for employers that offer needed flexibility. 2) Advocate for more flexibility in current job, understand may/may not be successful 3) (Personal realm) Various techniques= consciously slowing down and cultivating mindfulness, which can help us become aware of our thoughts and physical sensations in the moment. This awareness lets you hold onto what is important and lower stress level. Make ones value explicit and set personal and professional goals. If values conflict, must wrestle with the discrepancy and make hard decisions. 4) take care of ourselves- physically, emotionally, and spiritually and learn to ask for/ accept help. identify sources of support- emotional and practical- in our fams, friends and communities.

Cog Reframing and building resilience - Our ability to cope with stress and maintain health during stressful times, correlates with 3 personality traits · Palliative care professionals= committed and have strong sense of purpose. Extent we learn to (2)= ________can lead to happier/ more fulfilled lives

1) Commitment or having sense of purpose 2) Taking stress as a challenge 3) Having an internal locus of control view stress as challenge and cultivate self-efficacy

- 4 areas of focus needed to make workplace more family- and personal life-friendly. · These environmental changes will contribute to improved and retention.

1) Promoting workplace flexibility 2) Legislating short term and extended time off 3) Providing good quality, subsidized child/adult care 4) Addressing discrimination against employees with fam responsibilities

- Balancing work and personal lives= hard but important. Must avoid pattern of delaying what we value most and prioritizing things of less value to us. - =a vital step to achieving balance and happiness= - In growing older= may feel regret if we haven't lived in concert with our values. · Patients are helped to understand this during goals of care convos. Owe ourselves the same respect and care.

Examining and living by our values

• Feedback mechanisms

Families have endless patterns of monitoring - Ex: spouse comes home from work and isn't in good mood = that's feedback. You may be more sensitive when responding to them because you know they had a hard day. Another ex of child not eating from above. - Families strive to maintain balance in their functioning (self-regulating, self-corrective) - Negative feedback • Discourages system change; restores equilibrium (homeostasis). • Could be a kid decides to stay out till 2 am and the parents might say that's not appropriate for their age and the parents want them back for 11 because they worry about them so kid might say they understand and won't do it again. So, fam goes back to equilibrium where parents expect the kid to be home for 11. • Doesn't mean negative as bad thing. Negative means it brings system back to the way it was. - Positive feedback • Results in changes in system patterns • Kid could say all their friends stay out past 11, it's too early and they'll be the only one leaving that early. So parents might say okay you're getting older now so we can push it to 12. So from then on the fam system has changed, and its now a new normal that curfew is 12. - Does not refer to the nature of the responses to a behaviour (doesn't mean good or bad thing in terms of negative or positive), but to the entire sequence of actions (whether it results in equilibrium or results in changes to the pattern).

Challenges to Work-Life Balancing - Work-life balance: the issue for most Americans. esp pressing for parents. · 90%/95% of US mothers/ fathers report work-fam conflict. 70% of American kids live in households where adults are employed. 25% of Americans are elders. · Federal policy doesn't provide specific supports for working parents. US lags behind the 30 industrialized democracies in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development in its support of working fams. - women entered professional workforce in greater #s= many clinicians are members of 2-earner fams; some single parents. Working people with kids feel caught between work and fams demands, esp when kids are young. - Women physicians often train/enter practice/academia during peak reproductive years. Men and women combine early career with parenting (combo can have significant effects on the health and stress of parents and fam unit). - Negative consequences for working parents= · Withdrawal from fam interaction, increased conflict in relationships, less knowledge of kids' experiences, shorter periods of breastfeeding for full-time mothers, depression, greater likelihood to misuse alcohol, and overall decrease in QOL. - Negative consequences at work for parents= · Psych stress from distressed fam units, decreased job satisfaction, greater likelihood of leaving the org, and increased absenteeism. - Many challenges to work-life balance esp for physicians' lives. in medicine, people's lives and well-being hand in the balance. Palliative care providers= often hospital based and must consider issues of patient continuity in the short periods they are working with patients and fams, where relationships building and rapport= crucial. - Physicians expected to work 50+ hours a week. Clinicians in academic medicine and private practice have esp long work weeks. Part time work is an option, but clinicians worry a reduction in hours could affect short term career success. Departments of internal medicine= reluctant to embrace part time careers (Linzer). Barriers to part time work= negative perceptions about part time individuals' work ethic and commitment to medicine, lower rates of promotion and tenure, less effective mentoring and less research support compared with full time physicians. - Structure of academic medicine makes part time work difficult · Not all institutions offer slowed down tenure clocks for part time faculty. · For those in research, most career development awards don't allow less than 50% effort and require special permission for less than 75% - Association of Specialty Profs task force produced consensus statement and recommendations, including allowing flexible time and part time work; countering negative perceptions about part time faculty; developing policies to allow flexibility in academic advancement; considering part time faculty as candidates for leadership positions; and encouraging granting agencies to consider part time faculty eligible for career development awards.

