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The Women’s Healthy Environments Network (WHEN) website has a whole new look and feel.

Their volunteer team has been working hard to revamp the WHEN logo and website. You’ll see a variety of new features, responding to the advice they’ve received from some of you and their desire to meet the needs of their ever growing followers. 

Visit their website today!

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CWHN’s Facebook page is another great place to learn about what’s hot in women’s health. We update it regularly with the issues that matter to all of us, and you’ll also find others there who share your interests and passion for women’s health issues.

Check out our page, like us and become a Friend of CWHN!

CWHN on Facebook. 

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CWHN has recently joined Twitter and we invite YOU to share in our conversations on women’s health.

Check us out on Twitter!

twitter.com/#!/CdnWomensHealth

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Check out PharmaWatch Canada’s new blog Working for Consumer Rights, Safe Medicines & Products

PharmaWatch Canada was founded to support “direct-from consumer” reporting of adverse reactions to prescription medicine. Their goal is to highlight and validate consumer experiences and heighten consumer involvement in adverse drug reaction reporting.

In addition to documenting these experiences, they aim to facilitate networking among individual consumers and advocacy groups who share their concerns about the lack of adequate post-market monitoring by the pharmaceutical industry and Health Canada.

PharmaWatch has launched this blog to shed light on some of the most significant policy, research, legislative and program issues related to the safety and efficacy of prescription drugs, vaccines and medical devices in Canada. They believe that the Canadian public, patients, physicians, policy analysts, researchers, academics, authors, politicians and the media have a right to know how our drug approval and monitoring system works, how it compares to other international jurisdictions, the factors influencing decision making and whether Health Canada is protecting our health and safety.

Many, perhaps most Canadians, believe that prescription drugs, vaccines and medical devices are widely tested before being submitted to a rigorous approval process and, after being deemed safe and effective, are continuously monitored once they are on the market and being used. They may think that new drugs on the market are approved because of exciting and innovative research and that the newest drugs are often the best and safest choice even though they are the most expensive.

There should be a new blog every 2-4 weeks. Check it out!

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The holiday season brings with it well-known traditions – as well as particular stresses for people who suffer from disordered eating. In the new blog from the National Eating Disorders Information Centre (NEDIC), read about how one woman has coped with the season that presents lots of challenges for those with eating disorders.

Read Lee Rehm’s new blog.

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Fast Net (see attachment below) is a new, short bulletin from the International Network of Women Against Tobacco (INWAT).  A sister publication to their e-zine The Net, Fast Net is a quick and timely update on a tobacco control issue of importance concerning women and girls.  This issue focuses on the global efforts to control the increasing burden of Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs) and what you can do to support this vital campaign.

Visit their website and INWAT Europe’s Facebook page for more information from INWAT.

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Victorian Order of Nurses (VON Canada) has recently revitalized its bilingual website, www.caregiver-connect.ca. The site is dedicated to providing more answers, quickly and easily, to family caregivers, to better support them in their vital caregiving role.

The majority of the 3-5 million family caregivers in Canada are women, many of them struggling to care for loved ones, hold down a job and be a wife/mother/neighbour at the same time.  VON shares the goal of improving the health of these invaluable Canadian caregivers.

Check out the VON’s site here. 

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The Canadian Virtual Health Library (CVHL) has a new website which contains a "Virtual Library". The Library will soon contain licensed resources, but for now provides indexed links to freely available health information, in both English and French.  These links provide health librarians and health practitioners with easy access to high quality health information.  Each has been selected by an expert panel of health librarians with the goal of providing high quality, evidence-informed, health information resources.  This continuously updated free content will serve as a complement to the licensed resources that will be licensed by CVHL. 

The official launch of the website will occur at the annual Canadian Health Libraries Association Conference in Calgary from May 27-30.

Browse the new site at www.cvhl-bvcs.ca  You may also register in the site to comments, participate in community forums, and suggest new content.

For more information please contact:

Jennifer Bayne, Project Lead : jennifer.bayne@knowledge-able.com

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A new queer health website has been launched. This project was initiated by the GLBTT* Sexual Health Promotion Coalition, and involved a collaboration of many community members. Check out getiton.ca!

