The 75,000 patients in mental institutions are only a fraction of the mentally ill in Canada. All of these hospitalized patients have passed through several phases of a complicated selective process. Interpersonal relations, group and community attitudes, and hospital policy, are some of the interacting factors in this process. The hospitalized population is a conglomerate of recent admissions and patients remaining from the admissions of many previous years. Changes in various hospital and societal factors affect the nature of these cohorts. For these reasons, the composition of the hospital population merits consideration of itself, rather than as an index of the amount of mental illness in the total population. The purpose of this thesis was (a) to review the characteristics of psychiatric patients under institutional care in Canada in 1960 and compare them with those of other populations reported in the literature, (b) to assess the changes which have taken place in this population between 1955 and 1960, and (c) to elucidate some of the reasons for this change and to suggest areas of further enquiry. The results show that, in 1960, seventy per cent of the 75,000 patients had been under continuous hospital care for over two years. The proportion of the population under hospital care increased with age. Schizophrenia was the most frequent diagnosis for patients over 20, and mental deficiency the most frequent for those under 20. Statistically significant changes occurred between 1955 and 1960 in the number and characteristics of patients under hospital care. The following variables were affected: (a) Age groups: there were fewer patients between the ages of 20 and 59, and more younger and older patients. (b) Diagnostic categories: Schizophrenia decreased and mental deficiency increased. c) Length of stay: there were more recently-admitted patients, and a decrease in the number of patients hospitalized-for from two to five years. Although a smaller proportion of the patients admitted in 1958 was retained continuously than of those admitted in 1955, there were still approximately 4,000 patients remaining for more than two years from the cohorts of each of these years. Changes in the retention ratios are associated with changes in the composition of the patient population between 1955 and 1960. Some suggestions from other studies regarding the causes of current changes were rejected. These suggestions included (a) the changing age distribution of the population, (b) separation of a large cohort of patients who were admitted between 1933 and 1937, and (c) a decline in syphilitic brain syndrome, and (d) increased use of tranquillizers. Publications of the Dominion Bureau of Statistics were discussed, and suggestions made for additional tabulations. Implications for other studies on hospitalized patients were presented. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

[No abstract submitted] / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate

The term “rehabilitation” is used in many fields to indicate a restoration of various functions to an individual. In social work and related fields the restoration of the handicapped individual in the physical and economic areas has taken precedence over the restoration and development of the individual in his social environment. The lasting value of rehabilitation lies in the adequate functioning of a disabled individual as a member of his family and community. This study examines the rehabilitation programme of the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Workmen’s Compensation Board of British Columbia. The rehabilitation programmes have been divided into what is called the elements of a rehabilitation programme : the rehabilitation process, rehabilitation services, rehabilitation personnel and rehabilitation maintenance allowances and auxiliary aids. These elements have formed the basis for discussion of the legislative framework and the facilities of each agency. Selected cases have been used to indicate how the rehabilitation process operates in each agency. The availability of a large amount of funds and a favourable state of public feeling have allowed the Department of Veterans Affairs to inaugurate what is considered to be the best rehabilitation programme in Canada. The medical and training aspects of Workmen’s Compenstion Board’s programme are comparable to that of the Department of Veterans Affairs. They have not carried their programme into the area of psycho-social rehabilitation to the same extent as the Department of Veterans Affairs. Some points are also set forth around which further research and investigation could take place. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

This study is primarily a descriptive account of the development and the work of the Social Service Division in its background setting of the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. It covers the historical development of the various Canadian departments of government concerned with the ex-serviceman's welfare from the beginning of World War I in 1914 to the present time. Information was drawn from annual reports and publications, mimeographed material of the Department of Veterans' Affairs, including statistical reports of the British Columbia Division, supplemented by interviews with staff members of the British Columbia District Office. The veterans' department was born of a military program and of the resulting physical need of wounded discharged soldiers for medical treatment. From this beginning developed the recognition of the value of a rehabilitation program for those physically handicapped because of war service. This need for rehabilitation was extended gradually until it covered all veterans of World War II and preceding wars. The coverage has moved steadily from the medical to the total welfare needs of the veteran. The Department has emerged as one of Canada's largest welfare agencies, veterans being segregated from their fellow civilians by legislation granting special benefits because of special risks. The role of the profession of social work in this setting has been exploratory. In the early 1920's, the social worker is described as being a nurse with special training; the profession of social work was not recognized. Today, only social workers trained in an accredited School of Social Work are accepted as employees of the Division. As far as direct case work is concerned, the Division operates largely as a referring agency although direct service is given in some instances. The Division is now experimenting with an in-service training program in social work concepts for Veterans' Welfare Officers and other Departmental personnel. This would make the social worker available to these persons on a consultative basis. In the present setting, the professional social worker has to prove the value of her work by performance. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

