Theses / Unpublished

Diagnosis and Understanding

Barbopoulos, Anastasia. The Role of Culture in Perceptions of Psychological Disorder and Its Treatment. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Manitoba, 2001. Thesis discusses how first generation Chinese immigrant families in the Greater Toronto Area deal with family members with Schizophrenia.

Boisclair, Guy. La perception de la folie au Québec au XVIIIe siècle, mémoire de maîtrise (histoire), Université de Sherbrooke, 1989. 

Carson, J. P. From the voices of experience, the road to recovery. Unpublished MSW thesis, University of British Columbia, 2000. Thesis presents stories of six individuals and their experience in the psychiatric system to consider possible routes to healing.

Carten, Ron, Representatives, Informed Consent and Psychiatric Rights: Participatory Action Research by Psychiatric Patients in Vancouver, BC, Unpublished research paper, 2016.  Paper reports on the findings of a working group of persons who had been treated in the psychiatric system and conducted focus groups around the question of representation agreements for patients who do not have the right of informed consent to treatment. 

Chan, Christina Wai Mei. Coping with Schizophrenia Among Chinese Families in Toronto.  Unpublished MSW thesis, York University, 1998. Thesis discusses how first generation Chinese immigrant families in the Toronto region deal with family members with a Schizophrenia diagnosis. Primarily considers homecare of family members.

Chupik, Jessa. Community and Asylum: Caring for ‘Idiot’ Children in Early Twentieth Century Ontario, 1900-1935. Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis. McMaster University, 2005. 

Clark, Nancy. Community Mental Health Professionals’ Perspectives on Incorporating Spirituality in Their Care of Clients with Serious Mental Illness: A Qualitative Inquiry.  Unpublished MSc thesis, University of British Columbia, 2005. Thesis discusses the utility of spirituality in mental health care (benefits and negative impacts) and how mental health professionals might incorporate spirituality in community practice settings.

Coates, Jacqueline S. “I wouldn’t tell them anything personal”: Women’s experience of psychiatric intervention. Unpublished MA thesis, Simon Fraser University, 1997. Thesis considers women’s experience of the psychiatric system as a source of oppression, including psychiatric ideology, treatment, stigmatization. Also presents stories of how women resisted the psychiatric system.

Czaika, Gabrielle. The Social Construction of Female Criminality: Women, Mental Health, and the Criminal Justice System. Unpublished MA thesis, Concordia University, 2001. Thesis discusses the ideology behind decisions regarding whether individuals go to mental health facilities or penal institutions and considers the role of the social construction of gender in this process.

Gnam, William H. The Economic Costs of Depressive Disorders in Ontario, 1990. Unpublished MSc thesis, University of Toronto, 1997. Thesis discusses the economic cost of depressive disorders in Ontario, including outpatient pharmaceutical expenses.

Goatcher, Sandra M. Attitudes of Older Adults Toward Their Peers with Mental Disabilities. Unpublished MSc thesis, University of Manitoba, 2000. Thesis discusses the attitudes of older adults without disabilities towards their peers with disabilities in the setting of community-based senior programs. Income is one factor examined in the study.

Grenier, Guy. L’implantation et les applications de la doctrine de la dégénérescence dans le champ de la médecine et de l’hygiène mentales au Québec entre 1885 et 1930, Thèse de maîtrise, Université de Montréal, 1990.

Hanna, Lisa J. Chronic Manic Depressives, Schizoaffectives and their Female Family Caregivers: The Political Economy of Mental Health Care and the Governance of Madness. Unpublished MA thesis, Carleton University, 1998. Thesis discusses the burden of long-term caregiving for individuals with mental health diagnoses living in the community and how this work is often undertaken by women.

Harron, Erin Elizabeth.  What to do about Whalley? Homelessness in Surrey’s city Centre.  Unpublished MPP, Simon Fraser University, 2007. Thesis discusses homelessness in Whalley, an urban district of the municipality of Surrey, BC, in particular looking at local policy development, stigma, substance abuse and mental health.

Horgan, Salinda Anne. Tracing the Tensions, Constructions, and Social Relations Surrounding Community Integration Practice for Individuals with Severe Mental Illness: A Focus on Assertive Community Treatment. Unpublished PhD thesis, Queen’s University, 2007. Thesis discusses assertive community treatment, the successes and limitations and the impact of ‘organizing structures’ like ACT.

