The Café aims to provide resources and services in a youth friendly setting to encourage young people to inform themselves on a variety of health issues, ask questions to health professionals, and seek out care when needed.  It is hoped that youth are able to access the tools necessary to promote healthy choices in their daily life.

The Health Café offers medical services by a nurse practitioner or public health nurse, mental health and addictions resources and referrals by a community wellness worker, health information and healthy snacks.  There is an anonymous and confidential Health Café Hotline available during the week to answer health questions or book appointments.  The service offers email and texting options along with telephone access.

Courtesy South Slave Journal

The Health Café looks forward to opening its doors on September 7th to welcome in a new school year.

Mary Carothers MScPH.
Program Coordinator, The Health Café
Fort Smith Health and Social Services Authority

Courtesy South Slave Journal

The impact factor is a tool for ranking, evaluating, and comparing journals. It is a measure of the frequency with which the ‘average article’ in a journal has been cited in a particular year. The CDSR, a part of The Cochrane Library, experienced a 9.1 per cent increase from its 2008 impact factor of 5.182.

It is clear that Cochrane Reviews have a much wider impact than can be measured by citations alone. Other examples of impact include informing guideline development, policy setting, consumer communication and many others in order to inform and improve healthcare decision-making in Canada and around the world.

ICHR supports a pan-northern subscription to the Cochrane Library and constitutes the Northern Canada network site for the international collaboration.

Please visit the Cochrane homepage at ccnc.cochrane.org for more information and an explanation of the impact factor.

Our annual AGM has been scheduled for Monday, September 13, 2010, 7pm at the ICHR Office (3502 Raccine Road, Yellowknife, NT).

Please read all instructions. The link to submit your abstract is http://www.dihrc.org/

The Decolonizing Indigenous Health Research Conference provides an opportunity for community members, educators, health workers, researchers, and students to meet and to learn from each other about current issues, practice, and research findings related to Indigenous health. The conference is supported by funding from the National Center on Minority and Health Disparities.

The program Committee invites individuals from all disciplines to submit program proposals.

Suggested topics include, but are not limited to:

Knowledge Sharing

• Latest health disparity solution based research
• What academic educators and health-care providers need to know
• Community capacity-building

Mentorship

• Cross-discipline linkages
• Financial and training supports for communities

Health & Wellness

• Targeted health education trainings
• Best practices within Native and Indigenous communities
• From science to practice
• Traditional health techniques

Seven Generations

• Developing forums for exchanging ideas
• Human protections during research
• Ethics, research and traditional knowledge
• Human rights

Program Director
Aboriginal Health Research Networks Secretariat (AHRNetS)
(519) 445-0023 ext 228
www.ahrnets.ca

The “Art of Public Health” Conference will feature an outstanding keynote address by Dr. Sarah Flicker, and informative sessions aimed at engaging our participants by providing an opportunity for dialogue and debate pertaining to arts in public health research, knowledge translation, program planning, evaluation and empowerment.

We are currently seeking submissions from interested students, community organizations, practitioners, researchers and artists interested in sharing their research, experience or expertise in the use of arts in public health. Individuals or groups wanting to exhibit works of art, dance, theatre, film or photography are also encouraged to participate.

Please see the Call for Proposal for more details, as well as the submission form. These documents can also be downloaded from our website (www.artofpublichealthconference.com). Applications will be accepted until August 6th, 2010.

For more details, please visit the Art of Public Health website at artofpublichealthconference.com, become a fan on Facebook (Art of Public Health), or follow us on Twitter! (@ArtofPH). If you have any questions please contact the conference organizers at phconference2010@gmail.com.

We look forward to hearing from you! Please feel free to circulate widely, and we offer our apologies for cross-posting.

Sincerely,

DLSPH Students in “The Art of Public Health” Conference Planning Committeea

Incorporated in 2005 as a non-profit under the Northwest Territories Societies Act, ICHR maintains its central office in Yellowknife, with a nodal office in Inuvik. A board of directors composed of representatives of Métis, First Nations, Inuit/Inuvialuit, and Non-Aboriginal communities drawn from different regions and diverse backgrounds determines overall policies and strategic directions for the institute. The institute is under the overall direction of an Executive and Scientific Director supervising a research staff and an administrative staff. The four strategic focus areas include developing core supports for institute activities, development of policies and partnerships, educating a cadre of northern researchers, and supporting northern-based health research program development.