Study

Current World Problems - Once we become eco- literate, understand processes and patterns of relationships that enable ecosystems to sustain life, what we also understand= the ways human civilization, esp since Industrial Revolution, has ignored these ecological patterns/ processes and has interfered with them. also realize these interferences are causes of many current world problems. - Increasingly evident that the major problems of our time can't be understood in isolation. They're systemic problems. Meaning= they're interconnected+interdependent - Most masterful/detailed doc of fundamental interconnectedness of world problems= book by Lester brown, Plan B. · Brown= founder of Worldwatch Institute. Shows clearly how vicious circle of demographic pressure and poverty leads to depletion of resources-falling water tables, wells going dry, shrinking forests, etc.- and how this resource depletion, exacerbated by climate change produces failing states whose govs can't provide security for citizens, some of whom in desperation turn to terrorism. - All environmental problems are threats to our food security. Ex: more extreme climate events (ex: heat waves, flood), increasing diversion of gains to biofuel - Critical factor= world oil productions is reaching peak. Meaning= from now on, oil production will begin to decrease worldwide, extraction of the remaining oil will be more costly and thus price of oil continues to rise. most affected= oil-intensive segments of global economy, esp automobile, food and airline industries. - Search for alt energy sources= led to increased production of ethanol and other biofuels esp in US, Brazil and China. Since fuel-value of grain= higher on markets than food-value, more grain is diverted from food to producing fuels. · Same time= price of gain is moving up to oil-equivalent value. = a main reason for recent sharp rise of food prices. · Another reason= petrochemical, mechanized and centralized system of agriculture is highly dependent on oil and produce more expensive food as price of oil increases - How Price of grain being keyed to price of oil is possible= our global economic system has no ethical dimension. In such system, the Q of using grain to fuel cars or feed people has clear answer- market says cars. - Main lesson of Plan B= there are solutions to major problems of our time, some simple. But they require radical shift in our perceptions, thinking and values. We're at beginning of a fundamental change of worldview/ paradigms as radical as Copernican Revolution · Systems thinking and eco-literacy= 2 key elements of new paradigm and helpful for understanding interconnections between food, health and environment and for understanding profound transformation needed globally for humanity to survive o Even more perverse since 20% of grain harvest will supply less than 4% of automotive fuel. Entire ethanol production could easily be replaced by raising avg fuel efficiency by 20% which is nothing given techs available now · Recent sharp increase in grain prices has wreaked havoc in world's grain markets and world hunger= on the rise again after long steady decline. · Increased fuel consumption accelerates global warming-results in crop losses in heat waves and from loss of glaciers that feed rivers essential to irrigation - When thinking systemically and understand how these processes are interrelated, finding= vehicles we drive and other consumer choices made, have major impact on food supply to large populations in Asia and Africa. · These problems must be seen as different facets of one single crisis which is largely a crisis of perception. Derives from how most people in society and esp political and corp leaders, subscribe to concepts of an outdated worldview, a perception of reality inadequate for dealing with the globally interconnected world.

Study

Example of an ecological approach= • Breastfeeding intervention - To understand breastfeeding behaviours of women, consider mother-infant pair, family members thoughts, the healthcare system (how it supports them or doesn't), community organizations, and sociocultural factors. Must have interventions that look at all these levels. - Complementary and simultaneous interventions aim to • Increase partner and immediate family support- If wanting woman to breastfeed, must talk to partner because that's one of the main factors that influences if women breastfeed. Talk to husband tell its valuable for their child, and their development • Improve hospital policies and procedures- Even in hospital, have hospital have policies where they don't give baby a bottle right away- demand the baby be brought to you so you can breastfeed. • Encourage work site provisions (ex: need small room where you can have privacy to breastfeed child, not some dirty bathroom). • Modify body image perceptions and comfort levels (ex: some women said they wouldn't do it because they said common for men to be alarmed by it and tell the mother to go someone alone and hide to do it. Wasn't very accepted. Other women said they didn't want to lift their shirts and reveal their fat from when pregnant. Body image preventing them from doing a good thing. Interviewer recommended they wear a poncho so baby can be nursed underneath, and no one can see. Breastfeeding is not a one-woman job (UN) - Mothers need support from their Ø health providers Ø families Ø employers Ø communities Ø governments to give their children the healthiest possible start to life. - Breastfeeding protects children from illness, increases IQ, and creates a strong bond between mother & child =^example of systems thinking and how many levels there are that can support breastfeeding

Study

Men didn't always see that women staying home and doing all the housework and childrearing was work. Not seen as work because they aren't leaving the house and earning money like men. Women in realiy do a lot of work in the home and take on essential many different jobs in the home as seen in the photo above. Hestian interpretation= so much more than "just housewife."

Study

Setting Goals - to achieve goals, we must plan. Goals should be guided by our values, which should be made explicit in goal setting process. - Strategies to define and achieves our goals. Ex: · Write 10 long term goals every day for a week. At the end of the period, identify the 10 goals that are most consistently represented in the daily lists. Next write steps to make each major goal possible, breaking down the steps into yearly, monthly, weekly and daily tasks. · Complementary approach to goal setting= write a personal vision or mission statement. Tedious but challenge fantasy that we can "do it all," and forces one to set clear priorities professionally and personally. Gives permission to let go of certain things which could include an orderly and neat household, cooking for one's fam or keeping up with birthdays. Allows focus on things that are most important to us. · Regularly monitor whether one is meeting one's goals. Self-reflection about failure to meet goals leads to clarification about goals ("are they unrealistic?"), about oneself ("Am I getting in my own way?") or about one's values ("Have I really aligned my values and goals?"). reflecting on answers to these can get one back on track. - Recall life has many reasons= helps us set priorities and refrain from trying to do too much at once. · Goals/expectations at work require adjustment when caregiving requirements are high. Ex: Clinicians with young kids may decide to work part time, recognizing when childcare demands decrease, they can go back full time. - Physicians are perfectionists. Important survival tactic at work and home= know when one can get away with "good enough" and when perfectionist tendencies are needed. · Ex: must realize writing beautiful patient notes/ perfecting an email= not time effective. What is= communicating clearly. Knowing when to cut corners and when we shouldn't= important academic/ life skill.

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Systems Thinking - Ecological sustainability is a property of a web of relationships. meaning= to understand it properly/ to become eco-literate we must learn how to think in terms of relationships, interconnections, patterns and context. · In science this= systemic thinking/ systems thinking. · Crucial for understanding ecology because ecology (from Greek word oikos/ "household") = science of relationships among various members of Earth Household - Systems thinking emerges from series of interdisciplinary dialogues among bios, psychs and ecols in 1920s/30s. in these fields, scientists realized a living system- organism, ecosystem or social system= an integrated whole whose properties can't be reduced to those of smaller parts. - "systemic" properties= properties of the whole, which none of its parts have. Systems thinking involves shift of perspective from parts to the whole. "The whole is more than the sum of its parts."- early systems thinkers coined · Meaning? In what sense is the whole more than sum? =relationships. All essential properties of a living system depend on relationships among system's components - Systems thinking means thinking in terms of relationships. Understanding life requires shift of focus from objects to relationships. · Ex: each species in ecosystem helps sustain entire food web. If one species is decimated, the ecosystem will still be resilient if there are other species that can fulfill similar functions. · Aka stability of an ecosystem depends on its biodiversity, complexity of its network of relationships. = how we understand stability and resilience by understanding the relationships within the ecosystem. - Understanding relationships= not easy since it counters traditional scientific enterprise in western culture. · What's been told in science= things must be measured and weighed. · But relationships can't be measured/weighed; they must be mapped. · Thus, another shift= from measuring to mapping · Bio= recent ex of this shift in Human Genome Project. Scientists become acutely aware that to understand functioning of genes, must know their sequence on DNA AND we must map their mutual relationships and interactions. - When mapping relationships, what you'll find= certain configurations occur repeatedly (a pattern). Networks, cycles, feedback loops= exs of patterns of organization that are characteristic of life. · Another shift of perspective= from contents to patterns. - Mapping relationships and studying patterns= qualitative. · Shift= from quantity to quality. A pattern isn't a list of numbers but a visual image. - Study of relationships concerns relationships among system's components, and those between the system as a whole and surrounding larger systems. Relationships between system and its environment= context. · Ex: shape of a plant or color of bird depend on their environment- vegetation, climate, etc.- and on evolutionary history of species- historical context. · Systems thinking= always contextual thinking. · implied shift= from objective knowledge to contextual knowledge. - Must understand that living form= more than shape, more than static configuration of components in a whole. There is continual flow of matter through a living system, while its form is maintained; there is development and there is evolution. Understanding of living structure= linked to understanding of metabolic and developmental processes. · Shift from= emphasis on structure to process. - The shifts of emphasis= different ways of saying the same thing. Systems thinking means shift of perception from material objects and structures to the nonmaterial processes and patterns of organization that represent essence of life.

