Aboriginal Doula Training

Bringing birthing support practices back into the hands of women by:

- Helping families to have the best possible pregnancy and birth experience through emotional, physical and spiriutal support

- Sharing Traditional ways and choices

The first 2012 training session for Aboriginal Doula’s has been announced! This next training session will take place on March 4-8 and will be located in Port Alberni, BC. Training, travel, accommodations and resources will be provided. If you are interested in receiving this training, please download a copy of the registration forms below (it’s available in word or pdf), then scan it and email it to Lucy Barney by the February 24th deadline.

Registration forms:

Registration_Form_-_Aboriginal_Doula_Training_pdf_version-1

If you are looking for an exciting career where you can provide support and supervision to youth in conflict with the law and their families, the Young Offender Programs Branch in North Battleford wants you to be a Community Youth Worker.  There is a permanent full-time position available for you to contribute to making a difference in the lives of youth and their families, in both community and custody settings, through utilizing the principles of the Youth Criminal Justice Act, the Youth Services Model and Ministry policies, procedures and standards.

You will have the opportunity to deliver services such as administering sentences that include probation, conditional discharge, deferred custody and supervision, conditional supervision, and the community portion of the custody and supervision order.  Working in this position in the Northwest Region, you can also expect to prepare court reports and monitor compliance with standalone sentences such as community service hours, restitution and fines.

In collaboration with community agencies, you will ensure that youth and their families receive services appropriate to their risk and needs.  To aid you in accomplishing this, as the successful candidate, you will complete the Level of Service Inventory (Saskatchewan Edition) to determine youths’ level of risk and need, and establish and implement community safety plans.  In addition, your practice will be guided by solution-focused therapy that is reflective of core correctional practices and research-based risk and needs assessments.

In addition, you will have a primary responsibility coordinating the Extrajudicial Sanctions Program.  Extrajudicial Measures are defined by the Youth Criminal Juctice Act as measures other than judicial proceedings used to deal with a person who has admitted to committing an offence.

To qualify, you will possess a Bachelor of Social Work, Bachelor of Indian Social Work, Bachelor of Human Justice (concentration in criminal and restorative justice),  or an alternate bachelor level social work degree from an accredited university, as approved by the CASSW.

To apply, visit www.careers.gov.sk.ca

HUM002642, North Battleford, Corrections, Public Safety and Policing

But this month, the non-profit is helping schoolchildren across B.C. and in the Fraser Valley reflect on another group of underprivileged children right here at home: Canada’s Aboriginal youth.

The group has partnered with the Martin Aboriginal Education Initiative to launch an educational program spotlighting the issues of our nation’s First Nations in B.C. schools for two weeks from Feb. 13 to 24.

Among the schools particpating are Surrey’s Ray Shepherd Elementary. There, teacher Keri Stanger says Grade 7 students in the school’s Me to We club who attended the massive Vancouver We Day rally last year were moved by what they learned.

“We saw a presentation about how Aboriginal children in Canada are sometimes as disadvantaged as some children in developing countries.  My Me to We students were really touched by that fact and they wanted to help,” said Stanger, a Surrey resident who has taught at the school for the past five years.

The students will learn about Aboriginal culture, heritage and history, but also about the current plight of Aboriginal youth, particulary when it comes to education: for instance, the fact that school drop out rates are up to 60 per cent on reserves in this country, compared to an average of 9.5 per cent nationally. They are also encouraged to work on solutions together, fundraising or spreading awareness.

Read More >>

Source: The Province

State epidemiologists issued public health bulletins Tuesday to alert everyone in Alaska to outbreaks of syphilis and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the disease that if untreated can cause AIDS.

Since January 2011, newly-reported cases of HIV in Fairbanks have more than doubled, according to Susan Jones, Alaska’s HIV/STD program manager.

In any given year, between two and four new cases are reported in Fairbanks. Last year, they spiked, with at least nine individuals newly diagnosed as HIV positive.

Statewide, between 20 and 40 newly-acquired and newly-reported cases of HIV/AIDS are reported to public health officials most years, Jones said. But in 2010, the last year official numbers were reported, there were 77 cases.

Read More >>

Source: Eye on the Arctic

As of March 1, the Health and Wellness Department won’t cover the drug under Pharmacare, with exceptions for cancer and palliative-care patients. The move is meant to counter the addiction problems associated with oxycodone-based narcotics such as OxyContin, said Health Minister Maureen MacDonald.

