Media releases

• Brock University gains two new Canada Research Chairs in aging and workplace injury

  Tuesday, December 06, 2016 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: R00253 – 2 December 2016

  The federal government has awarded Brock University two new Canada Research Chairs in the areas of workplace injury and the aging process.

  Michael Holmes, assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology, holds the Canada Research Chair in Neuromuscular Mechanics and Ergonomics.

  He examines how the brain and nervous system interact with the mechanics of hand, arm, shoulder and neck muscles as we perform a variety of tasks.

  Holmes’ research aims to understand why some people develop carpal tunnel syndrome, repetitive strain injury and other upper-body injuries while others doing the same job do not.

  “This research will lead to workplace and tool design strategies that make occupational tasks safer and more efficient,” says Holmes. “It will impact the lives of working Canadians because work shouldn’t hurt.”

  Karen Campbell, who is set to join Brock University in January as assistant professor in the Department of Psychology, holds the Canada Research Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience of Aging.

  Her research shows that memory as a whole is preserved in older adults. What is different is that older adults are less able than younger people to focus their attention on the task at hand.

  Specifically, they tend to take in more information than their younger counterparts. This causes older people to lose focus as they sift through facts, images, thoughts and other stimuli.

  “The common view is that memory declines with age,” explains Campbell. “I think our view of age-related memory decline is quite exaggerated or at least it’s misplaced, in that it’s probably more to do with a loss of attentional control.”

  She will use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to scan the brains of younger and older adults as they perform a variety of tasks and compare the scans to determine how brain networks critical for controlling attention differ with age.

  Campbell and Holmes are 203 new and renewed Canada Research Chairs across the country, announced Friday, Dec. 2 by federal Minister of Science Kirsty Duncan.

  The Canada Research Chair program invests around $265 million per year to attract and retain some of the world’s most accomplished and promising minds in the fields of engineering and the natural sciences, health sciences, humanities, and social sciences.

  “We are delighted to welcome our two new, world-class scholars to Brock. I’m confident that their work here in Niagara will make substantial contributions to knowledge and will also have significant implications in areas of health and wellness,” says Brock’s Interim Vice-President, Research Joffre Mercier.

  With Campbell’s and Holmes’ awards, Brock University now has a total of 10 Canada Research Chairs.

  See story in The Brock News.

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  * Cathy Majtenyi, research communications/media relations specialist, cmajtenyi@brocku.ca, 905-688-5550 x5789 or 905-321-0566

  * Dan Dakin, Media Relations Officer, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca, 905-688-5550 x5353 or 905-347-1970

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  Categories: Media releases

• Funding announced for Brock research of boxing program for women, trans survivors of violence

  Tuesday, December 06, 2016 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: R00251 – 25 November 2016

  Tania Jivraj had just given birth. Having experienced violence in her past, she was overwhelmed with postpartum depression and wondering just how she was going to make it as a new mother.

  “I felt quite unskilled,” she recalls. “I didn’t feel I could maneuver the world in a healthy, safe way, I didn’t actually know what to do; I had no idea what direction to go into.”

  Luckily, Jivraj was a volunteer board member of the women’s support organization Opportunity for Advancement. Executive director Joanne Green encouraged her to be a participant in the first group of a pilot project called “Shape Your Life.”

  A decade later, Shape Your Life has helped empower more than 1,200 women and trans survivors of violence through a free recreational boxing program at a gym in Toronto.

  On Friday, Nov. 25, the Public Health Agency of Canada announced it was funding the research of Shape Your Life co-founder and Brock University researcher Cathy van Ingen, along with Department of Kinesiology associate professor Kimberley Gammage more than $420,000 to evaluate the effectiveness of the Shape Your Life program.

  “While there is significant evidence from participants of Shape Your Life that this program is valuable to them, this study will allow us to provide further evidence of its benefits, with a focus on the positive outcomes of Shape Your Life – including a greater sense of control and better feelings about the self,” says Gammage.

  With the three-year Public Health Agency of Canada grant, van Ingen and Gammage will be able to measure the program’s impact on 225 participants’ self-esteem, resilience, PTSD, social supports and other areas of their lives.

  At the beginning of each 14-week program, around 25 participants will fill out detailed questionnaires measuring various aspects of their physical and mental health. They will fill out the same questionnaire halfway through the program, when the program ends, and again six months later.

  Shape Your Life is held at the Toronto Newsgirls Boxing Club, known as the first women-led boxing club in Canada.

  Created by van Ingen, boxing coach Savoy Howe, and Opportunity for Advancement’s Green in Toronto in 2007, the idea is to use physical movement as a way of empowering women.

  “We use physical activity to create a safe environment where participants can focus on reconnecting and regaining control of their bodies and on rebuilding their lives, feeling less anxious, less rage and in more control,” says van Ingen, associate professor in the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences’ Department of Kinesiology.

  “Trauma is held in people’s bodies and healing from violence involves knowing and feeling that you are in charge of your own body.”

  Shape Your Life differs from conventional counseling programs in that the focus is on using physical activity – rather than only talking – to help women work through the trauma they experienced from violence.

  Included within the program are additional supports for the women, such as a food bank and transit tokens.

  Among the many amazing transformations van Ingen has witnessed since the program launched in 2007 is that of Jivraj, who is now Shape Your Life’s program coordinator.

  In the decade from being a ‘pilot participant’ to program coordinator, Jivraj earned two university degrees: a Bachelor of Social Work and a Master of Social Work.

  She recalls how the physical motions of boxing and exercise led her to develop thoughts of strength and control during her step-by-step journey.

  “I do remember this moment when I came out of the gym and I’m walking and I realize, ‘I’m walking tall, I’m walking in the middle of the sidewalk, I’m not trying to make myself small or invisible or make it OK for people to walk around me,” says Jivraj. “That is so powerful.”

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  * Dan Dakin, Media Relations Officer, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca, 905-688-5550 x5353 or 905-347-1970

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  Categories: Media releases