This study is one of four research projects which examined the National Urban Low-Income Family Evaluation Study (NULIFE). Under the auspices of the Canada Welfare Council, NULIFE examined poverty in three urban areas of Canada. The purpose of this particular study was to examine the many factors which contribute to generational links in the poverty cycle in metropolitan areas across Canada. There is a vast range of literature and research reports available from the United States on the poverty cycle and its etiology but examination of the factors which followed a familiar pattern seem to occupy a secondary position. It is to be hoped, therefore, that this study will stimulate further enquiries in this area, as well as contribute to knowledge of poverty in Canada. Examination of the NULIFE data for generational links did not produce any radical conclusions. The research indicated that the selected variables education, occupation and welfare were pertinent to the inexorable process of poverty. They were examined in separate sections of the report from the point of view that low education, lack of job skills, and dependence on welfare are self-generating, and present the poor with barriers to economic betterment. This study theorized that these critical variables were closely interrelated. For example, education was related to lack of occupational skills, et cetera. Although it was found that the selected variables were contributors to generational links in the cycle of poverty, such conclusions could only be made tentatively, as the analysis lacked strength. It was therefore not possible to indicate causality as many other cultural determinants of poverty, such as attitudes, values, expectations et cetera, were not available to be tested. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

This thesis explores the evolution of the discourses that constitute the social problem of drug use in Canada as described throughout the three Canadian drug strategies: the National Drug Strategy 1987-1992, the Canadian Drug Strategy 1992-2007 and the National Anti-Drug Strategy 2007-2014. In order to do so the author engages with Foucaudian concepts of discourse, power and knowledge to conduct an archaeological analysis of government texts produced during each time period. In particular, the author places a focus on how drug use, drug users, the impact of drug use on Canadian society and the perceived necessary responses to the drug problem are constructed through various discourses. The findings help the author propose a framework to examine how social problems may be politicized in general. The framework highlights the tendency for social problems to emphasize appropriate social norms, be selective in their incorporation of evidence, marginalize those who are considered problematic and politicize objects in a vague manner.

This research focused on measuring permafrost patch size and related variables between Fort St. John, BC and Whitehorse, YT. Methods used included electrical resistivity tomography, climate monitoring, active layer measurement, analysis of historical aerial photos, and on-site near-vertical aerial imaging. Where permafrost is present along the transect, mean annual air temperature (2010-2014) varied from -3.3 ºC to -0.9 ºC, mean annual ground surface temperature from 0.7 ºC to 2.4 ºC and mean annual ground temperature from -0.3 ºC to 0.2 ºC (at TTOP). Permafrost patches are in the order of 10 – 50 000 m2 in area and there is a strong positive log-log relationship between patch area and maximum permafrost thickness. A conceptual model of permafrost patch size evolution under a warming climate is proposed. It is concluded that permafrost patch size depends on site-specific characteristics, the time since permafrost began to degrade and the local climate conditions.

