Centre for the Cross Cultural Study of Health & Healing (CCCSHH)
The Centre for the Cross-Cultural Study of Health and Healing
is a nonprofit organization established at the U of A in 1984 to
study multicultural health issues.
CCCSHH began as The Project for the Study of Traditional Healing Practices in 1984 at the U of A under the direction of Dr. David Young. In 1990, the U of A officially recognized CCCSHH as an interdisciplinary research project; in 1992 the it approved changing the status of the project to a Centre and in 2000, CCCSHH became part of the Research Division of Family Medicine.
Centre Staff and Research Associates, a multidisciplinary team of academics, health care professionals, graduate students, and community members, share a commitment to the analysis of health and healing from a pluralist perspective.
Newsworthy
We are pleased to announce the publication of
The Healing Landscapes of Central and Southeastern Siberia
An initiative of the Centre for the Cross-Cultural Study of Health and Healing (CCCSHH), and the Canadian Circumpolar Institute (CCI) Press at the University of Alberta, The Healing Landscapes of Central and Southeastern Siberia is the first in a five volume series documenting healing traditions in Eastern Siberia in an area extending from Lake Baikal northwards through the Enisei River to the Arctic Ocean.
Order your copy
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With funding from the AB Centre for Injury Control & Research, U of A, CCCSHH worked with the AB Mycological Society and the Poison & Drug Information Service, Calgary, to provide a convenient resource to identify poison mushrooms and their antidotes. The research was examined and validated by PADIS and by the North American Mycological Association, USA. The resulting poster was presented at the AGM of the AB Mycological Society and is available in all emergency rooms in Alberta. View larger .jpg of poster
To obtain a copy of the poster, please contact Peggy Lewis
Advisory Board
- Dr. Earle Waugh, Director
- Dr. Jean Triscott, Co-Director
- Dr. Jonathan Hart, Associate Director
- Mr. Mohammad Emami, Research Associate
- Valerie Plante, Private Practice
- Robert Rogers, Medicine Plant specialist
Grant MacEwan University College - Dr. Donna Wilson, Faculty of Nursing
- Dr. Michael Frishkopf, Department of Music
- Dr. Regula Qureshi, Department of Music
- Dr. Joel Wilbush, Honorary Member
- Dr. David Young, Director Emeritus
- Ms. Obianuju Mollel, Manager, AHS Libraries
Organizational Structure
CCCSHH is administered by an Advisory Board, comprised of members of the Academy in Arts and Medicine. It is joined by representatives from the community, along with practitioners, representatives from institutions and students depending on the issues involved. Grant funding is the primary vehicle for our ongoing support and direction. The Centre is also a full-fledged member of the University community and the board operates under the jurisdiction of the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry. The Centre also develops programs and projects in partnership with other health and social research-related institutions.
Our Philosophy
Primary Health individual or group is able to realize aspirations and satisfy needs, while also being able to change or cope with the environment.
Healing is a process by which an individual or group is able to return to a state of wellness or adapt to and accept limitation, disease, and death. It involves the physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional aspects of wellness.
The Centre's goals are to:
- understand the basic principles that maintain and restore health;
- promote these basic principles for the benefit of Canadian society and the international community.
The Centre achieves these goals through a commitment to:
- multidisciplinary research
- cross-cultural research
- cultural competence education
- networking with partners and the department on research issues
Our Programs
The Centre has three key program areas:
- Health, Healing and Oral Tradition
The goal of this program area, which falls within the domain of what is commonly referred to as traditional or indigenous knowledge studies, is to work with healers and other knowledgeable people in documenting and supporting oral traditions that are in danger of being lost.
- The Dynamics of Disease, Health and Healing
The goal of this program area is to study the interaction between environmental, biological, sociocultural, psychological, and spiritual factors of disease, health and healing. These studies are conducted at the individual, institutional, and community level, and often involve a range of methodologies including ethnographic analysis, historical or literary analysis, experiential analysis, and experimental intervention.
- Multicultural Health and Health Care Pluralism
The goal of this program area is to study the effectiveness of various programs designed to help health care providers become more aware of the needs of patients from different backgrounds so that health practitioners can provide more culturally appropriate health care. The Centre also studies the effectiveness of collaborative efforts among practitioners of different healing traditions, such as biomedicine and First Nations medicine, or biomedicine and traditional Chinese medicine.
Ongoing Research
Call for papers
In collaboration with the Canadian Circumpolar Institute, the Centre invites authors to participate in a special volume devoted to Sami Health and Healing. It will form part of a series of 5 volumes on healing traditions in the circumpolar North.
The Healing Landscapes of Central and Southeastern Siberia
Due out in autumn 2011, Vol. 1 of "Patterns on Northern Traditional Healing" will include a preface to the series by Earle H. Waugh, Director of the CCCSHH.
