{"id":10983,"date":"2011-07-13T15:04:58","date_gmt":"2011-07-13T20:04:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=10983"},"modified":"2015-09-25T13:33:20","modified_gmt":"2015-09-25T17:33:20","slug":"professor-to-receive-the-order-of-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2011\/07\/professor-to-receive-the-order-of-canada\/","title":{"rendered":"Professor to receive the Order of Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Dorothy

Dorothy Griffiths is receiving the Order of Canada.<\/p><\/div>\n

A Brock professor who has devoted her career to people with intellectual disabilities is receiving the Order of Canada.<\/p>\n

Dorothy Griffiths, a Child and Youth Studies<\/a> and Applied Disabilities Studies<\/a> professor, will receive the country\u2019s highest honour at a ceremony later this year.<\/p>\n

Griffiths has spent years working to improve the lives of people with intellectual disabilities, particularly those with mental health issues. But it never occurred to her that she\u2019d be honoured at this level.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis award is shared with a lot of other people,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Much of Griffiths’ work has helped Ontarians with intellectual disabilities return to the community after living in institutions. Her passion for the cause stems back to the late 1970s when, while working at a community living organization in southern Ontario, she visited an institution. She saw larger children in cribs. One was sitting in feces. They sat bored, catatonic and unengaged.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was abysmal,\u201d said Griffiths, who received the Order of Ontario in 2006. \u201cI thought they should be living in the community, in homes just like ours.<\/p>\n

Slowly, the province has caught up with Griffiths\u2019 vision. Over the past 30 years, the focus has shifted from institutional settings to a community living, where people with intellectual disabilities live in and contribute to their communities. The transition was complete in 2009, when Ontario\u2019s last three institutions closed.<\/p>\n

Griffiths has made numerous contributions to the movement as a researcher and consultant. She is currently three years into a four-year research project initiated by the Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services that evaluates how reintegration has impacted the lives of people with intellectual disabilities. She is doing the research with Rosemary Condillac, Frances Owen, Jan Frijters and Maurice Feldman.<\/p>\n

Having people in the community, rather than in institutions, makes everyone\u2019s lives richer, Griffiths said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all unique and we each have our own special gifts and weaknesses,\u201d she said. \u201cWhy wouldn\u2019t we want these citizens to be involved and contributing in our communities? It is all about rights.”<\/p>\n

Griffiths was a driving force behind the creation of Brock\u2019s Centre for Applied Disability Studies<\/a>. Before academia, she was director of the York Behaviour Management Program at York Central Hospital, where she developed an intervention model for people with intellectual disabilities who have challenging behaviours. She also developed treatments for people who engage in sexually inappropriate behaviours.<\/p>\n

She has represented Canada for 15 years on NADD (Association for Persons with Developmental Disabilities and Mental Health Challenges \u2014 North America) and is a founding member of NADD\u2019s Ontario chapter.<\/p>\n

\u201cDorothy is an internationally recognized expert who has devoted more than 30 years to advancing services for and recognition of the rights of people with disabilities,\u201d said Thomas Dunk, Dean, Faculty of social Sciences. \u201cWe are extremely proud and grateful to have her as a colleague.\u201d<\/p>\n

Griffiths is among 50 new appointees to the Order of Canada. Others include Olympic gold medallist and hockey player Hayley Wickenheiser, author Malcolm Gladwell, and Samantha Nutt, co-founder of War Child Canada, who also holds an honorary doctorate from Brock.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dorothy Griffiths has helped people with intellectual disabilities move back to their home communities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10984,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[119,3,1],"tags":[244,45,31],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10983"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10983"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10987,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10983\/revisions\/10987"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}