Archives for January 2019

Health Sciences camp for Indigenous students

January 28, 2019 Jennifer LeBlanc 1 Comment

By: Brandon Parsons, Grade 12 student at J.L. Ilsley High School and Tish Sock-Sacetti, Indigenous Student Support Worker

Brandon Parsons

Brandon Parsons on Dalhousie University Halifax campus

My name is Brandon Parsons and I am a student at JL Ilsley high school. I am currently a grade 12 student. I found out about the camp through my school’s aboriginal director. At first giving up my march break didn’t seem very fun, but she convinced me to go and I do not regret it for a second. I attended the Kitpu “Eagle” Wise march break camp, it is a day camp for Indigenous youth wanting to explore and learn more about medical fields.

Personally, I find it hard to get up early, essentially if I don’t have school. To me the first day was nerve wreaking, I was so nervous. After the first day was over, I was so excited to go back, and I was actually happy to get up early. I tended to show up early to hang out with the other students before our day started. I made a lot of friends at the camp and we still text and hang out regularly. My friends and I were always excited to learn about the medical fields. Often, we had lunch and learns and people who work the regular day to day medical jobs came in and talked to us. I really liked that it was more of conversation rather than just a presentation. We also talked to students and teachers of the medical programs at Dalhousie University. It was really cool hearing the perspective of the students considering that’s where we wanted to end up.

My favourite part of the camp was shadowing the dental students while they had actual patients in and getting work done. I enjoyed seeing the work from the class room put into actual use in the real world. The camp isn’t just presentations and watching, there is a lot of hands on activities to do which my friends absolutely loved.

Brandon and Tom McCutcheon, Options & Opportunities Program Coordinator of JL Ilsley High School.

The Indigenous Health program manager for the Faculty of Medicine is Joe MacEachern and he is the Kitpu Wise camp leader. In the camp we learned about a lot of different Health Science programs but not what Joe did as a job. This was something that really interested me. Joe MacEachern stayed in touch with me offering me advice and support as I was planning my future studies, and when the opportunity came up through the co-op program in my school, I reached out to him about doing my co-op with him at his office. He was very receptive to the idea and I am currently exploring what he does on a day to day basis. One of our main goals while working with him is the planning of the camps and making them even more amazing then they are already. It has been interesting to see how the feedback we supplied in our reviews of the camp are now creating new opportunities for the next group of students that will attend in 2019.

To wrap this up, I loved everything about the camp from the opportunity to learn and the friends I made. I am really excited to go back next year.

Tish Sock-Sacetti

Joe MacEachern, Tish Sock-Sacetti, The Honourable Lena Metlege Diab

As an Indigenous Student Support Worker for the Halifax Regional Centre for Education I have helped several students attend the Dalhousie Health Sciences Camp programs. My students have really loved their experience at the camps. The students who had the privilege to participate in camps, especially the March Break camp Kitpu Wise, couldn’t stop talking about how wonderful it was. The students were exposed to many medical careers and it opened their eyes to possibilities for a future some never considered could be theirs. My students enjoyed meeting the various health professionals and taking part in all the exercises. The participants really enjoyed the hands-on activities and job shadowing. Many felt the cultural component to the camp was extremely important and one of their favourite parts. Everyone who took part in last year’s camp cannot wait to return and they are always encouraging other students to apply.

I truly believe that the value of this camp is immeasurable. The support provided by Joe MacEachern, the program manager, to help increase accessibility for my students was amazing. There were several barriers identified, such as transportation and food, that would have prevented many students from ever experiencing an opportunity like this but the program manager was there to help address these issues a manner that was amazing. All week I kept receiving extremely positive updates from my students about camp. Their calls and texts were full of, ” Tish, guess what we did!” “Tish, do you know what I can do!” ” Tish, what courses will I need to take to become…” ” Tish, do you know what I found out..”……… The confidence of my students was bolstered, and the camp helped to reinforce that they can have the future they want instead of one chosen for them by circumstance. The students still speak extremely highly of Joe and the continued support from Joe has been sincerely appreciated. Everyone is looking forward to camp this March Break.

To learn more about programs for Indigenous youth please visit the Global Health Office website.

Introducing the 2018-2019 Dal Med GHI Global Health Liaisons

January 21, 2019 Jennifer LeBlanc Leave a Comment

By: Tatum Burdo, Dalhousie Medicine New Brunswick student

The Global Health Initiative (GHI) exists to promote engagement with and discussion of global health issues, within Dalhousie’s Faculty of Medicine. In partnership with the Dalhousie Medical Students’ Society, the Canadian Federation of Medical Students, and Dalhousie’s Global Health Office, we organize events to share knowledge in global health, while connecting interested students to global health learning opportunities locally and abroad.

The GHI is led by a junior and senior medical student representative at both of Dalhousie’s medical campuses (Halifax and Saint John). As part of our team, we are supported by leaders of Environmental Health and Sustainability, Indigenous Health, Sexual and Reproductive Health, Global Health Advocacy, Global Health Education, and Global Health Exchanges.

Meet Global Health Liaisons (GHLs) in Halifax:

Ilana Walters, Med 2, Halifax

Ilana Walters is passionate about using her background in global health to address inequities both locally and abroad. Prior to medicine, Ilana focused her attention on organizations acting in international settings to enable marginalized populations access to healthcare. Shifting her focus to work with marginalized populations more locally—at least while in school—Ilana believes there is a lot of work to be done to empower marginalized populations in Canada, and medicine is a great vehicle to do this!

Rumana Rafiq, Med 1, Halifax

From publishing a paper on barriers to sanitation in India, volunteering with the Red Cross for six years, and participating in service trips to Nicaragua and Peru, you can definitely say that global health and advocacy work are a huge passion of Rumana Rafiq’s. Rumana hopes to use this role to collaborate with Dal Med interest groups and the Global Health Office to support both existing and new global health events that all can learn from and enjoy!