Jarvis, G.E. Emergency psychiatric treatment of immigrants with psychosis. Unpublished MSc, McGill University, 2002. Thesis discusses the different and biased treatment given by emergency psychiatric responders with regards to patients from a variety of different ethnic backgrounds, including immigrants.

Johnson, M. Audrey. The Impact of Gender and Ethnicity on the Use of Mental Health Services: A Case Study of Twenty Immigrant and Refugee Women. Unpublished MSW thesis, University of British Columbia, 1988.  Thesis considers the absence of immigrant and refugee women from discussion of policy issues, programme planning and mental health literature in general and evaluates the socio-economic impacts of migrant experiences.

Josewski, Viviane. Lost in translation? A critical exploration of Aboriginal mental health reform in the Interior Health. Unpublished MSc, Simon Fraser University, 2009. Thesis examines Aboriginal mental health reform, in particular looking at Indigenous participation and considering cultural appropriate mental health models.

Krasnick, Cheryl Lynn. Insanity as a Reflection of Morality and Social Values in Nineteenth Century Canada: The London, Ontario Asylum for the Insane, 1870-1902. Unpublished MA thesis, University of Western Ontario, 1981. Thesis examines patients at the Ontario Asylum for the Insane/ London Psychiatric Hospital, discussing the types of people who were committed, the administrators, and contemporary ideas about insanity and treatment, gender roles, sexuality and family life.

Kress-White, Margaret. The Quest of Inclusion: Understandings of Ableism, Pedagogy, and the Right to Belong. Unpublished MEd thesis, University of Saskatchewan, 2009.  Thesis discusses how people with disabilities are discriminated against in cultural systems, such as the education system. Considers Canadian and international law and disability rights.

Kuelker, Eric. Helping and Stigmatization of Persons with Mental Disorders. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Manitoba, 1996. Thesis discusses Weiner’s theory of stigmatization and how perceived notions of controllability and dangerousness, combined with previous knowledge or experience with people with disabilities, imped the impulse to help.

Macdonald, M. E. Hearing (unheard) voices: Aboriginal experiences of mental health policy in Montreal. Unpublished PhD thesis, McGill University, 2003. Thesis examines the mental health experiences of Indigenous people living in Montreal with regards to policy, and the lack of culturally-sensitive and holistic care services for them. Presents the life stories of three Indigenous Montreal residents.

MacDonald, Tanis Louise. The Daughter’s Consolation: Melancholia and Subjectivity in Canadian Women’s Paternal Elegies. Unpublished PhD thesis, 2005. Thesis investigates notions of female filial piety and subjectivity through literary writings about loss and mourning.

Mamak, Mini. Violence and Major Mental Illness. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Toronto, 1997. Thesis examines the relationship between mental illness and violent behaviour, discussing the differences between substance abuse and delusional or affective disorders and the types of crimes committed. The gendered aspects of this topic are considered.

Matheson, Elizabeth. The Perfect Home for the Imbalanced: Visual Culture and the Built Space of the Asylum in Early Twentieth Century and Post War Saskatchewan. Unpublished Masters Art History thesis, 2010. Thesis discusses how the built structure of the North Battleford and Weyburn Mental Hospitals became imbued with meaning and in turn shaped social relations. Considers how the hospital was perceived, experienced and theorized and the importance of ethnicity, gender and class in Weyburn.

McConnachie, Kathleen J.A. Science and Ideology: The Mental Hygiene and Eugenics Movements in the Inter-War Years, 1919-1939. Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis: University of Toronto, 1987. 

McCormick, Roderick Michael. The Facilitation of Healing for the First Nations People of British Columbia. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Victoria, 1994. Thesis discusses the mental health needs of First Nations peoples and considers what facilitates the healing process for the First Nations people in BC.

McGrath, B.M. Understanding the role of atypical antipsychotic medication from the patients’ perspective: A cross-sectional survey comparing risperidone and olanzapine on subjective dimensions of outcome. Unpublished MSc thesis, McGill University, 2003. Thesis examines the use of certain medications on schizophrenic individuals and the impact of medication from the patients’ perspective on their day to day activities.

