Registration is not required for this event. But seating at the theatre is limited. Come early! If you would like to join our mailing list for this and like events, contact nte@dal.ca
View Event Poster This event is jointly sponsored by Novel Tech Ethics (Dalhousie University), The Acute Stroke Program (Capital Health), and The Heart & Stroke Foundation of Nova Scotia.
Clinician & Patient Representative Panelist Shawn Jennings (MD) graduated in 1978 from Dalhousie Medical School after which he practiced family medicine for 20 years. In 1999 he suffered a brainstem stroke which left him unable to move anything but his eyes, much like the protagonist in the movie, The Diving Bell & the Butterfly. Thereafter, Dr. Jennings took up an intensive rehabilitation regimen which eventuated in a remarkable recovery. He has since gone on to author a novel of his experiences entitled, Locked In, Locked Out. This book is now in its 3rd printing, and is used as a textbook in the nursing curriculum at the University of New Brunswick and Queen's University. Dr. Jennings is the current President of the Canadian Association of Physicians with Disabilities and has been appointed for a fourth term to the New Brunswick Premier's Council on the Status of Disabled Persons. Amongst a wide variety of community service posts and commitments, he is also the volunteer medical director of The Stroke Network--an online stroke support organization. He also observes a very involving public speaking schedule that has brought him in contact with audiences across Canada. He resides in Rothesay NB with his wife Jill and their three children: Colin, Beth, and Tara.
Ethics Panelist
Dr. Lynette Reidis an Assistant Professor in the Department of Bioethics at Dalhousie University, where she coordinates for ethics education for undergraduate and postgraduate medical students. Her interests include research ethics, interdisciplinary approaches to ethics and professionalism, and medicine and social responsibility. Lynette completed a doctorate in philosophy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, specializing in philosophy of language, ethics, and ancient philosophy. She completed postdoctoral work both in philosophy of language and in bioethics at Toronto and Dalhousie.
Occupational Therapy Panelist
Diane MacKenzie is an occupational therapist and assistant professor in the School of Occupational Therapy - Faculty of Health Professions, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia. She has practiced as an occupational therapist in the area of neurorehabilitation in both Canada and the United States since graduating from the University of Alberta in 1989. Diane is now actively involved with stroke care education and research of healthcare professionals. She has presented at numerous neurorehabilitation conferences and continuing education workshops throughout North America. Diane is involved with the Advisory Committee for the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Nova Scotia and has served on the Canadian Stroke Strategy – Professional Development and Training working group.
Neurologist Panelist
Gord Gubitz is an Assistant Professor of Neurology at Dalhousie University, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He obtained his MD at McMaster University in Hamilton, and completed his neurology training in Dalhousie, before spending two years as the Cochrane Stroke Fellow at the Department of Clinical Neurosciences in Edinburgh, Scotland. The focus of his fellowship training was clinical trial methodology and meta-analysis. Dr. Gubitz works as an attending physician on the Acute Stroke Unit in Halifax, and is the Director of the Outpatient Neurovascular Clinic. Apart from clinical care, which focuses almost exclusively on cerebrovascular diseases, he is involved in stroke-related research, with an emphasis on stroke outcomes, and database research related to organized stroke care. Dr. Gubitz is a member of the board of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Nova Scotia, and works on their Stroke Advisory Committee. He is co-chair of the Capital Health Research Fund (Nova Scotia), and a member of the Dalhousie University Research Ethics Board. He is also a member of the Canadian Stroke Strategy’s Best Practice and Guidelines Development Group.
Speech Language Pathologist Panelist
Maureen Merchant completed a Masters of Science in Human Communication Disorders at Dalhousie University in 1982. She currently practices as a Certified Speech Language Pathologist as a member of the Canadian Association of Speech Lanaguage Pathology and Audiology. She is also an Adjunct Professor and Clinical Educator with the School of Communication Disorders, Dalhousie University. Maureen has workd for the past 27 years with adult clients in acute care and rehabilitation in the Nova Scotia Hearing and Speech Centres. Her primary caseload has been with stroke, Traumatic Brain Injury and Geriatric populations exhibiting communication and swallow impairments. She is currently stationed at the Halifax Infirmary site of the Nova Scotia Hearing and Speech Centres.
When Jean-Dominique (Mathieu Amalric) comes out of his coma, some of his first questions are: “'Is this life?', 'Why me? and 'How can I go on?'” How might trying to answer these questions help to get us to some of the ethical issues involved with this movie?
How do stroke survivors, their families, and healthcare providers remain hopeful and “realistic”? What values are implicated in their hope?
Jean-Dominique (Mathieu Amalric) is treated as if he is invisible to the servicemen who come to install a telephone in his hospital room. Henriette (Marie-Joseé Croze) admonishes them saying, “Don’t act like he’s not here.” What are ways in which persons with disabling conditions are treated as if they are invisible in our society? What are ways to help them to be seen, recognized, and included? What does Jean-Do have or do to make himself recognized? How are some of these concerns implicated in the attention to visual effects and visual metaphors throughout the film?
How is imagination important for Jean-Dominique (Mathieu Amalric) to be able to hold his life together, and to bridge between his locked-in state and the world around him? How is our ability to imagine stroke survivors’ experiences (that may be very far from our own set of experiences) important for giving these persons their due regard and responding appropriately to their needs? How is having imagination important for certain kinds of ethical concerns?
Jean-Dominique (Mathieu Amalric) at one point in the film states: “My task now is to write the motionless travel notes from a castaway on the shores of loneliness.” Stroke survivor John Horan states in his review of the movie, “there is in stroke survivors an almost primal urge to tell their story.” What are ways to make sure that these voices are listened to and matter in ways that make a difference to how stroke survivors are treated?
At one point Jean-Dominique (Mathieu Amalric) says, “Today, my life feels like a string of near misses.” Jean-Do went from being a very powerful person to a person with impairments in a very short space of time. Is the prospect of disability a “near miss” away in most of our lives? How might knowing this help us to re-see ourselves as all temporarily Abled, or perhaps even circumstantially Abled? What are the implications for how we approach and respond to those labelled “disabled” in our society?
What are things that seem fragile in this film? Can things of real value also be fragile?
Click here for more ethics discussion questions on The Diving Bell & the Butterfly
Dr. Lynette Reid.jpg)
Diane MacKenzie is an occupational therapist and assistant professor in the School of Occupational Therapy - Faculty of Health Professions, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia. She has practiced as an occupational therapist in the area of neurorehabilitation in both Canada and the United States since graduating from the University of Alberta in 1989. Diane is now actively involved with stroke care education and research of healthcare professionals. She has presented at numerous neurorehabilitation conferences and continuing education workshops throughout North America. Diane is involved with the Advisory Committee for the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Nova Scotia and has served on the Canadian Stroke Strategy – Professional Development and Training working group.