Meet Global Health Liaisons (GHLs) in Saint John:

Liora Naroditsky, Med 2, Saint John

To Liora Naroditsky, global health means learning about the social determinants that affect her patients’ health. Liora believes that being well versed in this kind of knowledge can be even more important than understanding the science when it comes to providing excellent patient care. By participating in the GHI, she hopes to expose herself and other students to opportunities to learn about the circumstances and stories that impact patient care, and thus broadening toolboxes of future healthcare providers.

Tatum Burdo, Med 1, Saint John

Tatum Burdo is constantly trying to bring a global lens to her medical studies. Tatum is curious about all things global health, but especially migration, displacement, and newcomer health issues. In this role, she hopes to strengthen global health learning opportunities available to Dalhousie’s medical students, and aims to promote a culture of global curiosity among her classmates.

If you have an idea for engaging medical students in topics of global health, please reach out to tatum.burdo@dal.ca.

The Global Health Office website offers more information on Global Health student groups.

PLANS Professional Profile: Ruth Boachie

January 14, 2019 Jennifer LeBlanc Leave a Comment

Promoting Leadership in health for African Nova Scotians (PLANS) Presents a new section of our social medial plan, bringing to you the faces of Black health professions! This post highlights the profession of Nutrition and Dietetics!

Ruth Boachie

We had the opportunity of connecting with Ruth Boachie whose background is in nutrition and food science having studied at the University of Ghana (BSc. Nutrition and Food Science), and then later obtaining her Masters of Applied Human Nutrition from Mount Saint Vincent University.

So Ruth, what you do you currently do in your work?

I am currently a Quality and Research and Development coordinator at Nova Scotia Organics. We make whole food based dietary supplements that are certified organic.

Can you describe your role in nutrition?

As per my job, I ensure that whatever finished products we send out to the consumer meets Quality standards and [that] it is safe for consumption. I also work to develop new products that have beneficial effects on health.

Can you explain your experiences of and the ability to access healthy food choices, and other food services?

This might be easier for me considering that I studied nutrition in school. I studied how food and its components affect the body when it’s eaten, and the role it plays on the overall health outcome of an individual.

So, I am able to make my meals with affordable food items that I know will provide health benefits. I find that it requires much intentional efforts to look out for these products since it is easier to access food with low nutrient content.

However, the challenge I see with respect to this is that, most people think healthy food is ‘expensive’. This might be true to some extent but not always.

This will go a long to improve our food choices and overall health.

How have you found or are you finding community in your profession?

I have had much connection with the general community, and other professionals in different Health sectors. I have had several nutrition education activities with different groups and I found that interesting because I got to share very practical ways of making healthy food choices.

There is always room for improvement, so the Black Health professionals can be a driving force in reducing risk factors for chronic diseases in the Black population. Considering that Blacks have high risk in developing diet related chronic diseases, it is only expedient that we come together to share knowledge.

For more information on this and other African Nova Scotian initiatives please visit the PLANS section of our website.

New Year brings New Collaborations for Global Health

January 8, 2019 Jennifer LeBlanc Leave a Comment

By: Shawna O’Hearn, Director, Global Health Office

After four months of education leave, I am celebrating my return to the Global Health Office with a renewed focus and commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals. In September 2018, I began a new journey to compliment my work and deepen my impact through a PhD in Health Geography.

Emily Shantz (dal alumni), Andrea Rishworth, Carise Thompson, Shawna O’Hearn

I am honoured to work with Dr. Susan Elliott as part of her research lab: Geographies of Health in Place (GoHelP) at the University of Waterloo (https://uwaterloo.ca/geographies-of-health-in-place/). The University of Waterloo is part of the U15 and is the Canadian site for the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN). The SDSN works closely with United Nations agencies, multilateral financing institutions, the private sector, and civil society to share knowledge, engage research and help solve the interconnected economic, social, and environmental challenges confronting the world.

You might be asking, why geography? Health geography emerged in the 1990s through a debate about the expansion of ‘medical geography’ to reflect the changes in research, practice and health care settings. This change expanded the work beyond the “concerns with disease and the interests of the medical world” to focus on “well-being and broader social models of health and health care” (Kearns and Moon, 2002).

This change in understanding health care and making connections with geography were highlighted through the work of Dr. Trevor Dummer and his research published in the CMAJ. He explains that “geography and health are intrinsically linked. Where we are born, live, study and work directly influences our health experiences: the air we breathe, the food we eat, the viruses we are exposed to and the health services we can access. The social, built and natural environments affect our health and well-being in ways that are directly relevant to health policy.”

There are three main themes in the geography of health: disease ecology, health care delivery, and environment and health. Disease ecology involves the study of infectious diseases (e.g., malaria, HIV/AIDS, infant diarrhea). The study of health care delivery includes spatial patterns of health care provision and issues like inequalities in health. Environment and health make the connections between environmental hazards research with health geography. Health geography contributes to how local geographies shape disease diffusion, health risk perceptions, social determinants of health and health inequalities (Rosenberg, 2017).

Where we live matters, but not just for the reasons we might think. While we might associate the weather or terrain with a particular region or location, it’s also important to consider the social forces that help explain how where we live shapes our health and even our life expectancy.

Geographers play an important role in collaborating with epidemiologists, public health professionals and researchers, professionals in sectors such as transportation, or with those who focus on water and food security. Geographers add spatial understanding to public health challenges. Context and environment are fundamentally important, particularly how they impact health.

Stay tuned for more updates on my research and the importance of geography on our local and global health issues.

Happy New Year!

Shawna