When governments pull back supports and communities begin to feel the strain, it becomes important to understand their effects upon the well-being of individuals and communities.
York University Professor Dennis Raphael believes tools to measure these impacts are already in place, and that now is the time to use them.
A new paper published in Social Indicators Research examines the legacy of the Quality of Life Research Unit at the University of Toronto and its creation of evaluation instruments developed to assess how people experience day-to-day life.
Raphael, who worked in the unit for 10 years before joining York’s Faculty of Health, says it created and tested a series of methodologies to capture important insights on well-being and lived experience.
Ranging from questionnaires to structured interview guides, these resources aimed to evaluate support programs, community planning and policy impact for a range of groups. These groups included people with developmental, physical and sensory disabilities, those with mental health challenges, and adolescents, adults and seniors in general. An approach was also developed to assess community quality of life.
The unit began its work in 1991 by examining the quality of life of persons with developmental disabilities but soon its scope expanded dramatically, leading to instruments that have been used worldwide.
Though the unit closed its doors in 2024, these tools remain publicly available and Raphael argues they are urgently needed.
"These tools were not abstract academic exercises – they were created to support decision-making in health, social services and community planning,” says Raphael. “By offering validated, easily applied measures, these tools provide a way to document how policies and living conditions shape people’s experiences and quality of life.”
In his paper, Raphael demonstrates how researchers and practitioners can benefit from the tools to assess the effects of what he calls a “neoliberalism-inspired polycrisis” – a convergence of economic and political pressures that can erode public supports and leave many struggling.
He warns that the absence of good data creates more challenges to advocate for change, and suggests that these tools can help fill that gap to understand how individuals and communities are being affected by shifting economic and social landscapes.
Insights gathered from using these questionnaires and interviews offer a way to compare how populations are coping and where public services are failing.
“I urge researchers, service providers, community groups and policymakers to re-engage with these resources,” he says. “Putting them into practice can help Canada confront the realities of declining social supports, widening inequalities and growing pressures on daily life.”