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Taking Care of Ourselves - Physical health= often low priority. Result= lack of exercise, poor diet, risk of poor health. - Stages of change model · We're often in "pre-contemplative" or "Contemplative" stage of behaviour change. Must change our paradigm to view exercise, good sleep, healthy eating as obligation o Psych benefits of regular physical activity + adequate sleep described by much literature · Costs of putting aside time for ourselves seems high thus preventing us from moving toward "Contemplative" and on to "Action". o We tell ourselves we will live healthier lives in the future. But health habits have cumulative impact on health outcomes, so we can't defer them without risking personal harm. Finding modest ways to exercise like walking upstairs to work make a difference. Getting preventative medical care, including dentistry and important screening tests= another important health behaviour. · More we make healthy behaviours into habits= more successful we become. Moving from "Pre-contemplation" through "Contemplation" and then to "Action" requires exploring our values and making a commitment to our loved ones and ourselves · Pre-contemplative, Contemplative, Action - Must also find ways to nurture ourselves emotionally and spiritually. · Nurturing our relationships with spouse or partner, kids, friends and other fam= vital part of self-care. For same, engagement in larger community can enhance well-being. Engaging in self-reflection like sharing stories and struggles with partners/friends, can legitimize our challenges, and help us gather the strength to persevere or change. Many studies find benefit of regular prayer, meditation, and reflective journaling - Must set boundaries at work. · Difficult in our medical culture- feel must put patients first even if result in personal neglect. Unsustainable in long run, leads to burnout, compassion fatigue or illness · Setting boundaries can take many forms (some not possible in some situations). Ex: committing to leaving work at certain time, learning to say no to non-essential projects and requests or not working in the evenings/weekends/holidays except in certain situations. · Taking all vacation time + "unplugging" from computers/ cells= important strategies

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Systems Thinking (The new facts of life) • Move from biology (back) to ecology (think ecosystems rather than single species) · Important because it reflects what we discuss in Home economics and the idea of ecology. • Emerged from series of interdisciplinary dialogues in the 1920s and 30s (Home Economists were part of this discussion of how we (and other disciplines) need to work together because no one's problem is the responsibility of one profession. Ex: not just nursing problem or educational problem, or housing problem, these things are all intertwined • Systems thinking is contextual thinking- ex: a child sitting in a classroom isn't just a kid sitting in a classroom or learning opportunity= the kid comes from a home, what did the kid eat for breakfast, what's the home life like, is the child wearing clothes appropriate for the weather, etc., lots of things must be thought of in terms of context for the kid in this ex to be successful in school. • Means thinking in terms of relationships (not a common way we're taught to think about things). Not easy, because we have been taught to weigh and measure things (science). The relationship between the child and parents or child and peers or child and teacher = Relationships cannot be/ difficult to measured and weighed; they need to be mapped (which requires a qualitative approach), you can observe it and make commentary but needs qualitative approach- need to talk to the kid and their parents to see what the relationship is like and how it works. = why qualitative research hasn't been valued as much as it could have been although it is more so now but in early days it wasn't, it wasn't measured and wasn't very scientific, but it has value. Lots of research that must be done qualitatively because it's the only way you can understand it. • Other things part of systems= Networks, cycles, and feedback loops are all examples of patterns of organization that are characteristic of life (why systems thinking makes so much sense) · Ex in terms of feedback= if you had a kid who comes home from school and doesn't want to eat dinner, you might think he stopped at his friend's house and ate something on the way home or isn't feeling well so you would take note but let it go but if the kid then didn't eat breakfast and dinner again the next night, you would start to get concerned. So the feedback you're getting from the kid= the kid isn't eating and you must make a response to that. Could be other things too like noticing your teen kids are mixing with the wrong crowd. So you're observing what their networks are and peers can have huge influence on young people esp in teen years so you don't want to be an overbearing parent but also want to be aware of the networks your kid is getting involved in.

Study- Might make smaller

is a strong reflection of the profession of home economics that we see things from this perspective. Important concept taking on more value today. Years ago wasn't considered important.

Systems theory

Do we live in a Hermean or Hestian domain?

We live in both Hermean and Hestian domain and there is interaction between them. different ways to deal with problems from both of these spheres.

degree to which an individual is able to simultaneously balance temporal, emotional + behavioural demands of paid work and fam responsibilities (Hill)

Work-family balance:

Work-life Balance or Integration? • Work-life balance -Implies= · Work-life integration=

a 'trade off' (one role for the other) Implies if theres balance and if you spend more time taking care of kids at home, the scale will tip more into that direction and you wont be putting in the work you need to in your payed job. Or the reverse if putting too much time into work and it tips more into that direction and putting less effort into home life - Roles are viewed as competitors for time and emotional energy - The reality. - Work and family are essential life roles that ideally should be harmonized

