Adventure therapy doesn’t have to terrify people to be effective. Indeed, it can be counterproductive to force people outside their comfort zones when they need help with health issues, says a leading researcher in an emerging field that encompasses everything from mountain climbing to white-water rafting. Dawn Yankou, a nursing professor in York’s Atkinson Faculty of Liberal & Professional Studies, says nature is a powerful restorative environment that improves attention, concentration and mood, reported Victoria’s Times Colonist April 25.
Young Liberals valuable delegates
Young people are “more than a demographic,” asserts a Web site launched by Liberal leadership hopeful Paul Martin. But with youth potentially making up one-third of the delegates at the November leadership convention, winning over the hearts and minds of this demographic may be the key to victory. Apart from their voting power, youth are valuable in any campaign, says Robert Drummond, political science professor and dean of York’s Faculty of Arts. He was cited in a CP Wire interview April 24.
How to counter WHO blacklisting of Toronto
As advertising challenges go, this one’s a doozy: How do you persuade tourists and business people to come back to Toronto, a city that’s been blacklisted by the World Health Organization, as medical authorities struggle to contain the SARS virus? “It’s real hard, this one,” said Alan Middleton, marketing professor at York’s Schulich School of Business, in The Globe and Mail April 25. “In the immediate time while this is going on and with the WHO warning, frankly, there’s not much you can do except hunker down.” In the short term, Toronto officials should lobby the WHO aggressively to lift the travel warning, he suggested. The minute that happens, an ad campaign should be launched to assure people the city is safe.