Calls for Submissions and Participation

An important research project is underway looking at the “Health Needs of Women 45 Years and Older in Northern BC” (anyone living in the Northern Health Authority region is eligible to participate) .

 
1.  Survey.  Please consider completing our brief survey, it should take only about 20 minutes.  You may complete the survey directly on-line or if you prefer a paper copy you’re welcome to print the attached survey and mail it back to the researchers at the address below. 
 
2.  Focus Groups.  A small number of focus groups will be held in the communities of Prince George, McBride, Valemont, Vanderhoof and Fort St. James during the month of March.  Focus groups will take approximately 90 minutes and a modest honorarium will be provided to participants.  If you are a woman 45 years of age or older, living in northern BC and you are interested in participating in a focus group, please email Melinda Allison or call 250-960-5602 and leave a message with your name and phone number and your call will be returned.
 
This research project has been approved by the ethics committees of the University of Northern British Columbia and Northern Health. 

We want you!

Have you had an abortion?  Would you be willing to have your portrait taken and tell your story?

There is still an important need for women's voices to be heard and their stories to be told.  We want to start telling those stories through portraiture, storytelling, multimedia, dance and film

Let’s start putting strong, brave, empowered faces and voices forward and draw attention to this issue.

Get in touch by e-mail.

Deadline: October 1, 2008

 In many nations the economic and political changes associated with increasing economic globalization have been seen as heightening social inequalities with potential negative effects on health outcomes.  This has led to a flurry of research and policy activity concerned with reducing these social and health inequalities.

Such activity has taken two separate but related forms.  The first is an increased interest in what is termed the social determinants of health.  These factors are identified as the economic and social factors that shape health. Much of this work has been concerned with specifying the parameters by which these social determinants of health come to shape health.  It has been less concerned with identifying the political, economic, and social forces that shape the quality of these social determinants of health.

The second form of work specifies the political, economic, and social forces that shape these social determinants of health and how these forces represent systematic inequalities in power and influence within a society. This work is explicitly concerned with the political economy of health and devotes attention to issues of public policy and its development, the sources of public policy development, and the means by which these forces can be influenced in the service of health.

Papers are invited that will draw upon these two areas of research activity and should focus on various aspects of how social inequalities come about and how they are linked to health outcomes.

Manuscripts should not exceed 30 double-spaced pages of text plus notes and should follow the American Sociological Association guidelines.   Papers should be submitted via email to Dennis Raphael.

Carole Lunny , student in the Master’s of Health Studies program at Athabasca University, is conducting a study, Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicines for Menopause Symptoms in Women With or Without HIV, that looks at how women use complementary and alternative medicine for menopause symptoms. This research aims to identify the types of complementary and alternative medicines that women use to relieve menopause symptoms. This study has been approved by the Athabasca Research Ethics Board.

I am looking for women between the ages of 40 to 60 to participate, HIV-positive or HIV-negative.      

The study can be found online.             

 If you choose to participate in this study, you personal information will be kept private. We will not collect your name or any other identifying information. All information from the study will be stored securely and deleted when it is finished.

As part of Sexual and Reproductive Health Awareness Day 2008 February 12th), the Canadian Federation for Sexual Health is conducting a survey about why Canadians use condoms.  Answer this survey. 

UNIFEM, the United Nations Fund for Women, is looking for signatures on a Petition to say NO to Violence Against Women. If they can get 100,000 signatures then the United Nations Foundation has committed that for each of the first 100,000 signatures to the campaign, the UN Foundation will donate $1 to the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women. We need everyone's help to get 100,000 people to sign on to the UNIFEM campaign so that $100,000 will be contributed to the Trust Fund for local initiatives working to prevent human trafficking, assisting survivors of domestic violence or helping implement laws against rape.

Please consider signing this petition.

The British Columbia Centre of Excellence for Women's Health is recruiting farmers and ranchers in British Columbia who would be interested in participating in a Farm Family Health Research Project 

This large cross-Canada study wants to look at the health impact of Bovine Spongiform Encephalitis (BSE) on individuals, families, and communities.  We are looking for men and women over the age of 18 who live or work on a farm.

Who can participate? We would like to hear from dairy and beef farmers and ranchers, feedlot owners, and small and big operations from across the province. 

What do you have to do? You will be asked to fill in a questionnaire that will be mailed to you. We are hoping to be in touch again one or two more times in the next six years.  We would like to track how BSE, or "mad cow disease", and related prion diseases have affected you and what you have done to respond and to promote your well-being.

More information available online.

Deadline March 3, 2008
The Canadian Breast Cancer Research Alliance (CBCRA), Canada’s primary granting agency for breast cancer research, is in the process of collecting information from many sources to help determine the most important topics for breast cancer research. A web-based survey is underway, reaching out to breast cancer survivors and their families/caregivers to get their views.

If you are a breast cancer survivor, or a family member/caregiver of someone with breast cancer, please complete this survey.

More information on CBCRA's website.

Deadline March 10, 2008

The Women's Health Research Network is pleased to announce a call for poster abstracts for our upcoming Summer Institute, to be held May 1st and 2nd, 2008 in Victoria, British Columbia. Posters will be displayed in a public area on May 1st so that all who attend will have an opportunity to view and discuss them between sessions and during the evening reception.

We invite poster presentations focused on original research in any area of women's health and gender and diversity health research, including basic science, clinical, health promotion, epidemiology, social sciences, community-based, health policy, and health services research. Abstracts will be reviewed for originality of research and relevance to the Summer Institute themes and objectives. Recently presented work is welcomed. Students and emerging researchers are strongly encouraged to submit abstracts. More details available on WHRN site.

Madness, Citizenship and Social Justice: A Human Rights Conference

Deadline: February 15, 2008
The Institute for the Humanities at Simon Fraser University isinviting paper and panel submissions to this four-day conference to be held at the SFU Harbour Centre Vancouver campus on June 12th-15th, 2008. 

This event will address a range of issues associated with the regulation and experience of madness, and the conflicting roles of the 'psy' professions in contemporary society.

Participants will comprise local, Canadian and international academics, users/survivors, activists, advocates, practitioners, journalists, and community workers. 

Our objective is to provide a forum in which critical topics, issues and themes related to madness, citizenship, social justice and human rights can be explored across a range of intersecting positions and perspectives. 

Please email proposals for papers, panels or other submissions to Robert Menzies or MadConference08@shaw.ca. Proposals should include: 1) a title; 2) an abstract of about 150 words; 3) your name(s) and contact information; 4) equipment needs, if any.  Additional conference information, including registration fees and procedures, accommodation and travel options, and programming details, are available on the conference website.