Effects of societal influences on work • Advances in tech, an aging population (some taking care of parents at the same time as kids), changing family structures, and economic instability lead to(4)=

a) Work and role overload b) Workaholism c) Stress d) Work-life imbalance

- Multiple environments affect an individual over time - Human development is also a life-long process - Is constant because time affects all of us. Never stops. We all have history and lifespan so that influences all of these levels. - Consistently going through life and becoming other. Ex: I'm becoming mature adult, parents going to be seniors= that will change the fam life. - Life transitions are important • normative transitions (e.g., puberty, school entry, births, deaths, ...). Ex: when women gives birth/ is pregnant it's an opportunity to talk to them about health because they're going to care about their child so good time to intervene in terms of health promotion. Ex: spousal death- other spouse might and feel lost , maybe hard eating dinner and seeing their empty chair so maybe they start sitting in it so it's not this empty void. • nonnormative (e.g., accident, severe illness, inheritance, ...). Can be traumatic in terms of health promotion or changing lives. ex: divorce- sometimes women change diet dramatically because starting new life and not influenced anymore by what husband wanted to eat. • important when considering health promotions

chronosystem

- Coming decades= survival of humanity depends on our ecological literacy- · Meaning=

eco-literacy must become critical skill for politicians, business leaders and professionals in all spheres and should be the most important part of education at all levels (primary- training professionals).

ability to understand basic principles of ecology and live accordingly. Over billions of years of evolution, Earth's ecosystems evolved certain principles of organization to sustain the web of life. · Knowledge of these principles of organization/principles of ecology= (same definition)

ecological literacy

- The ability of a system to achieve a goal through different means or routes (e.g., path to a university education or marriage. The way you got to uni was different for each of your fams. Some parents helped you get a summer job/ drove you to it, some helped you fill out application, some talked to you about significance of uni. We all got here but the way we got here is different for all of us due to fam circumstances and the way we received or didn't receive support)

equifinality

Factors such as programs, policies and regulations, quality of education, and availability of resources that affect communities, organizations, and institutions - Things in the community - Ex: quality of education, what's available in the community for the kids- could be parks, sidewalks, etc.

exosystem

Hestian work • One of the failures of feminism= o So feminists of 1960s wanted= ****but= • Many feminists marginalized women who= • They minimize what= • ^these were failures of feminism as much as it was a move forward for society. there are some flaws to it like anything.

has been the lack of attention paid to reinforcing 'home-making' as a valid and worthwhile option for women and men women to get out of the house and get a job and be independent and not doing the cooking and cleaning, etc. but what they failed to recognize is that some women like to do that and choose to stay home and feel fulfilled by staying at home, by doing work of house and taking care of fams and we shouldn't devalue you that and tell them its not a good option. Some women can choose that. We should encourage them to work outside the home if they want to but shouldn't discourage/ disgrace/ devalue them if they choose to stay home. derive genuine satisfaction and a sense of self-worth from activities in the Hestian domain the complexities of Hestian work in everyday life, leaving it to others to think about and provide it.

In any system there's always what (3)=

inputs, transformational processes and outputs

Home Economics / Human Ecology= an _______, _________ System - Human beings must do commonplace, everyday work to survive. Wires do not reconnect, tires do not change themselves, clothing and dishes do not rearrange themselves after being automatically washed, and children do not become civilized adults without parenting. Admittedly, repetitious tasks can become onerous. But they are inescapable and important parts of being human. In sum, the Hestian world, where invisible connections are made day-by-day, makes up a person's whole life. Home Economics education can make the difference in the quality of that life. So these are every day things that we do and we devalue them. but are important and it's those things day after day and year after year that add up to making your whole life and add up to making civilized humans

integrated, holistic study the rest

Hestian work=

is human work, essential for individual, family, and species well-being. Hestian work benefits those who perform it as well as those for whom it is performed (both short- and long-term). In systems terms, its outputs 'feed forward' to the future. · Ex: when you feed a child well, the kid goes to school and learns, and that learning can make them have a good future. · Ex: if a father goes out to work and has clean clothes and good food, that feeds forward to the future cause he can move up in his job and bring home a good paycheck for his fam. · Ex: how you socialize kids feeds forward to the future in how they will be functioning adults.

Most removed from the individual, but still exerts influence (e.g., cultural traditions, social structures, media influences (ex: influence of media on young women until dissected and realized it was causing things like eating disorders, etc. it influences people's perceptions of themselves and those around them, etc.), government, economy (ex: rising cost of living has influence on kids and fam))

macrosystem

Relationship of various (all these) microsystems with other settings (e.g., school administration, work, church). because all the systems are affecting fams at the same time. relationships of the microsystems and how they work together. - The stronger, more positive, and more diverse links there are between systems, the more beneficial the mesosystem is on a child's development - Ex: think of how different systems can work together and if you want to be a good person in the community because that connects your kid to the community. Ex: may want to sit in parent-teacher council, because that's a good way to connect your kid with the school.

mesosystem

Immediate setting for day-to-day activities (e.g., family, school) where personal interactions occur

microsystem

Human Ecological Model 5 levels=

microsystem mesosystem exosystem macrosystem chronosystem

- Balancing personal + profession=struggle for professionals + palliative care clinicians. - Lack of balance result= feelings of frustration, inadequacy, guilt. · Difficulty with balance for Palliative care physicians due to = - how long is the Search for balance=

nature of their work: caring for patients and fams suffering in crisis. lifelong. entails self-reflection and continuing examination of one's values and goals

Systems of Thinking Includes Shift of Emphasis from Structure to Process - interrelations between food, health, and environment - rising food prices+ price of oil + series of "natural" catastrophes= dominates - confusion= why are world food prices increasing so quick/ much? Why is world hunger rising again after long steady decline? What do food prices have to do with oil prices? · Full understanding of these issues requires= - Over last 25 years= new understanding of life emerged at forefront of science. · New understanding demonstrated in Q - "What is life?" What's the difference between rock and plant, animal, or microorganism?" o to understand nature of life, is it enough to understand DNA, proteins and other molecular structures- building blocks of living organisms? - Process of life= metabolism (modern scientific language). -Is understanding metabolism enough to understand life?

new ecological understanding of life (new ecological literacy) and a new kind of systemic thinking- thinking in terms of relationships, patterns, and context. not enough to just understand DNA and other molecular structures because these structures also exist in dead organism (ex: dead piece of wood or bone). difference between living and dead organism lies in basic process of life ("breath of life"). · understanding it isn't enough to understand life. When studying structures, metabolic processes, and evolution of species, we notice the outstanding characteristic of our biosphere= it has sustained life for billions of years. o How does earth do that? How does nature sustain life?

- Whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Ex: if wanted to teach someone how to play chess, you couldn't just show them 4 blocks at a time because it wouldn't make sense, you'd have to show them the whole thing to understand how it works. So can't understand how a system works by analyzing just one component. - We cannot learn how whole systems work by analyzing each of its components in isolation. Ex: you just look at the knight or the bishop. But then you wouldn't know how the pawns work. Ex2: basketball team. May have a great forward but without rest of the team, its not gonna work. So the whole is greater than the sum of each part so each person individually playing wouldn't be a team- couldn't do it without each other. - Change= esp important in human systems. We grow up and age and theres no stopping/ changing that. So that change is common and present in all fan systems. - Systems resist change to maintain a certain predictable order (ex: to be a fam/ continue to be a fam even though you might bring new people into the world or go off and do your own thing, you're still a fam, still an urge to bring fam together for stuff like fam dinners. - Family systems also reorganize themselves and adapt new patterns of interaction in response to information from outside (ex: kids learn something at school and bring it home parents about what should/ shouldn't be done- ex: recycling, prof was kid, and no one recycled so when she learned about it in school, brought it home to fam and said they should start recycling) / inside the family - Often reflected in changing developmental issues (ex: babies grow into toddlers and toddlers to teens. So you can't keep treating a teen the way you treated a toddler. Kids will teach you when theyre ready to move on and beyond old rules. Its hard because parents still see their kids as kids but they grow into adults. Important to evaluate people/problems over time. ex: if you look at a fam one time and said ok that's their diet and this is what's gonna fix it, you have to realize that the fam is changing so next week or next year when you see them, the kids have already changed and grown up, and parents have developed (aged into elders), parents and kids can developed a lot in a short period of time so must look at long-term.

nonsummativity

Ecological literacy · Must teach kids, students, corporate/political leaders the fundamental facts of life (5)=

o one species' waste= another's food o matter cycles continually through web of life o the energy driving ecological cycles flows from sun o diversity assures resilience o life, from its beginning (3+ bill years ago) didn't take over the planet by combat but by networking.

- Many dimensions to a full life, including (5)= - Professionals face competing demands and make difficult choices every day. - Clinicians feel lack of balance between work and rest of life. Result= - Responses to competing demands require _____ and ________ - Must be patient with selves when trying to reconcile multiple roles and responsibilities

our inner lives, fams, work, community, spirituality discontent, guilt, and chronic stress. May prioritize work and fam and neglect physical, emotional and spiritual health. This struggle= active and iterative process; personal priorities and situations can change often. flexibility and adaptation.

historical perspective on Hestian and Hermean systems

pre-classical era classical era industrial age present

• Fulfilling the duties of your job description to the best of your abilities within normal working hours

quiet quitting

"Quiet quitting"- study descritption • Fulfilling the duties of your job description to the best of your abilities within normal working hours • Came out of pandemic. • Some employers see this as 'slacking off' because they're staying at home, don't wanna come to the office if they can do their job at home. Most people can do their job at home. But not what older generation of bosses are used to so quiet quitting is the idea of "fulfilling duties of your job description to best of your abilities within normal working hours," so some employers see workers as slacking off but during pandemic focus shifted for people from work to fam, friends and health so shift of what people thought about their lives. so they started saying if they work from home it saves them some hours. Some people used to work in Toronto and drive the 2 hours there and back and thought it was normal but during/ after the pandemic when starting to work from home they suddenly had 4 extra hours per day to do something like be with their kids or wife or enjoy a game of tennis, etc. people shifted to ill do what my job description says but im not doing overtime, busting my life for my job= people seeing their lives in a different light. • During pandemic: focus shifted from work to family, friends, and health • Healthy work-life boundaries help to avoid burnout (important to know when you need to say that's enough work I need to go home now, relax and see my fam); however, going 'above & beyond', standing out from coworkers recognition, reward, ↑ $, opportunities for advancement and more money. So= it has to be balanced. How much effort do you put into that job without sacrificing your health or fam. It's a fine balance. • Shift from the pandemic has had people saying work isn't everything. Ill do what I'm payed to do but I'm not staying overtime every night and not get payed. Now valuing the home life (which we've talked about for more than a century)

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"There's no reason a woman cant have a harmonious career-fam life balance if she has a supportive partner, supportive employer and supportive government." But root word of independence is dependence. So often think when becoming independent we're not dependent on anyone els but that's not true, you're depend on others in terms of friendships, policies from gov, etc.

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- Comic= there's a dilemma that each one thinks they're missing out on what the other has. This is typically an experience of women- they tend to feel the tension between choosing to go out in the workforce and earn a paycheck or if they should be at home taking care of fam and whichever they choose they're gonna feel like they're missing out.

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- Dad is vacuuming (comic). Comics are funny because they reflect society. if this comic had been published 20 years ago, men wouldn't have understood it because they often didn't vacuum. So, this would have been odd to see in a comic strip. So, you can see the society today is reflected as fathers today are taking on more of these role and that's why you see him with the vacuum.

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- Similar to the Hestian/Hermean paradigm (work and home life), these roles exist in relation to one another. Ex: so if you're at work, you might be thinking of what you'll make for dinner. Or even if driving to work, thinking about an upcoming exam. Must value the effort that goes into home life because without home life, you can't have people going into work that are well rested, well fed and prepared emotionally to do their job

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- These principles of ecology= closely interrelated. Just different aspects of a single fundamental pattern of organization that enables nature to sustain life for bills of years - Nutshell= nature sustains life by creating and nurturing communities. No individual organism can exist in isolation. · Animals depend on photosynthesis of plants for energy needs; plants depend on C02 produced by animals, and nitrogen fixed by bacteria at their roots; and together plants, animals and microorganisms regulate the biosphere and maintain conditions conducive to life. - sustainability isn't an individual property but a property of an entire web of relationships. Always involves a whole community. = profound lessen needed to learn from nature. - The way to sustain life= build and nurture community. Sustainable human community interacts with other communities- human and non- in ways the enable them to live and develop according to their nature. · Sustainability doesn't mean things don't change. It's a dynamic process of co-evolution rather than static.

