Resources

Why girls? What are the issues facing girls and young women today? How are we supporting girls and young women to overcome barriers and reach their full potential? How can we support and inspire others to take action on these issues?

Girls Action is addressing these questions in their new infographics.

See them here: 

Sexual Health

Violence Prevention

Girls & the Media

Redefining Leadership

Pauktuutit, the Inuit women’s health organization, has released a new sexual health resource in English and five major dialects of Inuktitut. Tukisiviit: Do You Understand  is intended to provide Inuit patients and caregivers, as well as health care professionals, plain language information in English and five major dialects of Inuktitut.

Effective communication between patients and health care providers may be challenging if not impossible where there are cultural and language barriers. Health programs and services must address language as well as cultural competency, ensuring accurate communication and understanding of information in Inuktitut as well as English. Within Inuit Nunangat, the Inuktitut language is a family of dialects that varies from region to region and sometimes from community to community. The Inuktitut language is strong and is widely used by Inuit in their homes and communities.

The Tukisiviit National Inuit Sexual Health Literacy Forum held in Happy Valley – Goose Bay in February 2012, brought together linguistic experts from all regions, sexual health content experts, community health and social service providers, AIDS service organizations, land claims organization representatives, educators, elders and youth, with focus on addressing the lack of sexual health and HIV/AIDS terminology and the unique differences of dialects in Inuit regions. Through this forum, Tukisiviit – Do You Understand? was developed.

Pauktuutit encourages Inuit and health service providers to use this glossary of terms to improve communication and understanding of sexual health terms.

Read more about it and download it from Pauktuutit’s website.

Health Council of Canada recently released "Empathy, dignity, and respect: Creating cultural safety for Aboriginal people in urban health care", a report that highlights some of the reasons why many Aboriginal people are not seeking care in mainstream health care settings and describes key practices that are working towards positive change.

For more information and to read the report, please visit their website.

Read the commentary on this in the recent Canadian Medical Association Journal article, Considering Culture in Aboriginal Care.

Reproductive Health Matters has just published a supplement entitled The Pregnancy Decisions of Women Living with HIV. 

The supplement, edited by Sofia Gruskin, covers a diversity of topics, geographical areas and disciplines- with a strong focus on the experience and voices of HIV-positive women. Taken together, the range of articles aim to determine ways to work across disciplines and life experiences with the ultimate goal of ensuring that women living with HIV are at the centre of decision-making about their sexual and reproductive health and rights. Topics covered include: hormonal contraception; pregnancy, childbirth, abortion; sterilization abuses; and the use of health services.

To download for free, click here.

Breast Cancer Action Montreal has launched a new project to provide a framework for recognizing the risks of environmental chemicals in our homes. While relevant for everyone, Becoming a Chemical Detective is particularly designed for potential and new parents, emphasizing risks posed during the vulnerable stages of pregnancy, infancy, early childhood and adolescence.  

Becoming a Chemical Detective aims to help you to not only recognize risks  present in your home but will also give you practical solutions and safer alternatives to help reduce exposure, including low-cost and affordable solutions. The presentation also helps people become more informed and knowledgeable consumers so that we will be empowered to take action to benefit not only ourselves, but our community and society. 

For more information or to book a presentation, please email viorica@bcam.qc.ca or call the BCAM office at (514) 483-1846.    

Also, to see recent editions of BCAM’s newsletter, visit their website.

Read the latest addition to our guest columns that take on the hot issues of the day. In To the Point, Cornelia J.  Baines writes about Unpacking the great mammography debate.

Cornelia Baines was co-principle investigator and deputy director of the Canadian National Breast Screening Study, a major trial of breast screening that enlisted 90,000 women across Canada in the 80s. She is Professor Emerita at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health in Toronto.

The Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) has launched TIPI dreams: a new HIV AIDS prevention tool.

TIPI dreams is a 12 minute video composed of short scenes that tell the story of two First Nations 15 year old girls in the child welfare system, and a mother living with AIDS who has children in care. Different themes are addressed - from HIV /AIDS stigma and discrimination, condom negotiation, safe /unsafe sex, going for testing; and the role of youth in becoming allies against discrimination.  

The toolkit was developed in response to what NWAC heard in engagement sessions held across the country with young Aboriginal women and girls. They found that many young Aboriginal women and girls living with AIDS today had spent time in care as youth. After speaking with girls in care, and the staff who worked with them, NWAC found many girls still lacked knowledge about how HIV and STIs are transmitted and how these infections are preventable.

The toolkit includes a video, a "cinema forum" facilitator’s guide, and a tipi making kit. Cinema forum is an action oriented teaching tool that gets youth to actively think about how to do things differently. The project received an extension grant from the Public Health Agency of Canada, will soon run training workshops in cinema forum facilitation, in partnership with Aboriginal Service Organizations and Mis Au Jeu, a popular education/forum theatre company, to extend its reach to youth across Canada.  

For more information on this tool, please contact:

Erin Corston, Director of Health

Toll free: 1-800-461-4043

Tel.:  613-722-3033 x. 224

Email:  ecorston@nwac.ca

Visit the website. 

Edited by Noralou Roos, Sharon Manson Singer, Kathleen O’Grady, Camilla Tapp and Shannon Turczak.

Co-editor Kathleen O’Grady is CWHN’s former Communications Director.

Canadian Health Policy in the News is a compendium of the commentaries (or OpEds) that the Evidence Network of Canadian Health Policy has published in major newspapers across the country since the birth of EvidenceNetwork.ca in April 2011 up to October 2012.  It is a snapshot of what’s new and controversial concerning our healthcare system and related social programs that affect health and well-being in our country – with evidence at the forefront. 

The book is free and available in ebook format.

For more information, visit EvidenceNetwork.ca

Best Start Resource Centre has produced printer-ready handouts on alcohol and pregnancy called: Be Safe: Have an alcohol-free pregnancy.

Languages include English, French, Anglais, Arabe, Cree, Ojibway, Hindi, Punjabi,Tamoul, Ourdou, Chinois simplifié, Espagnol, et Tagolog. 

The Chief Public Health Officer's Report on the State of Public Health in Canada, 2012 focuses on how sex and gender influence public health and the health status of Canadians.

Read the report.