The decision to limit access now is linked to the introduction of OxyNeo, MacDonald said in an interview Tuesday. The American manufacturer Purdue Pharma has made the new pills harder to crush and liquefy than OxyContin for the quick “hit” that addicts seek.

“We had to make a decision about whether or not we were going to put (OxyNeo) on our formulary as of March,” MacDonald said. “It was an opportune time to assess the impact of this drug.

“We know (OxyContin’s) had mixed reviews. It’s a very powerful drug and it provides great benefit to people who have severe pain, particularly people with cancer. But we also know it’s highly addictive — its use has risen exponentially and it’s been diverted to the streets with serious consequences.”

The decision to limit Oxy-type drugs was based on a recommendation by the Atlantic Expert Advisory Committee, an independent advisory group composed of physicians, pharmacists and other drug experts, the Health and Wellness Department said in a news release Tuesday.

Read More >>

Source: Herald News

The goal of this website is to share what the Taking Action! Project is all about, including the inspiring youth we have met across the country, and their amazing art.

Visit the website to find out more.

Recognized for two years running as one of Manitoba’s Top 20 Employers, the Winnipeg Health Region is an employer of choice well known for its competitive compensation and benefits, flexible work schedules, wide array of professional development opportunities and its culture of diversity.

Visit: Winnipeg Health Region Careers

The featured careers, video clips and testimonials from our staff will give you the inside scoop on who we are at VCH and how your specialty might fit with our services.

But there’s much more to our story than this. You’ll come for the job. You’ll stay for the team!

Snapshot of VCH services

• Public health and wellness: Includes such services as environmental health, disease control and emergency management
• Mental health and addictions: Includes such services as the dual diagnosis program, supervised injection site, withdrawal management, day treatment and emergency and residential services
• Acute care: Includes such services as inpatient care, surgical specialties and subspecialties, emergency, urgent care, lab and pathology, physiotherapy, diagnostic imaging and interventional services
• Community, residential and primary care: Includes such services as assisted living, respite care, home care nursing, speech/language pathology, Aboriginal health, complex residential care, occupational therapy and adult day programs
• Corporate services: Includes such services as information technology, human resources, facilities planning, risk management and communications
• Research: Includes the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute, Centre for Surgical Education and Innovation, and partnerships with many universities and colleges

Contracted services

Some services at VCH are provided through vendor contracts, including food services, housekeeping and security. If you are interested in a career in these areas, visit our Contact Us page for vendor contact information.

Heather Castleden will spend three years collecting information and data from the community near the harbour, which has had effluent from a nearby pulp plant pumped into it for years.

Castleden has worked with the Pictou Landing Native Women’s Association for the past year and a half developing ideas for a study on the human health impacts of the harbour. She recently received $445,000 from the Canadian Institutes of Health and Research for the project.

“The women really want a definitive answer around this question of, ‘Are we getting sick from Boat Harbour,’ ” Castleden said.

The study will be a combination of indigenous and western science, including such things as sharing circles, a household environmental health survey, community mapping of environmental and health concerns as well as air and water quality sampling.

Read More >>

Source: Herald News

Non-profit promotion of health, literacy & wellness

Good day. We’re putting a couple of comic books together next week and could use your help with the resource covers:

Maternal child health resources

We are going to be releasing our maternal child health book soon. If you could email any healthy mom / healthy baby online resources to sean[at]thehealthyaboriginal.net, that would be terrific. We prefer young mom friendly sites, provincial or federal over regional sites, please. Sorry for the short notice but we need them by February 28th. If you’re curious about the storyline you can check out the focus group short at www.youtube.com/user/HealthyAboriginal.

Diabetes prevention resources

We are going to be reprinting our diabetes prevention comic book, An Invited Threat, in early March. But we need to update our resource listings on the rear cover first. If you could please email me youth friendly sites by February 24th we would be most appreciative – sean[at]thehealthyaboriginal.net. Again, youth friendly and provincial or federal over regional, please. Also, feel free to order by sending an email to sean[at]thehealthyaboriginal.net – we’ll just need your mailing address, order and the number of copies you want. Feel free to check out the diabetes preview, our other books and pricing at www.thehealthyaboriginal.net. Please ignore the sold out note on An Invited Threat, as we haven’t updated the website yet.

We appreciate your help on the youth resources,

Sean Muir

Executive Director

3240 Comox Road Courtenay , BC V9N 3P8

Phone 250-941-8881 sean[at]thehealthyaboriginal.net

A BC incorporated non-profit Society