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Ecological approach to family health (takes systems approach- fam in theoretical perspective) • The family - is the oldest and most basic unit of society (if fam isn't strong, then society collapses because fams are the foundation of society). - has traditionally been the first and among the most important of healthcare givers. Ex: when talking about healthcare, must first talk about parents and fams because they take care of each other. - nurtures, cares for, protects, and teaches its members - can be defined in many ways (ex: typically always mom and dad and 2 kids. Not like that anymore. Theres interracial fams/ parents, some fams with gay parents, some fams have grandparents living with them, some have other relatives living with them and that's still a fam. So old ways of describing fam aren't valid anymore. Fams can be very different than what we typically thought). - is the centre of a complex network of interconnected social systems - is an effective entry point for, and central focus in, health promotion (if wanting to change kids behaviours, might want to have a fam approach. Ex: things that happen at school when kids are doing things like a cooking class, it's a good idea to engage the fam because when the kid goes home, the lessons are being reinforced). • Individual behaviour is shaped and reinforced by mutual and dynamic interactions at multiple levels within one's physical & social surroundings. Not just fams that influence kids as developing humans, but also their physical and social surrounding. • Family receives and interprets health messages for its members and family members often resemble each other in terms of health (ex: if fams eat the same meals together, so if eating stuff that's high fat and high sugar, their health may be the same so may have several fam members overweight or with high blood pressure); therefore, the family is an important target for health promotion • An ecological perspective on family health accounts for the myriad of influences on it - Point= there are many levels that influence the kid like fam level, community level, etc. kid may not realize society has influence on it but it does in terms of taxes, child benefit, childcare spaces, whether girl kids are valued, etc. kid may not realize all these levels have an influence on it and impact their development

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General Systems Theory • All phenomena can be viewed as a web of dynamic (means always moving), complex relationships among elements (whether nature, or a nuclear power plant, human body, a community, etc., everything is a web of relationships. Everything affects everything else). Ex: butterfly affect. Everything is connected and we see it more with more people having internet and global media access people start to see this connection) • All systems have common patterns, behaviours, and properties (depends on what the system is) • Systems theories often used by helping prof'ls (this is a helping profession). As we try to help people we need to think in terms of systems. • Focus is on processes (e.g., how systems adapt to inputs and generate outputs). Ex: an input could be giving a kid a food guide in school, but the kid can bring the food guide home and talk to the parents about it. Output= parents change their behaviours and start to buy more fruits/ veggies. • Describes phenomena but does not predict it (prediction that something will result from something els needs a different kind of stat analysis). • Human systems are self-reflective, self-aware, and self-monitoring (make ourselves better) (distinguishes us from other systems). Animals don't reflect in terms of abstractions.

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Video TED Talk by Anne-Marie Slaughter (17 min) Go back and summarize

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Video= Indigenous woman has commentary on what the real value of unpaid work- in economic terms. · Unpaid care work= work people do in taking care of each other and building up each other's capabilities esp young kids and people who are sick need significant amount of attention and care and often its women who do this work. Main characteristic of unpaid work= its not directly paid. In theory this work should be counted as GDP- ex: a country like Argentina, calculations done by feminist economists gave figure of 7% GDP and in a less developed country like Tanzania it was a much higher figure like 63% · one study included a case study of Switzerland= if you added the unpaid care work done in Switzerland and value it, it's almost as big as the banking and insurance industry in Switzerland. · but to really value this work what is really important= to appreciate its significance for any society or economy. this work is really what makes the society and the economy tick. this kind of work can be seen as the solid foundation on which official industries and services and economies and schools and universities sit. without this kind of work it would be very difficult to even think of a society that can function · one universal fact= in nearly all human societies it is often upon women this kind of work falls/ it's "highly feminised." data showed that something like 75% all unpaid care work is carried out by women and girls so this is a very unequal distribution between men and women. it penalize womens because taking on the bulk of this work often carries a penalty in terms of not being able to have a full time job with a decent wage, not being able to accumulate a pension, not getting all the benefits that come from formal sector employment. so the penalties are many even though the benefits to society are huge. · redistributing care is critical. That involves rethinking and re doing of our social relationships. states can go a long way in terms of making sure that there are good quality public services, childcare services. but also try and change your expectations and social norms so that women and men can share those responsibilities equally. So, with more policies you also increase the social expectation that more can be done to redistribute the work and not to just say this is a private matter and it's for families to deal with which very often falls on women and girls · summary= much unpaid work globally- twice as much is done by women. consequences= can't have full time job or can't get education. People don't value it because there's no money involved but taking care of kids and seniors takes a lot of time and energy. · Summary 2= a co-responsible option in everyday life meaning we recognize we live in two domains/ worlds (civic and private, Hestian and hermian, domestic and public, public and private) and they intersect, all interacting. Can't have one without the other. Advocating for these worlds of hestian private and domestic be valued as much as work outside the home. · Its everyone's responsibility in the home to pitch in and help. You don't "just live here." Everyone has responsibilities not just the women/ mothers. Everyone has responsibilities to its maintenance and well-being

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Video= about how connected everything is and we must understand that - Involves things we might not have considered connections and networks and reflections - Exciting scientific finding of the last half century= discovery of widespread trophic cascades. A trophic cascade= an ecological process that starts at the top of the food chain and tumbles to the bottom. Classic ex= what happened to Yellowstone national park in US when wolves were reintroduced in 1995. Wolves kill various species but also give life to many others. before the wolves arrived, they'd been absent for 70 years so since there was nothing to hunt the deer, the deer's numbers built up in the Yellowstone Park and despite attempts by humans to control them, they had reduced much of the vegetation/ grazed it away there to almost nothing. But as soon as the wolves arrived, although few, they had remarkable affects. First= they killed some of the deer but that wasn't the major thing. More significant= radically changed the behaviour of the deer. The deer started avoiding certain parts of the park (esp where they could be trapped most easily like in valleys and gorges), and immediately those places started to regenerate. In some areas, the height of the trees quintupled in just 6 years. Bare valley sides became quickly forests of aspen and willow and cotton wood- and as soon as that happened the birds started moving in. number of songbirds and migratory increased, number of beavers increased because beavers ate the trees. Beavers like wolves, are ecosystem engineers, create niches for other species. Damns they built in rivers provided homes for other species like otters, ducks, reptiles, amphibians, etc. the wolves killed coyotes (result= number of rabbits and mice rose meaning more hawks, weasels, etc., came to feed on what the wolves left. So did bears so their population rose too and also because there were more berries growing on the regenerated shrubs). Also bears reinforced the wolves as they killed some of the deer. - The wolves changed the behaviour of the rivers too. They began to meander less, channels narrowed, less erosion, more pools, etc., great for wildlife habitants. The rivers changed in response to the wolves. Reason= the regenerated forests stabilized the banks so collapsed less and rivers became more fixed in their course. Also by driving the deer out of some places and vegetation recovering om valley sides there was a soil erosion because the vegetation stabilized that too. - So the wolves, small in number, transformed the ecosystem, in this huge area of land, and its physical geography. - After discussion= good ex. Is a nature ex but can apply to humans too that there are so many systems that affect us and so many systems we affect. Important to think about that when thinking about clients, kids in classroom, fams, communities, etc. lots of systems that affect people.

