Community Corner

From the Kingston Whig-Standard: Words important to wellness: study; More than half of Canadians can’t understand health-care info However, Statistics Canada released an article in Education Matters: Insights on Education, Learning and Training in Canada, showing that things have improved slightly: “Literacy skills of Canadians across ...

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 ...

Newer and younger Canadians may not be aware how recently abortion access opened up for most Canadians. Today is the 20th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that ruled that the former criminal code that limited abortion infringed on a woman’s right to security of her person. Prior to that date, abortion was only allowed [...]

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 ...

A few things for today — I have a large backlog of interesting stuff, but I’ll start with recent items and will work backwards in time in posts over the next week or so. As most of our office is, has been or will shortly be ill with a particularly nasty cold, Health Canada’s seasonal [...]

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 ...

Sounds Like Canada brings you an intimate look into the struggles Canadian families face when a member has a mental illness, ranging from conflicts within families over treatment and how best to help, to inconsistent accessibility of care and support, to feelings of helplessness. We go beyond the stories that make headlines - when someone [...]

A few things for today — Lots of coverage of the Street Health 2007 report, and about health and the homeless in general: Health care for homeless (Toronto Star editorial) Homeless denied health care (Toronto Star) Health study of Toronto homeless demands action, says group (CBC) Cruel news from the streets of Toronto (Wellesley ...