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The Canadian Institutes of Health Research Institute of Gender and Health (IGH) and the Campbell and Cochrane Equity Methods Group are pleased to announce the launch of the IGH Cochrane Corner. The IGH Cochrane Corner highlights reviews pertinent to gender, sex, and health questions.  It aims to introduce those working in gender, sex, and health to the methods of the Cochrane Collaboration and, reciprocally, to bring awareness of sex- and gender-based analyses to the Cochrane community. The Corner will provide a range of knowledge users with a gender- and sex-focused entrée into the vast collection of research evidence provided through the Cochrane Library. By creating a focused collection of systematic reviews relevant to gender, sex, and health, the IGH Cochrane Corner will be a valuable tool for knowledge translation in the field.

Given the breadth of The Cochrane Library at over 4,000 reviews, the IGH Corner privileges recently released reviews and will eventually extend to older syntheses; the Corner is a living resource and will expand over time. The first two reviews featured in the IGH Corner focus on brief alcohol interventions in primary care and the use of cranberries for preventing urinary tract infections. 

The Corner also features an original series of Cochrane “Columns." These highlight methodological, substantive, or newsworthy issues related to sex, gender, health, and systematic reviews. The columns reflect current knowledge and activities in the field, and are available both online and in the IGH Intersections newsletter. The first column will be released in fall 2010.
 
Visit the IGH Cochrane Corner. Please feel free to link to the Corner from your websites or other resources.

The IGH Cochrane Corner is featured this month in a “Gender Corner” in the Equity Update newsletter by the Campbell and Cochrane Equity Methods Group.

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The new film STILL DOING IT explores the lives of older women. Partnered, single, straight, gay, black and white nine extraordinary women, age 67-87, express with startling honesty and humor how they feel about themselves, sexuality and love in later life and the poignant realities of aging.

To watch the trailer and learn more go to stilldoingit.com

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The new Manitoba Provincial Health Ethics Network (MB-PHEN) website is now online. It is a portal for health care providers to link to health ethics resources and strategies in Manitoba and beyond. MB-PHEN was created in 2009 as a collaboration of Manitoba RHAs. The goal of MB-PHEN is to advance integrative ethics in health care in Manitoba. Please share this weblink with your colleagues.

Please note: There are similar networks in Alberta and Nova Scotia linked to on MB-PHEN.

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A groundbreaking new resource to guide donors, policy makers and program managers in planning effective HIV/AIDS interventions for women and girls was launched by Open Society Institute (OSI) at the XVIII International AIDS Conference with presentations by authors Jill Gay, Karen Hardee, Melanie Croce-Galis and Shannon Kowalski.

What Works for Women and Girls: Evidence for HIV/AIDS Interventions - now available at www.whatworksforwomen.org - is a comprehensive review of successful HIV programming for women and girls spanning 2,000 articles and reports with data from more than 90 countries.

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IWHC shapes international policy and builds local capacity for women’s health and human rights in Africa, Asia and Latin America.  We leverage our work in these two very different, but critically linked worlds – to change thinking, redirect funding and motivate action by people and institutions that can secure rights and health for women. 

For more information, please visit the website.

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Arts4Choice invites you to have a look at their new site, send them any feedback and comments, follow them on twitter, "like" them on Facebook.

Their new email address is choices@arts4choice.com

They thank again all those who donated and look forward to keeping in touch with all of you and continuing to be a part of the struggle for choice in Canada.

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Stirrups and Stories is a grassroots initiative to improve health outcomes and the care women receive in the OB or GYN office by collecting women's stories to educate and empower both patients and providers.

The purpose of Stirrups and Stories is multi-fold: first and foremost, to give space to women to talk about their experiences. Who really asks, 'so how is OB/GYN care for you, ladies?' Not usually the providers or medical establishment, and other women tend to ask (in our experience) in one-on-one or friendship settings. But this information is valuable! If we start listening to the women, and collecting their stories, we can discover reasons women do or do not seek care, what concerns women actually have, how providers can improve the care they give their patients, what's going divinely right and what's going egregiously wrong.

See the online gallery of photos and stories on the website here.

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The Women’s Court of Canada is an innovative project bringing together academics, activists, and litigators in order literally to rewrite the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms equality jurisprudence. Taking inspiration from Oscar Wilde, who once said “the only duty we owe to history is to rewrite it”, the Women’s Court operates as a virtual court, and ‘reconsiders’ leading equality decisions. The Women’s Court renders alternative decisions as a means of articulating fresh conceptions of substantive equality.

Looking for new bloggers. koshan@ucalgary.ca ;megan.evansmaxwell@utoronto.ca.