Since the introduction of the Little Report which looked at the relationship between prices and profits in the property and liability insurance industry, there has been extensive discussion in the Journal of Risk and Insurance and elsewhere on the important issue of calculating the profitability of property and liability insurance companies. Much of this discussion has centered on defining the appropriate measures of risk and return in order to determine the insurance industry's profitability relative to that of other industrial groups. It is generally agreed that such inter-industry comparisons must be set within a risk-return framework. However, the emphasis placed on the conceptual problems of defining and measuring risk has resulted in a good deal of arbitrariness in, calculating rates of return. To be specific, none of the studies published in the Journal of Risk and Insurance employ the same rate of return measure. These variations arise in part from the differing approaches adopted in arriving at a comparative measure, but they also reflect an attempt to develop a more precise method of measurement. This study investigates the underlying difficulties that are associated with these previous studies. It is felt that many of these difficulties can be circumvented by analyzing the rate of return that is earned within the insurance industry, ignoring a comparison of returns with other industries. This allows the risk dimension to be dropped from the analysis. In arriving at a accurate measurement procedure, it is explained that profit should be related to net worth rather than total assets, investable funds, or some other measure. The reason is that the return on net worth considers only those funds which management has under its control for alternative indirectly as the difference between total assets and liabilities at one point in time. However, there are several adjustments that must be made to the statutory asset and liability figures before they can be used. Assets, which consist primarily of financial assets, should be valued at market prices, because market values are a more realistic valuation of assets at a point in time than book values. Non-admitted assets should also be included in the total asset figure. Liabilities require subtracting a realistic value of the "equity" from the unearned premium reserve. Care must also be taken not to classify such items as unauthorized reinsurance reserves, investment and contingency reserves, etc. as liabilities because they are really a part of the net worth of the company. It is then explained how an accurate calculation of the return on net worth can actually be made. In this area, special consideration must be given to the quarterly payment of dividends, the payment of income taxes, any additional capital that is raised during the time period, and to tax or tax credits relating to any unrealized profits or losses that are to be included in the return measure. A brief explanation of how the population and sample were chosen is presented along with other various empirical procedures that were followed. This study then presents the results of the empirical work. Several rates of return were calculated including the rate of return before and after tax for the industry as well as for three generally defined size classes of the industry. The latter was done to determine if there are any economies of scale in operation. The rate of return was then defined to originate from three sources. These sources are investment income, mainly consisting of rents, interest and dividends received, underwriting profit, and other or residual income mainly comprised of unrealized capital gains or losses. The 'tax shield effect relating to the difference between underwriting profits calculated on a statutory basis and on an incurred basis was also determined. On the other hand, the tax shield effect associated with unrealized capital gains and losses was not calculated because no capital gains tax were evident in Canada during the time period studied. Finally some conclusions are presented along with mention of further study and research that could be undertaken in light of the results of this study. The general conclusions are that the insurance industry return during this period was not excessive. It was also concluded that after a certain volume of insurance business is reached, some economies of scale seem to exist. Finally, investment income (rents, interest, and dividends received) accounted for most of the industry rate of return before taxes because underwriting and residual income (unrealized capital gains and losses were generally within the - 1 percent to + 1 percent range on net worth during the time period of the study. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

This thesis is an inquiry into the behaviour of skill differentials among Canadian blue-color workers during the postwar period. It sets forth, mainly for expository purposes, a model of relative wage determination based on three elements: the theory of human capital, the standard theory of the firm, and a set of stock-flow identities pertaining to the skilled and unskilled labour forces. Besides yielding the familiar conclusion that percentage wage differentials vary positively with the discount rate and the length of time spent in skilled training and negatively with the length of the working life and the level of remuneration accorded trainees, the model predicts that differentials will undergo cycles of long duration. Whereas the major portion of the theoretical analysis is set in a framework of perfect competition, some attention is paid to the problem of relative wage determination in the presence of trade unions. The formal model serves as an organizational structure for a review of the literature. Existing hypotheses concerning the behaviour of skill differentials are distinguished as being either of a long- or of a short-run character. Long-run hypotheses deal with education and training, social attitudes and policy, migration flows, technological change, and the impact of unionization. Short-run hypotheses are those that make reference to the rate of unemployment and the rate of inflation. The empirical undertaken includes both time-series and cross-sectional studies. Summary statistics are produced in order to trace the movement of skill differentials among building tradesmen and among production workers in a composite sample of thirty-nine mining and manufacturing industries. The results obtained indicate a downward trend over the period surveyed. In the case of the thirty-nine-industry sample, regression analysis reveals the existence of significant positive relationships between skill differentials and each of the short-run variables, unemployment and inflation. The building trades exhibit no short-run response. Examination of a number of regional cross sections supports the view that skill differentials tend to be narrower in British Columbia than in other parts of Canada, but this confirmation applies only to manufacturing. In the building trades, British Columbia skill differentials do not manifest an extreme ranking. Examination of an interindustry cross section uncovers no significant relationships between skill differentials and industry-specific factors such as plant scale, labour intensity, and employment concentration. The level of unionization is marginally insignificant as an explanatory variable. Terence J. Wales Thesis Supervisor / Arts, Faculty of / Vancouver School of Economics / Graduate

