Imagine 2048: A reflection on the future of health promotion practice
Imagine the world in 2048. What do you see? I imagine a world in which a greater proportion of humanity gets to partake in the beauty and bounty the world has to offer while being buffered from more of its downsides. It brings to mind what Arundhati Roy imagines as “another world.” In this “another world” described by Roy, three things will be central to health promotion practice.
NCCDH staff becoming anti-racist through informed dialogue: 2 of 2
Our staff team at the National Collaborating Centre for the Determinants of Health (NCCDH) is engaged in a long-term initiative to become anti-racist, in part by engaging in staff readings and guided discussions. This blog post describes our group conversation process and the sessions we held between June 2017 and January 2018. See the companion blog post, "NCCDH staff becoming anti-racist through informed dialogue: 1 of 2," for an introduction to this blog post.
NCCDH staff becoming anti-racist through informed dialogue: 1 of 2
In the summer and fall of 2016, the National Collaborating Centre for Determinants of Health (NCCDH) initiated an all-staff process to become more anti-racist. My first “Becoming anti-racist” post from March 2017 describes the NCCDH’s intention to hold monthly learning discussions and introduces the circle way method that we adopted. My more recent entries report on our discussions and the resources we used to help us learn.
Equity-focused public health practice as a strategy to tackle TB
Tuberculosis (TB) is impacted by many social determinants of health, which leads to inequities in who is affected by the disease and how it manifests in the population. A shift in public health approach that addresses health equity as the primary focus could contribute to the elimination of TB, in addition to addressing other health inequities across the population.
Plenary from Public Health 2017: Racism in Society
One way that public health organizations can help dismantle racism is by facilitating conversations about how racial inequity plays out in social, scientific and legislative arenas. It is with this aim that I moderated the closing plenary session at the annual pan-Canadian public health gathering, Public Health 2017, in Halifax, NS, located in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq People.
First Nations Taking Action on the SDH: Reflections from CPHA 2017
When I attended the Public Health 2017 conference this past summer in Halifax, NS, (in Mi’kmaki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq People), there were multiple resources from the First Nations Health Directors Association (FNHDA) of British Columbia that I found very interesting. One of the other resources the FNHDA shared also caught my attention: the Social Determinants of Health Discussion Guide, created by the First Nations Health Council (FNHC) in BC.
Symposium: Decolonizing our relationships through lateral kindness
At a symposium held at the Public Health 2017 conference, we learned about the concept of lateral kindness — a deliberate attempt by Indigenous communities to counter the lateral violence experienced as a result of colonization in Canada.
The gifts of anti-racism work
This blog is part of a blog-series to be published in 2017. The blog is a personal reflection authored by an NCCDH staff member and is focused on what she has learned about racism and being anti-racist through her solidarity with Indigenous people, and how that learning informs and is informed by NCCDH staff work in this area.
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain
This blog is part of a blog-series to be published in 2017. The blog is a personal reflection authored by an NCCDH staff member and is focused on the tendency of white people to remain silent in the discussion of racism.
Becoming anti-racist: Small steps along the way
This blog is part of a blog-series published in 2017. This blog describes how it came to be that the NCCDH has undertaken an initiative to become more intentionally anti-racist and better enabled to translate knowledge that will facilitate public health to address racism and racialization in their work places and as a structural determinant of health and inequity in the population.