All were welcome last Thursday to browse a very important collection of photos at the North Memorial Public Library. This collection was the result of the dedication and hard work of youth from St George’s YouthNet and the Needham Community Centre. They came together to engage in a community based participatory action project, facilitated by a group of medical students at Dalhousie University. Although this team of 8 medical students reached out to initiate the project, George’s YouthNet and the Needham Community Centre were the key drivers and youth leaders were involved in each project session.

Community members who came to see the exhibit

The project ran from Spring to Fall of 2014. The objective was to provide youth with a creative and safe means of self expression in order to explore what a healthy community meant to them. Dalhousie’s medical students were eager to take their education outside the classroom and engage with and learn from youth in the community. As the team put it, “We felt that the youth perspective is often unheard especially with regards to issues that affect them.”

We felt that the youth perspective is often unheard especially with regards to issues that affect them.

Dr. Ingrid Waldron speaking with an attendee

This is how the PhotoVoice team of medical students described their role in the project:

Our role as facilitators was to ask the youth important questions about their lived experiences within the context of the community they reside. After engaging youth with some critical questions, we then asked the youth to take pictures of elements in their community that affected their lived experience. The youth then explained why they took certain photos and what some of the issues they were trying to convey through the photos were. At this time, youth also discussed how the photos meant different things to them and how their perspectives about issues affecting their community paralleled or differed. It was an opportunity for some of the participants to also share aspects of the history and events that occurred in their community, linking past municipal and provincial choices to their current situation.   

Community members were invited to write their responses to the images

The goal of photoVoice is to promote action. It is hoped that the youths’ ideas and thoughtful work, once made available for the community to see in this way, will spark interesting discussion among community members about what actions the community would like to take based on some of the narratives and photographs from the youth.

Dalhousie PhotoVoice team

To learn more about PhotoVoice please visit their website.

Courtesy of Youth Photovoice Exhibit

By Sarah Boucaud, Outreach Assistant, Global Health Office

Now or Never: Innovation in Health Care, a series of new planned public forums in Halifax was off to a great start this past Tuesday, September 30th, 2014. The Spatz Theater at Citadel High School was buzzing with community members, health care professionals, students, and leaders waiting to hear Dr. Danielle Martin speak on issues of access and sustainability of the Canadian health care system. A family physician, academic, Vice President Medical Affairs and Health System Solutions at Women’s College Hospital in Toronto, and an avid supporter of the public health care system, Dr. Danielle Martin is well known for taking on a U.S. Senate committee and defending Canada’s health care system.

Dr. Danielle Martin, speaking at a U.S. Senate hearing on health care in 2014. Photo Credit: Halifax Chronicle Herald

The session also included the comments, thoughts and questions of panelists,  including: Laura Fraser, staff reporter, The Chronicle Herald; Dr. Kathleen MacMillan, director, school of nursing, Dalhousie University; Dr. John Sullivan, QEII cardiovascular surgeon, president, Doctors NS; Gerry Post, patient / community activist.

Dr. Danielle Martin expressed three ideas for transforming health care, founded in evidence and worthy of the iconic nature of the Canadian health care system:

2) Doing more with less: Innovations, such as applying queuing theory to health care, to address system issues and improve access.

3) Basic income: Toping up income for individuals below a certain income threshold in order to start addressing the fundamental social determinants of health.

Dr. Danielle Martin also presented to students, trainees and fellows during a luncheon the following day. Through a physician’s lens, she spoke of the need for health care professional leadership in addressing system issues and bridging the gap between health care professionals and administration.

Her candid, thought provoking sessions, stimulated discussion and will encourage progressive conversation. Each session was followed by questions and comments, only supporting Dr. Danielle’s views that Canadians look to their health care system as a source of pride, but also recognize that there is room for much improvement.

With a beginning like this, there is much to anticipate from this new series of public forums!

More information on this session can be found in the Chronicle Herald story; Health care fixes focus of meeting.