PHABC

2007 Annual General Meeting

Public Health Association of British Columbia
Annual General Meeting

Presented on November 29, 2007
at The Empire Landmark Hotel
Vancouver, BC

2007 Annual Report (PDF)

2007 AGM Agenda and Speaker List (PDF)

2007 AGM Minutes (PDF)

2007-01 Dental Resolution (PDF)

Sip Smart Beverage Project

Sip Smart Beverage Project - www.bchealthyliving.ca/node/104

From sport drinks to pop to fruit �punch�, sugar-sweetened beverages are everywhere. To help kids kick this liquid-sugar habit, the BC Pediatric Society and the Heart and Stroke Foundation are launching an elementary school educational program. It includes innovative resource materials and a teacher-friendly learning module. By teaching kids why it is important to drink less sugary drinks, the initiative complements BCHLA's other efforts to reduce unhealthy choices in schools. The goal? When kids are thirsty, they reach for healthier thirst-quenchers.

Geneve Declaration on Armed Violence and Development

The Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence and Development is a multilateral initiative to prevent and reduce armed violence. Please go to www.genevadeclaration.org for more information. Contact muggah @ hei.unige.ch for details.

Farm to School Salad Bar: A Request For Proposals

The Public Health Association of BC, in partnership with provincial, regional and local groups, is seeking proposals to pilot a Farm to School Salad Bar initiative within 12 schools in the Northern and Interior Health Regions.

Strengthening relationships between the school and the farm is an important aspect of this program. Foods from local farms are grown and harvested to fill a salad bar twice per week in participating schools. Children, parents, school staff, farmers – the whole community – benefit from a program that broadens knowledge and experiences of growing, harvesting, preparing and tasting fresh local greens.

This is your opportunity to participate! Download the Farm to School Salad Bar RFP for details. Find out if your school is eligible for a one time grant to establish the program. Find out about the process to make that happen.

The window of opportunity is short. Applications must be completed and submitted to the PHABC Office no later than April 30, 2008.

For further information, contact Joanne Bays, Project Coordinator, Farm to School Salad Bar via email at: bays@telus.net.

War on Drugs - Public Health Based Regulation Needed for all Substances

The news release below and recent discussion paper from the Health Officers' Council of BC
(see http://www.phabc.org/modules.php?name=Contentpub&pa=viewdoc&cid=11 ) are to bring attention to the serious impact that inadequate, inappropriate, and ineffective regulation of psychoactive substances (illegal drugs,alcohol, tobacco,and certain prescription drugs) is having on Canadians. Your attention and assistance to publicizing this issues is appreciated. Thank you, James Lu, MD, MHSc Chair, Health Officers' Council of BC _______________________________________________________________________________ NEWS RELEASE

Increasing the War on Drugs will not reduce drug-related crime or drug use - Public Health Based Approaches Needed

For Immediate Release February 4, 2008

VANCOUVER - As Canadian and U.S. drug policy experts gather here to provide advice to a United Nations conference on drug control and Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy rally in Ottawa to oppose the federal government's recently announced anti-drug strategy, BC Health Officers reiterate that a health-based approach to addiction is required to deal with social and criminal issues.

"Imitating the U.S. approach by escalating the war on drugs as the federal government is doing will not reduce drug-related crime or drug use," says Dr. Richard Mathias of the Health Officers' Council of BC. "We only have to look south to the United States to see how policies like mandatory minimum sentences for drug-related crimes and coercive addiction treatment have failed."

A particularly alarming aspect of the new federal drug policy is abandonment of effective harm reduction programs that have proven successful across the country in saving lives and reducing the transmission of HIV and Hepatitis C, said Dr. Mathias as the Health Officers' Council released a discussion paper on regulating psychoactive substances including alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, opiates and stimulants.

Research by the Canadian Centre for Substance Abuse shows that nearly 50,000 deaths every year are linked to psychoactive substances; and the current ineffective policies and programs governing them cost the economy some $40 billion. The Health Officers' Council paper emphasizes the need to regulate all psychoactive substances from the perspective of improving and protecting public health, said Dr. Mathias who is also a professor of medicine at the University of British Columbia.

"The current punitive approaches to illegal drugs are not effective, waste valuable public resources and actually increase rather than reduce harms," Dr. Mathias explained. "It is time to apply our energies to new and innovative approaches that are supported by scientific evidence rather than continuing to pour tax dollars into the same ineffective and harmful programs and expecting different results."

The health-based approach advocated by the Health Officers' Council is supported by a wide range of individuals and organizations, including leading academics, policy makers and community groups.

"The federal government's mandatory minimum proposals will increase incarceration rates of people with low-level involvement in drugs, with no evidence that these harsh measures will actually affect the drug trade," said Professor Neil Boyd, Associate Director of Simon Fraser University's School of Criminology. "These policies will stress already overcrowded jails and put newly incarcerated people at increased risk of many social and health problems such as HIV and hepatitis which are seen at high rates in jails."

