ICHR Facilitator: Candice Lys

Project Team: Candice Lys (ICHR), Gwen Healey (Qaujigiartiit Health Research Centre), Nancy MacNeill (ICHR and V-Day North), Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory (QHRC), and Sylvie Cloutier (QHRC)

Funder: Public Health Agency of Canada

Background:

Healthy sexuality involves not only the avoidance of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and unintended pregnancies, but also the acquisition of skills, knowledge, and behaviours necessary to maintain good sexual and reproductive health throughout the lifespan. Sexual health, however, is a serious public health and community concern for youth in Northern Canada. STI rates are higher in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories (NWT) than the rest of Canada. In addition, rates of adolescent pregnancy are very high in Nunavut and the NWT compared to nationally. Little is known about why these rates are so high.

Purpose of the Project:

Understanding how young adolescents make decisions to engage in early sexual activities is vital for interventions that aim to foster positive youth development, reduce negative outcomes of adolescent sexual behavior, and assist Northern youth to make safer sexual decisions throughout their lifespans.

Project Details:

To learn more about sexual health issues that affect Northern youth, the Institute for Circumpolar Health Research and the Qaujigiartiit Health Research Centre, in partnership with the Public Health Agency of Canada, are developing an arts-based intervention with youth in the NWT and Nunavut. This project applies an arts-based approach (drama and performance) to an intervention exploring the perspectives of Northern youth on sexual health and relationships. In the NWT, the intervention focuses on learning and teaching theatre-based skills. In Nunavut, the intervention incorporates appropriate cultural elements including Inuit dance, storytelling, and performance. The method at both sites includes focus groups with youth to identify key thematic topics, workshops with local performers to build drama skills and confidence among youth and to write the skits/vignettes, and performances to audiences chosen by the youth. Results of the interventions are expected in summer 2012.

For more information about this project, please contact Candice Lys at 867.873.9337 or candice.lys@ichr.ca.

Sunday, April 22, 2012
510B Palais des congrès
Montréal, Québec
1:00pm

In partnership with the Canadian Society for Circumpolar Health Annual General Meeting and the International Network for Circumpolar Health Research Annual General Meeting

Featuring:

• Sheila Watt-Cloutier
  Nobel Peace Prize Nominee and World Leader on Global Climate Change and Human Rights
• Jeff Reading
  Professor and Director of the Centre for Aboriginal Health Research, University of Victoria
• Birgitta Evengård
  Professor in Clinical Microbiology at Umeå University and Co-Chair of the Human Health Expert Group of the Arctic Council
• Kue Young
  President of INCHR and Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Circumpolar Health

For more information contact: susan.chatwood@ichr.ca • 867 873 9337

Date: March 1, 2012
Time: 12:00 – 1:30 PM (Lunch is included)
Place: NAHO’s 14th floor boardroom, 220 Laurier Ave. West, Ottawa

Charles Hill, Executive Director, National Aboriginal Housing Association
Housing is Health:What Remedies for Urban Aboriginal Peoples?

Since the federal government stopped funding new social housing projects in 1993 and transferred Urban Native Housing to the provinces in 1996, Aboriginal homelessness has increased dramatically. Mr. Hill will speak to the need for on-going research to support our arguments that there is a great need for on-going help for Inuit, First Nations and Metis peoples in Non-Reserve areas.”

Julia Christensen, SSHRC Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, UBC,
‘Our home, our way of life’: the meaning and context of northern housing (in)security

This presentation examines the meaning and significance of housing insecurity in a northern Indigenous context, and suggest that it is expressed, in part, through the phenomenon of visible homelessness in the NWT, but that it also relates to much broader, collectives experiences of “rootlessness” (Somerville 1992) or “spiritual homelessness” (Memmott and Chambers 2008). Importantly, the concept of housing insecurity also offers a way forward through its identification of key factors that promote housing security and rebuild a sense of home through experiences of “rootedness” (Somerville 1992) and “home/journeying” (Mallett 2004).

Cathleen Knotsch, Senior Research Officer, Inuit Tuttarvingat
If Not Now… When? Addressing the Ongoing Inuit Housing Crisis in Canada

This presentations highlights findings from the paper If Not Now … When? Addressing the Ongoing Inuit Housing Crisis in Canada and discussions that followed the release of this document. Consequences of inadequate housing are greatest for the most vulnerable members of society. This is why we need to consider that the challenges presented by inadequate housing, if not remedied, may deprive today’s youngest Inuit generations of their ability to participate fully in the future of their homelands and Canada.

