Resources

This newsletter introduces readers to the important work and unique issues facing women and their families in Northern communities, from the Canadian Research Institute for the the Advacnement of Women (CRIAW).  

To access the newsletter please click here.

There are versions in French and English and various accessibility options.

Ann Pederson, Margaret Haworth-Brockman, Barbara Clow, Harpa Isfeld, Anna Liwander (editors)

The BC Centre of Excellence for Women's Health, the Atlantic Centre of Excellence for Women's Health and the Prairie Women's Health Centre of Excellence have released a new women's health resource entitled Rethinking Women and Healthy Living in Canada. The report, funded by Health Canada, is intended to generate an understanding of women and healthy living and to contribute to the development of evidence-informed responses to addressing challenges related to healthy living for women in Canada. In the report, the three Centres argue that healthy living needs to be reframed and embrace a broader concept of health and health issues in order to improve women's healthy living.

In celebration of International Women's Day, the National Film Board (NFB) is offering free screenings of Karen Cho's award-winning NFB feature documentary "STATUS QUO? The unfinished business of feminism in Canada" across Canada, all this week.

Also, starting Monday March 4th you'll also be able to stream many different films about women off of NFB’s website for free, for the whole week.

For the list of free STATUS Quo screenings in communities across the country, click here.

For the list of films you can stream off their website all week, click here.

Finally, don't miss the chance to stream "STATUS QUO? The unfinished business of feminism in Canada" for free between March 8th and 10^th. Find it here: www.nfb.ca/iwd

Echo: Improving Women's Health in Ontario, and the Ontario Women's Health Network have produced a video highlighting the voices of women who participated in their Women's Health Leadership Program over the past two years. 

From 2010 to 2012, the Women's Health Leadership Program brought women together from across Ontario through training retreats to help build a greater understanding of the ways sex and gender affect health and health care, offer women the leadership tools and skills to work towards improving the quality of women's health and health care in their communities and provide opportunities to network with women who are active in women's health.

For more information contact the OWHN at owhn@owhn.on.ca

See the video on YouTube.

Echo: Improving Women's Health in Ontario, has released its final newsletter: Sharing the Legacy ~ Supporting Future Action.

This document presents ECHO’s work and the knowledge translation initiatives undertaken between 2009 and 2012. 

This legacy document summarizes Echo's history and 30 initiatives in one-page descriptions presented in distinct sections that correspond to Echo's four priority areas: equity, sexual and reproductive health, mental health and addictions, and chronic disease.

For links to the full document as well as the executive summary, please visit their website.

In her new column "Being proactive about your breast health", Dr. Verna Hunt talks about how the environment - including what we eat and how we live - plays a strong role in breast health, and what we can do to help keep our breasts healthy.

Check out Dr. Hunt’s “To the Point” guest column on our website now: Being Proactive about your breast health.

Nip and tuck surgeries have become commonplace, but what about cosmetic genital surgeries?  A quick search reveals six clinics in Toronto alone that offer to reduce women’s labia, tighten their vaginas or remove their clitoral hood.  Surprised?  In the U.K., last year these procedures on the National Health Service increased by 70% on the previous year to 1,118.  If you are curious, intrigued or just plain flabbergasted, listen to our podcast with Leonore Tiefer and Lyba Spring with CWHN Executive Director, Anne Rochon Ford, moderating.    

Check out the resources and listen to the podcast posted January 31, 2013 on the CWHN website

Should you take that medical test that your doctor — or that ad — is telling you to take?

Medical screening tests are increasingly promoted as something that will save or add years to our lives, or at least tell us that we are sick and need treatment. Depression screening, Pap tests, cholesterol screening, and other tests are proliferating as fast as the proposed treatments – often drugs – are being developed. Seldom can we open a magazine, turn on the TV or browse the Internet now without being asked to take a test – or to request one from our doctors.

But can there be too much screening? More and more reports are emerging that too much screening can be bad for your health.

CWHN has created a primer on the issue of medical overscreening. See what people are saying about this timely topic, in Women, gender and medical screening.

Making Connections: When Domestic Violence, Mental Health, and Substance Use Problems Co-Occur is a new curriculum designed to help front-line workers, who are disconnected within the broader health and social service system, to communicate with each other.

Making Connections by Robin Mason and Dr. Brenda Toner is multi-modal, accessible to all learning levels and styles. There is a text manual, a series of online modules, four dramatic scenarios in video format, and a one-day, face-to face, cross-sectoral workshop.

Find out more about Making Connections on these videos funded by ECHO (Improving Women’s Health in Ontario) and the Women’s College Hospital. 

Mistakes of the Past

Something Doesn’t Feel Right

A Line on Crisis

Past is Present

Obesity may well be one of the hottest health topics in North America today. We see and hear daily reports about ‘the war on obesity’ and ‘the obesity epidemic’.

How are women faring in this so-called “war”? And shouldn’t we be making peace - not war - with our bodies?

Find out more about in in CWHN’s primer Women, gender and obesity.