If interested in serving on the ICHR board, please send a cover letter and CV that includes relevant expertise, experience, and/or employment, interest in the organization, areas in which one can contribute, and other volunteer commitments to the address below:

Institute for Circumpolar Health Research
PO Box 11050
3502 Raccine Road
Yellowknife, NT X1A 3X7
Fax: (867) 873-9338
Attention: Susan Chatwood, Director of Communications & Technology
Email: susan.chatwood@ichr.ca

Some changes were good, but others were devastating

Drugs and alcohol and the social damage caused by their abuse affects “all of us,” Edward Itta, mayor of Alaska’s North Slope Borough, told Inuit delegates during a June 30 discussion of health and well-being at the Inuit Circumpolar Council general assembly in Nuuk.

Removal of children from their families, language loss, and the introduction of western institutions and nuclear family housing have affected the health and well-being of Inuit around the circumpolar world, said Edna McLean, the president emeritus of the Ilisagvik College in Barrow, Alaska.

“Some changes were good, but others were devastating, like the abuse of drugs and alcohol and the loss of intergenerational communication,” said McLean.

In Chukotka, many of the region’s Inuit families are caught in a vicious cycle of poverty, dependence and alcohol abuse, Elvira Tyunikova of Chukotka said.

But ICC has a plan to deal with Inuit health and social problems, said Nunavik’s Minnie Grey, a member of ICC-Canada’s health committee. [continue to article]

An international conference on women’s issues called Women’s Worlds 2011 (WW 2011) is happening from 3-7 July next year in Ottawa-Gatineau.

WW 2011 wants to reach out and support Aboriginal women, Elders, and youth to participate in this exciting event. Why? Because we value the non-tokenistic involvement of Aboriginal/Indigenous women.

If you are a part of a grassroots women’s project or group (even if it’s made up of just 3-4 women) and if you want a forum to discuss and highlight Aboriginal women’s issues in Canada, then your involvement is welcome at this event.

WW 2011 is prepared to provide you and the members of your group with a small grant to help with expenses to attend. To be considered for the grant, use this easy online form to submit a brief description of your ideas: http://womensworlds.ca/expression-interest

You can also request a paper application form or get help filling it out by phoning 1-877-868-8292, extension 6600.

Please share this invitation with your community, friends and networks. WW 2011 is committed to having Aboriginal women participate at this historic event.

The deadline for these forms is 15 July 2010.

Signed,

The WW 2011 Aboriginal Women’s Leadership Circle

circle@womensworlds.ca

Background

Women’s Worlds 2011 is an international congress happening in Ottawa-Gatineau from 3-7 July of next year. Around 2000 women and female youth are expected to attend. Special effort is being made to ensure that Indigenous women from around the world and their issues are a major part of the event.

A small side project called “Women Build Up to the Congress” has been set up to help women from local communities across Canada to participate.

This project is intended to highlight the work and achievements of grassroots Canadian women’s organizations – especially Aboriginal women – to the international audience at WW 2011. This can be done through workshops, presentations, discussion groups, or in other ways.

At six regional meetings between February and April 2010, women discussed the priority issues of their region and how women’s groups are dealing with those —> this is the “Participation Plan” (PP).

The Participation Plans contain ideas about the most pressing issues are facing women in different parts of Canada. You may not have attended one of these regional meetings, but you are still welcome to apply for a grant through this project. We know you are involved with important projects in your community that women around the world should hear about.

The six regional networks are: BC-Yukon, Prairies, Ontario, Quebec, Atlantic/Acadian, North.

Diane has been with ICHR since last September as an AHRDA trainee and has made major strides in upgrading her office and research skills.

Congratulations Diane!

At 3:12 p.m. last Wednesday, 16-year-old Sherrie Akammak was getting dressed for her first-ever trip to a real movie theatre when her eyes widened and her jaw dropped.

She looked across the drab boarding-house room in Winnipeg where she had been confined for three weeks and yelled to her mother.

“It’s ready. We have to go.”

Her mother, Theresa Akammak, had been in this position before – 12 times before, to be precise, nine for herself and three for another daughter. Yet her familiarity with the ritual of childbirth did little to allay her anxiety. In a panic, she phoned downstairs to reception at the Kivalliq Inuit Centre.

“My daughter’s going into labour,” she said. “We need a van. Now.” [more]