Howard Sapers, Canada's Correctional Investigator who reports to Parliament, says that in federal prisons the incidence of HIV is 7 to ten times higher and Hepatitis C is 30 times higher than in the general Canadian population.

Such evidence shows that the real problems are our current inappropriate and inadequate regulation and mismanagement of drugs, said Gillian Maxwell, chair of Keeping the Door Open: Dialogues on Drug Use, a Vancouver organization dedicated to improving approaches to drug control.

"Our current drug policies are not helping people who use drugs or the communities where they live," said Ms. Maxwell.

"It is irresponsible to allow such ineffective and harmful measures to continue and a waste of valuable public resources. We need to expand the public dialogue to explore more creative solutions and the Health Officers' Council discussion paper will help us better understand what public health-based regulation of substances could look like", she added.

The Health Officers Council of BC is a registered society of public health physicians who advise and advocate for public policies and programs directed at improving health. They have been calling for public health approaches to all drugs (including tobacco and alcohol) for many years to reduce the enormous societal problems associated with drugs and their control measures. Public health approaches seek a balance between minimizing the harms associated with substances and their control policies, allowing for non-harmful and beneficial use and adoption of policies that benefit society.

For more information please contact:

Dr. Richard Mathias 604 822-4757, 604-822-2772

Professor Neil Boyd 778-782-3324

Gillian Maxwell 604-728-7792

The latest Health Officers Council discussion paper, Regulation of Psychoactive Substances in Canada - Seeking a Coherent Public Health Approach, will be posted at:

http://www.phabc.org/modules.php?name=Contentpub&pa=viewdoc&cid=11

http://kdo.carbc.net/Home/tabid/37/Default.aspx

http://www.cfdp.ca/

Public Health Olympic Update - Vancouver Coastal Health

Update as of January, 2008
Reports on:

- Health Protection and 2010
- Olympic Communication from VCH
- VCH Emergency Management: Preparing for 2010
- Public Health Surveillance Unit Report

Prevention Network For Professionnals

Prevention – It’s More than Education!

School-based drug education is possibly the most widely used prevention strategy for attempting to discourage young people from using alcohol, tobacco, or other drugs.

Download Prevention Network For Professionnals (PDF)

The African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF) as a Model for Effective Primary Health Care Partnerships in Developing Countries

Author: Franklin White

Affiliation: Pacific Health & Development Sciences Inc. Victoria, BC, Canada.

Citation: White F. The African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF) as a Model for Effective Primary Health Care Partnerships in Developing Countries. Editorial. Medicine Today. 2007; 5(4): 105-6.

ABSTRACT: This editorial commemorates AMREF�s 50th Anniversary, and briefly traces its origins as the Flying Doctor Service to its current role as a leading innovator of community-based health programming for Africa. AMREF�s success is built on fostering partnerships, and finding ways to improve people�s health through addressing the underlying social determinants. Based on its operational research, many of AMREF�s initiatives serve as health systems models for Africa, influencing policies and practices by sharing these across the continent. The editorial takes note of examples such as applying ecosystems principles to identifying risks and piloting solutions to endemic conditions such as malaria, trachoma and HIV/AIDS, and in promoting clean water technologies, personal hygiene and sanitation. Its role in health development in the Kibera slum city illustrates how it helped to develop indigenous community based organizations that are now taking on the challenging task of developing primary health care in disadvantaged settings. Central to AMREF�s role is the management of knowledge and its dissemination through innovative learning systems. To conclude, AMREF recognizes better than most health organizations around the world that 80% of health is made in communities and households; perhaps only 20% is repaired in hospitals and clinics. AMREF today can stand as one of Africa�s success stories, a model for health development and an inspiration to the world.

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The Path To Health and Wellness: Making British Columbians Healthier by 2010

The Select Standing Committee on Health (an all-party government committee) in 2004 called for a 6% investment in prevention.
View the report:

October 2007 Prevention Network for Parent Newsletter

Hello All Prevention Workers

Please find attached our latest issue of our newsletter PREVENTION NETWORK� for Parents.

All students in BC should be learning about drug & alcohol revention in school, however children need to hear consistent messages from their parents, teachers and community. Our bi-monthly newsletter is intended to keep parents informed and current on the latest esearch, policy development, programs and available resources in the area of drug and alcohol prevention.

Please help us spread this message by forwarding our newsletter on to anyone you feel may benefit from receiving this information or feel free to reproduce copies for your use.

Please look for our upcoming newsletter �PREVENTION NETWORK� for Professionals, available early December.

For further information please visit our website www.ades.bc.ca