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"4000 years for choice" is a new arts activism project developed by University of Illinois student, Heather Ault. It's a project to send, weekly, an educational, encouraging, beautifully designed pro-choice postcard to the 165 reproductive health clinics targeted by the Right wing for harassment during their current offensive campaign.  

4000 Years for Choice develops visual narratives about the practices of contraception and abortion from around the world for the past 4000 years. The project hopes to celebrate, inspire, and empower women and men in their reproductive lives!

Check out the website to see the postcard designs (you can buy poster-sized versions to support the project), the clinics receiving the cards, and a timeline of 4000 years of information about technologies of contraception and abortion.

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To assist countries and practitioners, UNIFEM is launching a global virtual knowledge centre on how to address violence against women and girls.

This is a one-stop centre to support practitioners around the world in effective design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes that aim to end violence against women and girls. The web-based site brings together lessons learned to date and recommended practices gleaned from initiatives large and small, whether originating from the women's movement, civil society organizations, governments, the UN System or other actors. While capturing the leading experiences from all regions of the world, its primary intended audience is in developing countries and other resource-poor settings.

Available in English, Spanish and French at this website. 

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Antigone Connect is an online site working to engage women's organizations and feminists across the country to work collaboratively for women's rights and equality in Canada and around the world.

We are hoping to create a powerful online network that will be able to help lead the Canadian women's movement forward in the coming years. As we approach Canada's 150th Anniversary, we are all aware that there is a great deal more to be done in Canada to ensure women's equality. More women in politics and managerial positions, accessible child care, changes to the Indian Act, equal pay, and equal pensions are just a few of the things that the Royal Commission on the Status of Women identified as necessary for equality nearly fifty years ago. They have still not been fully realized and this is going to take cooperation and coordination to accomplish.

Visit the site here: http://antigoneconnect.ning.com/

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CPHA, a voluntary, non-governmental organization, was formed 100 years ago by a small group of doctors who were concerned about the state of public health in Canada. CPHA was constituted through an Act of Parliament and held its first annual conference at McGill University in December 1911, attended by the Governor General, the Prime Minister of Canada and the Premier of Quebec.

Visit the site.

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A few days ago Amy Allina brought this new product line, "My pink Button" to our awareness with a listserv post titled "[NEWVIEW] "Restore" your sexual confidence. Dye your vagina pink." thanks, Amy.!

Now the indefatigable Betty Dodson has written a sarcastic yet informative response to the pink button product line, do have a look:

http://dodsonandross.com/blogs/christina-cicchelli/2010/01/move-over-labiaplasty-now-theres-pink-button

Leonore Tiefer, PhD

ltiefer@mindspring.com

212-533-2774

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Please update your links and bookmarks to our new address: www.womencan.ca.

And please also update your listing on WomenCan.ca!

Listings in the Directory of Canadian Women's Resources are free, and there are now more than four thousand entries available to help Canadian women. To be listed, or to make a change in your listing, e-mail: info@womencan.ca. Please include any information you would like in the listing, such as a short description of the services you offer, location, or telephone number.

The WomenCan website has a new look as well as a new name! There is also a new Newsletter Archives section, where you can view old newsletters and refer a friend to subscribe to the newsletter.

We have a Links Section with thousands of links to Canadian as well as international women’s sites. We also frequently update our Bulletin Boards, on which we can post upcoming events, calls for volunteers, job postings, conferences and more. Our Community News Section contains news from each province, and our Resource Section contains many books, brochures, studies and other publications organized by topic. Send us any information you would like to have listed at:  info@womencan.ca!

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We welcome those of you who are interested to participate in the Remember Our Sisters Everywhere (ROSE) virtual community. ROSE is dedicated to supporting and mentoring the development of women*s memorial making and the prevention of violence against women. The ROSE website was created to contribute to feminist efforts to counter the denial of violence against women that is so prevalent in
societies here and around the world. We envision that the website will provide a participatory, multi-dimensional forum for exchange and support among women and men in Canada and around the world who are working to stop violence against women.

To join ROSE, please go to the website and click *Sign Up* (upper right, below the banner) and follow the directions from there.

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If you are interested in networking with other researchers, professionals and agencies in the addictions field, and would like to receive practice-related, clinically relevant information on serving women with substance use issues, then we would like to introduce you and your agency to Connections! Funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Connections is a new knowledge exchange network for agencies across Canada that serve women with substance use issues. We believe that women with substance use issues will receive better services if researchers and service providers work together to share information, network, and collaborate.

Please visit our website for more information.