Resources

A new Consumer Side Effect Reporting Form was announced by Health Canada on June 17, 2010. The Consumer Side Effect Reporting Form, developed by Health Canada, has made it even easier for Canadians to report side effects to health products to the Canada Vigilance Program.  Health Products include prescription drugs, non-prescription drugs, and natural health products.

The news release, including a link to the form, is available on the Health Canada Web site.

In May, Women’s Health Environments Network (WHEN) co-presented the Canadian Premiere of the film Living Downstream with the Planet in Focus Film Festival in Toronto.

Based on the acclaimed book by ecologist and cancer survivor Sandra Steingraber, Ph.D., Living Downstream is an eloquent and cinematic feature-length documentary.  This poetic and character-driven film follows Sandra during one pivotal year as she travels across North America, working to break the silence about cancer and its environmental links.

For more on Sandra Steingraber, read her essay: What It Means to Be a Cancer Survivor.

Giving birth is quite a life-changing event on its own. Combine this with a new environment where you cannot find information in your own language, a whole set of new cultural values and expectations, and social structures to navigate through. You might start to understand the dramatic situation that some newcomers are experiencing when giving birth or raising their young children in Canada for the first time.

Ontario receives the largest number of immigrants and refugees in Canada. Many newcomers may not have sufficient literacy skills in English or French to read informational materials about services and supports available to them as expectant or new parents. There is a dearth of high quality, accessible material related to maternal and newborn issues in multiple languages.

The Best Start Resource Centre, a key program of Health Nexus, has adapted and translated some of its best brochures and booklets on topics related to preconception, pregnancy and early child development in eight languages (in addition to French and English):

To view and download these resources and to order print copies online, visit Best Start.

Author Heather Kuttai will be in Winnipeg on June 7th to launch her book, Maternity Rolls: Pregnancy, Childbirth and Disability. Heather will give a talk and sign copies of her book. The launch starts at 7:30 pm and all are welcome to attend

• Date: June 7th
• Time: 19:30
• Place: McNally Robinson Bookstore, Grant Park, Winnipeg

From the publisher: Fernwood: Heather Kuttai is a 40-year-old white, heterosexual woman. She is married and is the mother of two children. Living in a quiet, middle-class neighbourhood, her life is, in many ways, seemingly the quintessential picture of what many consider to be traditional. However, her life is not as conventional as it appears: she is a paraplegic and uses a wheelchair for mobility. Her disability dramatically changes the picture. Much of the writing about the experiences of women and mothers excludes the stories of women with disabilities. Established norms dictate that a mother’s body be “healthy” and “whole.” Because the body with disabilities is often seen for what it cannot do, taking on the role of mother can give the body a different value, status and worth. Heather’s experiences as a woman with a disability experiencing pregnancy and childbirth offers insights into what is already known about women’s bodies. The stories she tells of her life, her pregnancies and giving birth illustrate both her self-awareness and her awareness of our society’s negative perceptions of disability.

More info on the book at this website.

OTTAWA, April 29 /CNW Telbec/ -

WHO:   Olympic skating star Joannie Rochette is teaming with the University of Ottawa Heart Institute for iheartmom - a dynamic new initiative to fight heart disease, the No. 1 killer of women.

WHAT:  See the videos at www.iheartmom.ca of Joannie and others who explain why women of all ages need to know about the dangers of heart disease.

Videos of the Top Ten Things Women Should Know about Heart Disease and more are available on our YouTube channel or by visiting the Heart Institute page on Facebook

Learn more about women and heart disease on the Heart Institute website. 

Read the stories from women who are sharing their experience of heart disease in a discussion on the Heart Institute page on Facebook.

Views photos of our launch with Joannie and more on Flickr.

WHY:   It is not generally recognized that heart disease is the leading killer of women. Through the Heart Institute Joannie is helping to boost awareness of the disease, increase prevention measures and generate more heart research, and raise funds.In 2005, more than 25,000 Canadian women died from heart disease. That represents 50% of all deaths from heart disease. Risk of the disease in women increases with age and the onset of menopause. Yet, heart attack is not uncommon in women in their 30s.

The Canadian Breast Cancer Network (CBCN) has developed a workshop titled “Intimacy After Breast Cancer: A Program for Young Women”. This workshop was created to address sexuality and intimacy issues after breast cancer as they were identified by young women at the 2007 Young Women’s Conference in Toronto. The workshop was developed by clinical psychologist and breast cancer survivor Dr. Sally Kydd and was tested with the collaboration of 15 young women survivors in 2009.

CBCN is making this resource available free of charge to breast cancer support organizations throughout Canada. CBCN will provide organizations with a facilitators manual, a PowerPoint presentation that coincides with the manual and a copy of Dr. Sally Kydd’s book “Intimacy After Cancer” for each participant. The manual and PowerPoint presentation are available in both English and French. Due to the sensitive nature of the material, workshops must be facilitated by qualified professionals.

If you are interested in coordinating or hosting this workshop in your community please visit the website.

A report released April 28 by York University health researchers offers Canadians the opportunity to learn how their living conditions will determine whether they stay healthy or become ill.

Social Determinants of Health: The Canadian Facts shows why these factors are so important for health and documents the state of these living conditions in Canada in an accessible manner for the Canadian public.

“Our key message is that the health of Canadians is much less determined by the health care system than we typically think. Much more important are public policies that influence our living conditions,” says Dennis Raphael, Professor in York’s School of Health Policy & Management and the report’s co-author.

Raphael and visiting scholar Juha Mikkonenexplain in everyday language and with compelling graphics how Canadians’ health is shaped by how much income and wealth they have, whether or not they are employed and if so, the working conditions they experience. They pull
together a wide range of research to show how health is powerfully influenced by Canadians’ ability to obtain quality education, food and housing, among other factors.

The report finds these conditions are declining with serious ramifications for the quality and longevity of Canadians’ lives, and outlines specific ways that the situation can be improved. The report is free to the public on this site.

The National Collaborating Centre for Infectious Diseases has released a new fact sheet on contraception and HIV positive women. The fact sheet is available through their website.

Chapter 7: Access to Health Care Services. Bierman AS, Angus J, Ahmad F, Degani N, Vahabi M, Glazier RH, Li Y, Ross S, Manuel D. March, 2010

The POWER Study (Project for an Ontario Women's Health Evidence-based Report) is producing a comprehensive Women's Health Report to serve as an evidence-based tool for policy makers, providers and consumers in their efforts to improve health and reduce health inequities among the women and men of Ontario. The Access to Health Care Services examines Ontarians’ access to health care services and how it differs by sex, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, language, immigration and where one lives. The chapter includes sections on access to primary care, access to care for chronic diseases and access to and wait times for specialty care and home care.

See the direct Link to Full 74-Page UNFPA 2010 Report. (PDF). You may also visit the website for more information.