Previous research has revealed a relationship between research department structure and scientist research output. Investigators have drawn on the findings of this research to make recommendations to research directors and administrators regarding the type of structure necessary to maintain high levels of scientist research output. Since the recommendations were made to research directors and administrators in general, the implication is that one type of research department structure should be utilized in all types of organizations. This, in turn, implies that the relationship between structure and output is constant across organization types. Consideration of the goals and operating conditions in different types of organizations suggests that some organizations would tend to place greater structural constraints on scientists than others. In other words, differences in goals and conditions of operation make it almost impossible for research departments in different types of organizations to be structured the same way. If this is the case, the hypothesis that follows inevitably is that some types of organizations cannot have the one best structure and must suffer losses in research output. An examination of some original research, however, reveals that the responding scientists were employed in a variety of organization types. Moreover, the investigators made no attempt to examine the relationships between structure and research output on an organization type-by-type basis. There remains then, an equally plausible hypothesis, that scientists in different types of organizations accept the existing structure and that no basic incompatibility exists. This implies that the relationship between structure and research output is not constant across organization types, but varies from type to type. The problem of this study, therefore, was to determine whether or not the relationships between research department structure and research output was constant across organization types. The main hypothesis tested was: "The relationship between research department structure and research output varies across organization types." Implicit in this hypothesis were two prior hypotheses. 1. There is a relationship between research department structure and research output. 2. Research departments in different types of parent organizations are structured differently. Also implicit in the main hypothesis was a type of summary hypothesis, which properly followed the main hypothesis. 3. Relationships between research output and structure found in combined organization samples are different than relationships found in separate organization samples. These general hypotheses were tested by examining information obtained from testing related specific hypotheses. The data necessary for the testing of the specific hypotheses was obtained from questionnaire responses provided by scientists from four types of organizations—business, government, social development, and university—who were mailed questionnaires in order to obtain measures of reported research output, and perceptions of research department structure. 523 scientists or 45% of the sample, returned a completed questionnaire. Another 15% of the sample provided reasons for not responding. Examination of the data related to Hypothesis Number One indicated that in a combined organization sample, levels of reported research output were: 1. positively associated with levels of perceived (a) influence to decide own work goals and objectives, (b) decentralized control of research activities, and 2. negatively associated with levels of perceived (a) supervisor influence to decide scientist work goals and objectives, and (b) centralized control of research activities. On the basis of this information, Hypothesis Number One was accepted. Examination of the data related to Hypothesis Number Two indicated that scientists in different types of organizations perceived different levels of: 1. emphasis to be placed on particular criteria used in the selection of research projects; 2. time expenditures in basic and applied research; 3. time pressure on their work; 4. influence to decide work goals and objectives; 5. supervisor or department head influence in deciding their work goals and objectives; 6. centralized and decentralized control of research activities; 7. coordination of efforts for common objectives. On the basis of this information Hypothesis Number Two was accepted. Examination of the data related to Hypothesis Number Three indicated that high research output scientists, in different types of organizations perceived different levels of: 1. influence in deciding their work goals and objectives (university scientists only); 2. immediate supervisor or department head influence in deciding their work goals and objectives; 3. centralized and decentralized control of research activities; and 4. coordination of efforts for common objectives. On the basis of this information, Hypothesis Number Three was accepted. Hypothesis Number Four was also accepted because examination of the data indicated that responses from high research output scientists in combined organization samples— as compared to responses from separate organization samples— differed in the same ways as those listed above. In summary, this study found relationships between research output and research department structure. Research departments in different types of parent organizations appeared to be structured differently. Finally, relationships between structure and research output varied across organization types, as well as between separate and combined organization samples. In conclusion, the present study indicated that there is no 'best' type of research department structure for all organizations. / Education, Faculty of / Graduate