McIntosh, Bryne D. The relationship between perceived family criticism and quality of life and relapse rates in patients with schizophrenia. Unpublished MSc thesis, McGill University, 1994.  Thesis discusses the effects of positive and negative family criticism on psychiatric patients and considers the relationship between perceived family criticism and quality of life.

McKenzie, Emily J. C. The Experience of Family Members Living with a Relative With Schizophrenia. Unpublished MSc thesis, University of Calgary, 2000. Thesis discusses the experiences of families living with a family member with a schizophrenia diagnosis.

Montgomery, Phyllis. To Keep Close: Mothering Amidst Serious Mental Illness and Suffering.  Unpublished PhD thesis, McMaster University, 2003. Thesis discusses women with serious mental illness and their shared desire to mother as a strategy of being ‘normal’.

Moran, James E. Insanity, the Asylum and Society in Nineteenth Century Quebec and Ontario. Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis: York University, 1998

Prince, Pamela Namoranda. Perceived Stigma and Community Integration Among People with Serious Mental Illness Served by Assertive Community Treatment Teams. Unpublished PhD thesis, Carleton University, 1999. Thesis examines assertive community treatment, focusing on the perceived stigma, and the importance of social support and participant self-esteem.

Rogers, Scott. Down But Not Out: A Study of a Men’s Shelter From a Symbolic Interactionist Perspective. Unpublished MA thesis, University of Windsor, 1997. Thesis discusses men living in homeless shelters, detailing homelessness and poverty.

Rose, Linda Elizabeth. The Experiences of Families of Psychiatric Patients During Hospitalization: A Qualitative Study. Unpublished MSc, Dalhousie University, 1982. Thesis discusses the reaction of the family to a member’s hospitalization and communication issues between staff and family.

Sethna, Christabelle. The Facts of Life: The Sex Instruction of Ontario Public School Children, 1900-1950. Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, 1995. 

Smith, Kira. The Red Chair. Unpublished M.A. Research Project, Carleton University, 2018. Undergraduate reflection paper and novella employs creative writing alongside archival documents to reimagine to life of a female psychiatric patient at Brockville Asylum, Ontario over multiple decades throughout the first half of the twentieth century.

Stewart, S. L. Indigenous mental health: Canadian native counsellors’ narratives. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Victoria, 2007. Thesis discusses the importance of the cultural perspective in mental health services for the Indigenous people of Canada and describes the experiences of five Indigenous counsellors.

Thibault, K. Smoke and Mirrors: Reflections of policy and practice for those with a mental illness and who are in conflict with the law. Unpublished MSW thesis, McGill University, 2005. Thesis discusses mental health policy and the language of mental health policy which frames mental health patients in legal terms.

Thifault, Marie-Claude. Folie et déviance des femmes au Québec: 1901-1913. Thèse de maîtrise, Université du Québec à Montréal, 1994.   

Truchan-Tataryn, Maria. (In)Visible Images: Seeing Disability in Canadian Literature, 1832-1974. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Saskatchewan, 2007. Thesis discusses how literature depicting disability that has helped to shape the Canadian identity, touches on the way in which disability intertwines with ethnic difference in literature.

Trudeau, Tracey Lynn. Transition of Adolescent Students with Bipolar Disorder from Hospital to Receiving Schools: The Educational Aftercare Planning Process. Unpublished MEd thesis, University of Manitoba, 2000. Thesis discusses the educational needs of youth with Bipolar Disorder who have been hospitalized and the community-based support services used after their release from hospital.

Van Wiltenburg, W. M. Understanding the suffering of the family members of people with mental illness. Unpublished Masters of Nursing, University of Victoria, 2008.

Vrooman, Tamara. The Wayward and the Feeble-Minded: Euthenics, Eugenics, and the Provincial Industrial Home for Girls, 1914-1929. M.A. Thesis: University of Victoria, 1994.

Walsh, Claire. The community re-entry of mentally disordered offenders in British Columbia. Unpublished MPP, Simon Fraser University, 2007. Thesis discusses the overrepresentation of people with mental health conditions in BC jails and cyclical patterns of commitment for low-level crime, release, failure to re-integrate into the community and re-offence. Considers services that can support with the process of community re- entry.