Montreal Centre
CWHN (Canadian Women's Health Network)
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Centres of Excellence for Women's Health
Program (CEWHP) Update Fall 1999
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Centre of Excellence for
Women's Health - Université de Montréal Consortium
Academic co-director: Bilkis Vissandjée, Ph.D.
Community co-director: Katherine Macnaughton-Osler
Development officer: Lyne Robichaud
Research Officers: Jocelyne Bernier, Marlène Dallaire
and Geneviève Daudelin
Executive secretary: Doris Tétreault
P.O. 6128, Centre-Ville Station
Montreal, Québec H3C 3J7
Web site: www.cesaf.umontreal.ca
Since its creation in 1997, the
Centre of Excellence for Women's Health-Université de
Montréal Consortium (CESAF) has created an important and
influential network of partners from a wide coalition of community,
academic, and health and social services organizations. Some
200 members participate in various CESAF activities with a view
to improving women = s health, particularly that of caregivers
and immigrant and Aboriginal women.
To help improve women = s health, CESAF carries out a broad range
of activities, including analytical and exploratory studies on
the many aspects of women = s health experiences, information
activities and the dissemination of research results, as well
as steps to create and consolidate networks in the women 's health
care sector.
Ongoing Projects and Research
CESAF members have been
collaborating for the past three years on some forty research
projects and activities, such as the following:
- L'impact des transformations
du système de santé sur les femmes aidantes. This project has led to recommendations
and concrete solutions to improve the situation of caregivers;
- Adéquation des services
Info-Santé CLSC aux besoins des femmes immigrantes. The purpose of this project is to examine
the availability, accessibility and cultural compatibility of
CLSC Info-Santé services from the perspective of immigrant
women;
- Through the Naandwedidaa
Kwe-Healing Women project, Aboriginal women are seeking to
develop new holistic approaches to socio-health education, prevention
and support to victims of sexual abuse and family violence;
- The video À la vie,
à la mort presents the experiences of female caregivers
and shows how they are affected by changes to the healthcare
system;
- The design and development of
an urban Aboriginal women = s wellness centre has led to the
formulation of some twenty recommendations concerning the launch
of such a centre;
- The project Corps torturés,
âmes brisées-Stratégies de reconstruction
des femmes réfugiées ayant subi la violence organisée
is intended to show how women rebuild their identities and lives
after having been subjected to severe physical and psychological
trauma.
This year, in light of the results
of its research projects and activities, CESAF is accelerating
its measures to make recommendations and to influence policy
in women's health care matters.
Our Efforts to Shape Policy
Major changes in Quebec
healthcare and social services over the past few years, particularly
the ambulatory shift, have resulted in the transfer of costs
and services to the families of sick and frail people. In most
cases, it is women who are called upon to care for family members.
CESAF has launched a number of policy initiatives with a view
to improving the situation of caregivers. An analysis of the
impact of the healthcare and social services reform on women
caregivers yielded a series of recommendations to adapt programs
to the needs of women caregivers. The recommendations were tabled
in May 1999 at the Régie régionale de la santé
et des services sociaux de Montréal-Centre (RRSSS-MC).
It is critical that the current situation of caregivers be addressed
through concrete measures adapted to their needs. To this end,
a large delegation of CESAF members attended a meeting with RRSSS-MC
decision-makers. Several other strategies and projects for improving
caregivers' situations are planned for this fall in partnership
with institutional and community caregiver organizations.
Our Development Activities
Although a complex issue,
work in the sustainability of CESAF is essential and contributes
to the consolidation of links between partners. Through a process
of collective reflection, several development options have emerged.
Ensuring CESAF's sustainability is a large-scale project that
calls for and makes full use of the skills and resources of those
responsible for the Centre's continued existence: its members.
The strategy for CESAF's sustainability is multi-faceted in order
to encourage the development of a range of concrete, viable avenues.
Publications
Reports on CESAF research
and activities can be consulted at our Documentation Centre,
or forwarded upon request. A list of these projects is available
on our Website.
For more information,
please contact us at:
CESAF
Telephone: (514) 343-6758
Fax: (514) 343-7078
Email: cesaf@ere.umontreal.ca
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