Date: March 1, 2012
Time: 12:00 – 1:30 PM (Lunch is included)
Place: NAHO’s 14th floor boardroom, 220 Laurier Ave. West, Ottawa

Please contact mbright@naho.ca by February 24 to register for the live presentation or webinar. Registration is free. Space is limited
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Newly published January 2012

Richly illustrated with maps, charts, tables, and images, this atlas includes overviews of the physical environment that influences human health; cultures and languages of northern peoples; health conditions of children and youth; and health systems, policies, resources, and services.

Publisher’s Summary

When many of us picture the areas surrounding the North Pole, we imagine barren landscapes, wintry conditions, and sparse human and animal populations. Opening up the Circumpolar Health Atlas will undoubtedly change this perception. Abounding with hundreds of vibrant, full-colour photographs and maps, this book presents an stunning and immersive portrait of life in the Arctic region, with an emphasis on the factors that contribute to human health in this area. Written with the general reader in mind, it can be enjoyed even by those who have little previous knowledge about the circumpolar regions.

The Circumpolar Health Atlas is also an informative and practical reference guide for health researchers, service providers, and policy makers, as it offers a broad, multidisciplinary understanding of the health of diverse populations who inhabit the polar regions of the northern hemisphere. The atlas includes overviews of the physical environment that influences human health; cultures and languages of northern peoples; different diseases and health conditions; and health systems, policies, resources, and services. It concludes with information on how education and research can be used to improve health in these regions.

Available now from the University of Toronto Press.

Newly published January 2012

Richly illustrated with maps, charts, tables, and images, this atlas includes overviews of the physical environment that influences human health; cultures and languages of northern peoples; health conditions of children and youth; and health systems, policies, resources, and services.

Available now from the University of Toronto Press, Amazon.ca, or Indigo Books.

Publisher’s Summary

When many of us picture the areas surrounding the North Pole, we imagine barren landscapes, wintry conditions, and sparse human and animal populations. Opening up the Circumpolar Health Atlas will undoubtedly change this perception. Abounding with hundreds of vibrant, full-colour photographs and maps, this book presents an stunning and immersive portrait of life in the Arctic region, with an emphasis on the factors that contribute to human health in this area. Written with the general reader in mind, it can be enjoyed even by those who have little previous knowledge about the circumpolar regions.

The Circumpolar Health Atlas is also an informative and practical reference guide for health researchers, service providers, and policy makers, as it offers a broad, multidisciplinary understanding of the health of diverse populations who inhabit the polar regions of the northern hemisphere. The atlas includes overviews of the physical environment that influences human health; cultures and languages of northern peoples; different diseases and health conditions; and health systems, policies, resources, and services. It concludes with information on how education and research can be used to improve health in these regions.

Available now from the University of Toronto Press.

CircHOB is hosted and maintained by ICHR.

Over the previous five years, the Summit had provided participants from all over the North with a forum to share research information, engage in public discussions, and broach a variety of topics relevant to the needs of local social economy organizations. Past gatherings have been held in Inuvik, Iqaluit, Whitehorse, and Happy Valley-Goose Bay.

This summit was the last opportunity for SERNNoCA to convene its pan-Northern network as it wound down its activities in early 2012.

Participants also toured the future site of the Statistics Canada Regional Data Centre at the Institute for Circumpolar Health Research, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada.

Conference themes included:

• metrics, health systems, and health policy
• circumpolar health data sources and applications

The program is presented below:

Sunday, October 30

Monday, October 31

An international conference is being organized by the Institute for Circumpolar Health Research on October 31, 2011 to celebrate the inauguration of the Statistics Canada branch research data centre (RDC) in Yellowknife, the first to be established north of 60º and outside a university.

The conference will feature international experts from circumpolar countries and regions to discuss existing health data sources and how they can be managed and utilized to improve population health and health systems performance.

The proposed program will include the opening of the Statistics Canada Regional Data Centre at the Institute for Circumpolar Health Research, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada.

Conference themes include:

• metrics, health systems, and health policy
• circumpolar health data sources and applications

For more information, please contact:

• Susan Chatwood, susan.chatwood@ichr.ca
• Kue Young, kue.young@utoronto.ca

or visit:

• metrics.circumpolarhealth.org