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Ecological Literacy - To understand how nature sustains life, we must move from bio to ecology. Why=

sustained life is a property of an ecosystem, not a single organism or species.

Social Ecological Model • McLeroy et al. built on Bronfenbrenner's work - Identified intrapersonal factors, interpersonal processes, organizational / institutional factors, community factors, and public policy - Whole idea of the social ecological model= · Goal of health promotion= - intervene at multiple levels over a period of time - photo= nutrition ed. All different levels of where you could have nutrition education. Can occur at policy level in terms of levels of parliament and local counselors, you might advocate for a community garden In the city and that's a nutrition education thing that can affect policy. Can have education at workplace or in orgs where talking to bosses and say you need a workplace wellness program, and could have phys ed and talk about nutrition and it changes the moral and whole workplace culture. Interpersonal level= if you want to talk and get people to change behaviours, must talked about their fams. Ex: talking to a man about changing his diet but his wife does all the cooking, so you should talk to the wife.

to identify that there are many factors and levels that influence us over long period of time so must think about intervening at not just individual level (ex: can't think giving a kid a cooking class will change everything because they're influenced by what parents buy at grocery store and parents influenced by whats available at grocery store), we must think about all these multiple levels of influence. is to promote change at the individual level as well as in social, physical, and political environments

the co-responsible option in everyday life co-repsonisble option recognizes that=

we live in dual domains that require education for domestic literacy and civic literacy.

strategies that can assist with work-life balancing

work environment personal approaches

Hermes - Greek god of - Associated with

· Commerce and trade · Communication in the public sphere - Symbolizes the public world the state and the actions necessary to govern and maintain it (ex: today= banking, transportation, education, healthcare, public law, policing).

- Emotional valence of palliative care heightens challenges to work-life balance.=

· Working with patients/ fams facing serious illness= emotionally charged (but must learn to maintain personal-professional boundaries and leave work behind when home- not easy). · involved in peoples' lives at personal and emotional times; become witnesses and participant in life dramas that don't end when leaving the office. Hard to let go of suffering when leaving work. · Impending death for patient-whether moment of crisis or peace- a unique moment they will live only once. Loss faced when patients die can be cumulative. o If workers can't find healthy outlet for emotions, they become less emotionally available to fams/ friends and less likely to care for themselves o Other hand= emotional intensity of palliative care can make us more thankful for what we have (importance of fam, friends, good health and fulfilled life) which otherwise could be taken for granted.

"I'm just a housewife..." (4)=

• A self-deprecating admission (putting yourself down) • Reflects society's consensus of the greater value of (paid) work done 'outside' the household • Contributes to the invisibility of Hestian work, whether done by men or women in private spaces • Reality= there is value to this work and isn't easy so must be celebrated and validated

Work-life imbalance consequences -4=

• Affects individuals, families, employers, communities • Jeopardizes quantity & quality of time spent with loved ones (since so overwhelmed with work) • Costs employers billions in absenteeism (because people get sick. Think they can do it all- work and home-but must realize the limits) • Results in increased health care costs (so costs all of us money cause taxes)

Maternity and Paternity leave

• Associated with ↓ in infant mortality/morbidity and ↑ rates of breastfeeding. US= mat leave is 6 weeks which isn't enough time because kids should be breast fed for at least 6 months. So current leaves aren't matching the recommendations for health of babies. • ↑ fathers' practical and emotional investment in infant care & ↑ involvement in family responsibilities. Looked down upon in some countries when fathers don't take the time off. So shift in what expectation is for fathers to be involved with fams and how its important for their work life as well.

Strategies for work life balance for Employees (8)

• Cultivate mindfulness - 'Stop and smell the roses' - Take time to be in the moment and not think about what's left to be done and relax. • Reframe & build resilience (r/t self-defeatism) - 'How can I do this better?' instead of "you suck at your job" or "if I get up sooner it can make a difference." • Set some boundaries b/n work & family lives. ex: focus on your family when you're with them. when at work, leave the fam stuff at home because your employer is counting on you and paying you. • Set goals and prioritize (whether at work or home. Don't try to do it all). - NOT working harder by ↓ quality of work, cutting back on sleep, or trying to 'do it all' - Can be successful as a working woman but also must realize you can't do everything at home too. • Set concordant personal & prof'l goals (complimentary) • Look for employers who offer flexibility (ex: some employers accept part-time work). • Take care of ourselves (can't help anyone if we don't take care of ourselves). • Ask for help (must be able to ask for help to manage your responsibilities) - Professional counselling - Colleagues - Friends/relatives - Childcare (sometimes just for the morning so you can go out and do something for yourself). - Practical (e.g., household tasks, not a failure if you get help in house cleaning if you work full time because there's a full-time kid at home too and it's hard to think you can do both well).

Hermean and Hestian systems

• Exist simultaneously as a holistic reality, not as mirror images of one another (doesn't mean this is right and this is wrong or they're opposite. They're two systems we live in and we need to value them both). • Exist in relation to each other and form each other's boundaries (go to school in public world but come home to your private world/ going to school from private world. thinking about what you're going to have for dinner tonight is your private world). intersect. • Are distinctive, yet complementary • Are interdependent, interconnected, and interactive (cant simply be in private world without being in public world. public world influences you in terms of income tax or roads or policing or rules that govern how to build your house (civic laws) and influence your private sphere, ex: your home). • Males have mainly been found in the valued Hermean sphere; females have mainly been found in the Hestian sphere (leading to this work being devalued- ex: "just doing housework"). Typically, been like that but changing.

