Community Corner

A bunch of things, mostly from January and early February but some rather older – An interesting article about Pueblo, Colorado: Building Capacity for the Continuous Improvement of Health-Promoting Schools (Red Orbit) In the Lindsay Post, on the proposed opening of a CHC in the City of Kawartha Lakes: Community involvement essential The ...

An estimated 850,000 people are diagnosed with diabetes in Ontario – including one in nine adults in Toronto – and the numbers are growing. So, too, are the numbers of people with crippling and life-threatening complications that come with the disease: heart attack, stroke, kidney failure, blindness and amputations. Last year, the Toronto-based ...

If it’s not easy for a retired university professor with diabetes to eat right, imagine how difficult it is for the poor. Low-income earners face an uphill battle if they want to eat healthy and fend off the ticking time bomb of diabetes, a seemingly unstoppable epidemic. The rising numbers have touched off a debate about [...]

A great article on the Canadian Health Network (CHN) by health columnist André Picard is on Page L6 in the Life Section of yesterday’s Globe and Mail. Picard points out that individuals are being told to take greater responsibility for their health, but finding the latest Canadian health information in both languages on the Web is [...]

The Metcalf Foundation launched a report, Why is it so tough to get ahead? How our tangled social programs pathologize the transition to self-reliance. The report and a PowerPoint presentation are available at the bottom of the news release. We cannot claim to have people-centred government policies. Not when an 18 year old, lone-parent refugee is ...

Melt fat while you save the environment (The Star) How? Get out of your car and walk. Or bike instead of driving. And while you’re at it, eat less red meat. That’s how North Americans can simultaneously save the planet and their health, say doctors and climate scientists.

Le Comité consultatif national sur la prévention de la toxicomanie se réunit pour la première fois aujourd’*** pour discuter de l’élaboration d’une campagne médiatique axée sur la prévention dans le cadre de la Stratégie nationale antidrogue. / The National Drug Prevention Advisory Committee is meeting for the first time today to ...

This week (October 22-28) is Healthy Workplace Week. This year’s theme is “Value Your People”. The UK concludes Obesity ‘not individuals’ fault’ (BBC): Obesity, the authors concluded, was an inevitable consequence of a society in which energy-dense and cheap foods, labour-saving devices, motorised transport and ...

Getting kids to stop drinking carbonated beverages doesn’t seem to have any long-term effect on obesity after all (MedPage Today) Spacing Wire ran a good summary of the Walk21 conference session on public health and urban design as they affect and are affected by walking. Nepal reports on an interesting “ecosystem” approach to ...

Vaccinations of teens become big news, and controversy ensues! Ontario to provide teenage girls with HPV vaccine (Globe and Mail) Premier Dalton McGuinty announced August 2nd that 85,000 Grade 8 girls will be targeted beginning this fall. The voluntary three-shot course of treatment will be administered by public-health nurses at schools. Ontario ...