UNews - Chase Petruska

Powerchair hockey tournament coming to the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge

caroline.zentner — Fri, 01 Aug 2025 21:09:12 +0000

Powerchair athletes will descend on Lethbridge for the first-ever Alberta Powerchair Hockey Tournament at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge’s Centre for Sport and Wellness from Aug. 8 to 10.

Powerchair hockey players display their jerseys while coach Chase Petruska holds the trophy.

Chase Petruska (BSc ’23, MSc ’24), a doctoral student studying neuroscience under Dr. Gerlinde Metz, has organized the tournament, and he expects 32 athletes with physical disabilities from Grand Prairie, Calgary, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat and Ontario will participate in the tournament. Hosted at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, the tournament is being run by the Lethbridge Powerchair Sports Association. The Calgary Flames and the Lethbridge Hurricanes are supporting the tournament by supplying jerseys for two teams each, as well as MVP awards, like signed game pucks and water bottles. The Calgary Powerchair Hockey League and the Alberta Cerebral Palsy Sports Association are also behind the tournament as they endeavour to grow the sport of powerchair hockey.

Petruska became interested in powerchair sports because he wanted to help his brother, who has cerebral palsy. His brother plays in the Calgary Power Hockey League, which Petruska coaches. Seeing his brother and the other players smiling, laughing and having a good time inspired him to conduct research into finding ways to support people with physical disabilities in participating in team sports.

He established the Lethbridge Powersoccer Program nearly four years ago, after his research found that individuals with physical disabilities were more susceptible to stressful situations like social isolation.

“Since starting up Lethbridge Powerchair Soccer and while coaching powerchair hockey in Calgary, I’ve seen players gain confidence, form close friendships, and feel a stronger sense of purpose and inclusion,” says Petruska. “Team sports can offer life-changing benefits for people who are often excluded from traditional athletics. One of the biggest inspirations for me is seeing these players come out every week, and, even with all the adversity they have to battle through, their faces still light up with joy whenever they make a save, a block, a pass or score a goal.”

Petruska plans to conduct research on the tournament to examine the immediate effects of powerchair sports as part of his PhD thesis. Along with collecting heart rate data and saliva and urine samples, the athletes will be asked to complete a questionnaire to assess how powerchair sports affect their stress levels, mood, social well-being and physiological responses. The goal is to deepen understanding of how adaptive team sports influence the mental, social, and biological health of individuals with physical disabilities.

In his previous research, Petruska has found heartening results. A study soon to be published, which examined the impact of powerchair sports over four months of participation, revealed a trend in increased social support and a significant metabolomic change with promising biological markers for positive social support and mental health outcomes.

The findings are confirmed by what Petruska sees on the court and the possibilities he envisions for powerchair sports.

“Seeing every player’s resilience, how they work together, encourage one another, and help each other grow both on and off the court, has made a significant impact on me,” he says. “As a result, we’ve begun expanding to other sports through my non-profit Lethbridge Powerchair Sports Association. We are running powerchair hockey in the fall, soccer in the spring and boccia in the summer. All events will be hosted at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge and directly tied to my research."

The tournament begins Friday, Aug. 8, with an optional practice at 4 p.m., dinner from 5 to 6 p.m. and the first game at 6 p.m. between the Flames and Blasty. The tournament continues Saturday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. The finals are scheduled for Sunday, with the gold medal game from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. All games will be held in the north gym at the Centre for Sport and Wellness.

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge celebrates International Clinical Trials Day

caroline.zentner — Tue, 23 May 2023 17:55:25 +0000

Back in 1747, James Lind, a surgeon, started a clinical trial with sailors sick with scurvy aboard a Royal Navy ship. He gave them a variety of dietary supplements and saw a remarkable recovery in those who were treated with citrus fruits. Lind’s work not only saved the lives of sailors, but laid the foundation for modern clinical trials.

Today, clinical trials — a type of clinical research that involves voluntary human participants or their blood and tissues — involve interventions such as treatments, procedures, devices or changes to lifestyle. They are used to determine the safety and effectiveness of the intervention. International Clinical Trials Day on May 20 provides the opportunity to recognize the achievements of the clinical research community.

“Clinical trials are essential to the advancement of human health and well-being,” says Dr. Dena McMartin, vice-president research. “Clinical trials help us develop new treatments such as drugs and vaccines, as well as medical devices and procedures. ULethbridge researchers who conduct clinical trials help improve the quality of life for many people.”

While many pre-clinical research trials are conducted at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, many researchers work with human participants.

For example, Dr. Darren Christensen, a Faculty of Health Science professor with expertise in addictions, and a team of researchers are investigating the potential for naltrexone, a drug usually prescribed for people with alcohol or opioid abuse disorders, to treat disordered gambling.

“The results we gather in this study will give us important scientific evidence for an application to Health Canada to introduce the first regulated drug treatment for gambling disorders,” says Christensen.

Dr.Jon Doan and his team conduct research with people living with Parkinson Disease.

In the Department of Kinesiology & Physical Education, Dr. Jon Doan (PhD ’06) and his team have long examined the ability of people living with Parkinson Disease (PD) to retain their skating skills.