Becoming 'Family Literate'=

• Families provide the 'glue' that holds society together and keeps it functioning (no functioning fams= no functioning society) • A particular form of education and practice is needed to help individuals become 'family literate' o What does it mean to be in a fam, to raise a good fam, have a good fam, support a good fam= things we talk about in Home economics. • With its focus on essential life skills, Home Economics is an academic discipline (as well as a profession) which meets that need (that's our focus, we focus on the fam and how we can help these individuals) No instructions on how to raise a baby. Crazy how just anyone could do it. How to raise a baby= the most important thing they need to learn

Strategies for work life balance for Partners

• Gender equality & role of men in families (now more equal than before) - Directly linked to work-family balance - Women spend 2 - 10 times as much time on childcare and unpaid work as men - ^This is a major obstacle to gender equality and women's empowerment. If wanting women to have same educational and work opportunities as men, then men must start picking up more housework and give more assistance to work at home because it must be done - Trend is slowly changing • Men's roles as fathers and caregivers are being recognized more in many parts of the world. more value and work-life balance and gender equality when men start to take on more of this responsibility that has typically been set on women "The greatest privilege men in the workplace have had isn't a corporate or public policy. It's a partner at home." If thinking centuries back, men who were very successful had supportive wife at home or had people hired to take care of them home. So success they achieved in the workplace came from that someone was doing their laundry, made sure they ate, that they had good night sleep and the kids didn't wake them. so its been an important advantage that must be recognized.

The profession of Home Economics (4)=

• Is concerned with the application of knowledge in the service of some component of society, toward a valued social end or goal (of the fam) • Is an integrated, holistic system - E.g., child-rearing issues are related to housing, health care, financial integrity (ex: if in dept child rearing doesn't go well because kids need new shoes or want something their friends have that you can't get them cause you don't have the money which can create tension), nurturing family relations, etc. • Seeks to create and maintain an optimum balance between people and their environments (whether its home environment, community or society). • Can teach many literacies that are needed to achieve and maintain quality of life (ex: financial, food and parenting literacy, laundry literacy, etc.). many literacies that can help people go through everyday tasks in more efficient and effective way which gives us more time and energy to do other things we enjoy,

Effects of societal influences on work a) Work and role overload= defined

• Long, difficult working hours (pandemic changed that a bit. Before pandemic there were a lot of unreasonable expectations for people in work. Ex: if you left right at 5 it wasn't look at well by your employer who was thinking stay for 5 minutes and finish things). • Unreasonable workloads • Pressure to work overtime • Inability to take vacation time • Faster, high-stress work environment • Increased expectations with impractical and unrealistic deadlines (pandemic also changed that a bit)

Strategies for work life balance for Government

• Parental leaves - Maternity leaves (important)+ paternity leave • Providing economic security and meeting the needs of children (ex: in terms of providing affordable childcare, or a liveable wage so people can feed their fams well and not have to work more than one job and never be home just to make enough money to feed the kids, increase minimum wage, etc.) for consistent, nurturing care are critical, but often conflicting, roles • Affordable, high-quality childcare

effects on societal influences on work b) Workaholism defined=

• People who work long hours, focusing solely on their job and turning it into a compulsion or obsession, are considered workaholics (& are ineffective employees) - Work to exhaustion - Produce sloppy results - Miss deadlines - Fail to complete projects - Work too quickly - Sacrifice attention to detail · So not beneficial

Strategies for work like balance for Employers

• Provide family-friendly supports - E.g., onsite child / elder care (for parents caring for their elder parents) • Reward collaborative work (working together so not competing but doing it as team) • Extend time limit for promotion (ex: If taking time out of your career, extend these times. So instead of giving 5 years to accomplish work, they give you 8 if you have to take time away for something like raising kids, etc.) • Measure outcomes r/t hours logged (getting job done= whats important. Working 10 hours doesn't mean you're a good employee or better than Joe who did 5 hours of work but got same result). Measure outcomes instead of hours. • Offer flexible working arrangements (pandemic showed us its possible). - Flex-time schedules, part-time work, working time adjusted to school schedule, using technology to work from home (telecommuting). Some employees telling employers they're gonna do their job from home because they can and its saves them money and time from commuting (some employers not responding well because they feel you should be in the space with fellow employees)

Pressures on Parents (in terms of managing home lives)

• Time - Mothers have 28 fewer mins leisure time/day than fathers (and it's chopped into tiny segments- don't have 20 minutes to chill but 2 minutes and then onto the next then maybe another 3 minutes). Always work to be done (ex: dishes, laundry). - A lot of parenting work is invisible (e.g., 'to do' lists, deadlines, family meal preferences, etc.). all invisible mental work goes on and takes away from leisure and relax time and is often done by women. ex: thinking about the dentist appointment for her son so she must pack him a toothbrush before school and Suzy has her ballet recital at 5, etc. - Invisible mental organization is • often done by women • called 'contaminated time' (mental pollution of brain stuffed with other demands. Instead of resting your brain or taking a break, you're thinking of all the things that have to be done), it leads to feeling overwhelmed and a ↓ sense of well-being • A lot of advice about what parents should be doing with their time, for example, - "Cook more AND spend more quality time with your children"- sometimes these aren't compatible. - "Lean in at work AND make sure your children are involved in extracurricular and enrichment activities"- can't stay overtime and pick up my kid from school for her ballet on time. - Big pressure on parents for what they "should" be doing with their time. mothers feel this a lot because damned both if they do or don't. o Damned if you do or don't ex= you stay with kids, then you're not working enough and if you work then you're not taking care of your kids.

effects on societal influences on work d) Work-Life Imbalance - Challenges:

• feelings of frustration, inadequacy & guilt (ex: feel like not doing enough) • women train & enter professional practice during their peak reproductive years (makes greater challenge for them and creates work life imbalance). • negative consequences at home • negative consequences at work • particular challenges for health prof'ls because so much expectation on them- must be really focused like when surgeon or any kind of health care worker and not make mistakes and if have too much stress at home it will reflect in your job and you might make errors.

1. The Importance of Systems Thinking Characteristics of Systems

• is a collection of parts that interacts to function as a whole · Ex: body systems like immune system, digestive system, circulatory system, etc. • parts are coherently organized around some purpose (ex: digestion for digestive system) and they continually affect each other over time/ work together (ex: circulatory system is affected by other systems- ex: we know our nervous system affects our digestive system- so if you're worried about something, your stomach will be in knots and may affect the way your body functions in terms of digestion). • A system can be distinguished from its environment, and it affects its environment (ex: can distinguish the circulatory system from the other parts of your body, there are distinct parts we know are part of that system and we know that system is part of the greater whole of the body and affects the body so complex and can be simple).