Archive for July 2025

As researchers focused on data management (Kristi) and behavioural sciences (Albert) and whose work tackles the significance of research with open access data, we have been concerned about how the data sets that scholars around the world rely on have been vanishing from U.S. government sites. Vanishing data is of dire concern far beyond the U.S., including for Canadians.

Officially, only 10 per cent of Canadians are considered poor. But if you measure poverty not just by income but by standard of living—whether a person can afford basics, like new shoes, small birthday gifts or going out for special occasions—the number rises to roughly 25 per cent. That’s about 10 million people. I never expected one of them would be me.

Our study shows that mental health and place are potentially locked in a feedback loop. One influences the other and the cycle can either support wellbeing or drive decline. That has real implications for how we support people with mental health challenges.

Recently, the Government published its 10 Year Health Plan…. The plan goes into impressive detail on many areas. From HPV vaccination to GLP-1 medications for weight loss, to genomic sequencing for adults. It shows what’s possible when ambition meets clarity, which makes the total absence of action on drug use, and the brief commitments to alcohol harm, all the more stark.

A Hong Kong pilot scheme to identify hidden cases of at-risk carers should be expanded to also cover other low-income families and subdivided flat tenants, a social worker and a district councillor have urged, as a new database to address the issue began operation.

I’m not under the illusion that college used to be regarded principally in such high-minded terms. From the G.I. Bill onward, it has been held up rightfully as an engine of social mobility, a ladder of professional opportunity, yielding greater wealth for its graduates and society both. But there was a concurrent sense that it contributed mightily to the civic good — that it made society culturally and morally richer. That feeling is now fighting for survival. So much over the past quarter century has transformed Americans’ relationship to higher education in ways that degrade its loftier goals. The corpus of college lumbers on, but some of its soul is missing.

Two faculty members have developed a lab to target a growing issue within society. UTA School of Social Work professors, Dr. Dana Litt (left) and Dr. Melissa Lewis, are leading the Studying Alcohol and Related Risks Lab, or STARR Lab, to seek answers to the ongoing issue of youth alcohol use.