“Paradoxically, many people living with PD maintain their skating skills,” says Doan. “A recent clinical trial from our lab combined an ice-skating intervention with stickhandling a hockey puck or ringette ring and found that people living with PD had significantly improved functions in their upper extremities with the intervention.”

Dr. Bonnie Lee, a professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences’ Addiction Studies program, conducted a clinical trial in the provincial health system using Congruence Couple Therapy (CCT), a counselling model that treats the person with addiction and their partner together rather than separately. The results showed that CCT produces significantly better outcomes for clients with alcohol and gambling problems compared to individual treatment.

In the Department of Neuroscience, Dr. Robbin Gibb (BASc (BSc '77, MSc '01, PhD '04)and her team developed the Building Brains Together program to promote play-based activities for children and enhance adult capability around child development. The goal of the program is to improve executive function (EF) and resilience in both children and their families. Originally targeted at preschoolers, the team has recently developed an EF skill-building play program for adolescents that is now being tested in Lethbridge classrooms.

Chase Petruska, second row right, established the Lethbridge Powersoccer Program as a way to help relieve stress for individuals with physical disabilities.

Also in neuroscience, Chase Petruska, a student in Dr. Gerlinde Metz’s lab, is working with individuals with physical disabilities to better understand their personal stresses and mental well-being. This research aims to find areas where individuals with physical disabilities lack proper support and attempt to build resilience via a powerchair soccer intervention.

These are just a few of the many activities where ULethbridge researchers are using clinical trials to make important advances in their fields of study, enhancing the health and well-being of society.

Anyone interested in learning more about clinical trials can visit the Alberta Clinical Research Consortium or Be the Cure.

The Office of Research and Innovation Services also supports the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s research community in the pursuit of external grants and funding and helps them conduct their work with the highest academic, scientific and ethical standards.

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge graduate student creates powerchair soccer league

caroline.zentner — Fri, 28 Apr 2023 20:37:01 +0000

One of the best things about attending the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge for Chase Petruska was the ability to pursue research he was keenly interested in. He found that freedom in Dr. Gerlinde Metz’s lab at the Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience and his research led to the establishment of a powerchair soccer program for those with physical disabilities.

Chase Petruska, second row right, established the Lethbridge Powersoccer Program as a way to help relieve stress for individuals with physical disabilities.

“My brother has cerebral palsy, so I’ve always been interested in individuals with physical disabilities,” says Petruska, who’s now a master’s student in Metz’s lab. “We are really close and he’s pretty much my motivation for everything.”

Petruska coaches his brother’s team in the Calgary Power Hockey League (CPHL) and seeing the players laughing, smiling and having a great time spurred his interest in doing research to find more ways to help people like his brother and ensure the needed support and care is in place. The COVID-19 pandemic and its restrictions were difficult for everyone, but it led to even more social isolation for people with physical disabilities.

“The pandemic made everyone a bit more on edge and was stressful for us all,” says Metz. “But the physically disabled community is particularly vulnerable, and was affected more than the average person in the population because they lack mobility to go out.”

Petruska wanted to investigate mental health and stress in people with physical disabilities, but he could find very few previous studies that looked at the relationship between these factors.

“When I came to Lethbridge and saw there was no specific activity for individuals in powerchairs to do, I thought it would be a good idea to look at this powerchair soccer intervention and then we could also measure the impact it made on their resilience and mental health,” he says.

Along with establishing the Lethbridge Powersoccer Program, he recruited participants for his research study where they responded to a questionnaire about their mental health and provided saliva and urine samples. The results became part of Petruska’s honours thesis.

“We found that individuals with physical disabilities were more susceptible to stressful situations like COVID and social isolation,” he says. “We also found that individuals who had non-family caretakers reported more depressive and anxiety symptoms, as well as a decrease in physical activity.”

Given those findings, Petruska suspects other factors may be involved, such as the type of caregiving situation, and he’s continuing his research as part of his master’s program.

When it began in the fall of 2021, the powersoccer program operated out of a community gym up until Christmas time. The new year found them without a place to play until the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ stepped up with both gym time and storage space.

“We are very grateful the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ makes research possible and, at the same time, enables this program for community members who are in dire need of an intervention and social support,” Petruska says.

The league currently has five players, with five more who are interested when the league starts back up this month. The league has received funding through the Alberta Cerebral Palsy Sports Association to cover the cost of gym rental and bumpers for the powerchairs. In addition, Petruska’s family and Dr. Jamshid Faraji, senior research associate in Metz’s lab, have pitched in to help with collecting samples and questionnaires.

Metz sees much potential in this type of research for people with physical disabilities, especially those who’ve experienced a sudden loss of mobility. Getting used to using a wheelchair comes with both physical and mental challenges and more research could help find ways to mitigate the stress that goes along with those challenges.

"Because our lifestyles are very complex and everyone experiences different levels of stress, we don't really know how stress and mental health affect our physical health," says Metz. "Therefore, we decided to also investigate biological signatures of stress, such as metabolic changes."

The results may also point to new interventions aimed at reducing stress, such as weightlifting or even virtual reality.

UNews - Chase Petruska

Powerchair hockey tournament coming to the ��Ѹ�����Դ���߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge

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