 Recent studies show that the disease burden of mental illness in Ontario is an alarming 1.5 times higher than all cancers put together and more than 7 times that of all infectious diseases. Spanning from children to middle-aged adults, many are suffering from mental and emotional distress. Rates of anxiety and depression are occurring on a larger scale making it important to build emotional and mental strength.
Experts at Mental Health America (MHA) found that good feelings can boost one’s ability to deal with stress, solve problems, think flexibly, and even fight disease. Hence why creating a positive mindset by taking care of your body’s emotional and mental needs is an important part of self-care for both children and adults.
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 As Professional Home Economists and students we know the benefits of cooking at home. As Mary Carver, P.H.Ec., explained in a news release titled “A Call for Improved Food Literacy,” there is growing concern about a general lack of time, knowledge and skills to prepare healthful, affordable meals at home. Many families claim they do not have the time to prepare meals from scratch, while others complain that food is too expensive.
Priceonomics analyzed data from a customer, wellio, to compare the cost of cooking at home from scratch versus delivery from a restaurant or meal kit service. “Family work” has been broadly defined as a type of “social reproductive labour” (1) involving routine activities that maintain the health and well-being of family members, including housework, emotion work, and child care. As such, to round out my blog posts so far on housework and emotion work and to complete the “family work triad,” the following is a study I began during my undergraduate degree that focused on mothers’ experiences with navigating child care in Alberta, Canada. Enjoy! – Rebecca Horne, P.H.Ec. …… Canada does not have a national child care policy. As a result, the child care systems in the majority of Canadian provinces are characterized by a lack of regulated, affordable, and accessible spaces (2). For example, there is a shortfall of over 154,000 child care spaces in Alberta (3), and group child care centers cost between $800-900 per month (4), the third highest across all Canadian provinces. This leaves some mothers using up to 36% of their annual incomes to pay for child care fees (5)! Given that mothers continue to be primarily responsible for the care of children (6), such limited options may prompt them to make sacrifices—or give up their own desires and interests—to mitigate child care constraints. Yet, there is limited research on these types of sacrifices and even less from the perspectives of mothers themselves. Let’s hear from the mothers themselves! To better understand mothers’ lived realities within the Canadian child care context, Dr. Rhonda Breitkreuz and I asked the question: What messages of sacrifice are embedded in Canadian mothers’ stories about their experiences with navigating childcare? (7) Dr. Breitkreuz and her research team conducted thirteen focus groups in five locations across Alberta, Canada with 95 mothers who were using or looking for child care for their young children. They asked questions in the focus groups about how mothers integrated paid work and child care, the kinds of care arrangements they made, and the facilitators and barriers to accessing and maintaining child care. Thank you to the conference planning committee and all of the wonderful volunteers who helped to organize OHEA's 39th annual conference and thank you to all of our sponsors! We also would like to thank everyone who came out to the conference and showed their #PHEcPride. We truly appreciate it, and could not have had such a great event without your support!
By: Rebecca Horne, MSc., P.H.Ec. “A marriage does not exist merely because a ceremony has been performed, nor does a family arise merely through the birth of a child—there is work that goes into the achievement and maintenance of both.” – Rebecca Erickson (1)  By: Rebecca Horne, MSc., P.H.Ec. Rebecca received her MSc in Family Sciences from the University of Alberta in 2017 and is currently a PhD student in Psychology at the University of Toronto. Her broad area of research is on romantic relationships and the individual, relational, and contextual factors that contribute to satisfying intimate ties and lasting love. Under this general area of interest, she is currently exploring how making sacrifices for an intimate partner (e.g., relocating for a partner’s job) impacts relationship functioning and how gender dynamics shape couple processes.  https://pixabay.com/en/housekeeping-cleaning-2977056/; https://pixabay.com/en/background-bucket-caucasian-chores-2848310/ By: Helen Lammers-Helps Originally posted on: thecountryguide A thoughtful apology can rebuild trust. A poor one just makes matters worse..  "The best apology is not needing to make one in the first place. Talk about your feelings to prevent miscommunication." Photo: Thinkstock
By: Tamara Saslove, P.H.Ec.  It’s easy to get caught up with work, school, friends and family in the daily grind, and sometimes we forget to take care of ourselves. If we aren’t taking care of ourselves, it becomes difficult to keep positive, stay healthy and focused.
Self-care is something that we hear about again and again and it seems to have been a trending topic in 2017. As much as we have heard about it, are we really taking the time to take care of ourselves on a daily, or even weekly basis? Looking for the perfect gift for your friends and family this holiday season? Or maybe you just want to pick up something special for yourself. We have compiled a list of the holiday markets where you can find hand crafted gifts made locally! And if you are looking for gifts for any foodies, be sure to pick up a copy of OHEA's cookbook, Homegrown. You can purchase it online on Amazon or Indigo!  |
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