« CoPEH-Canada is an adaptive community of scholars and practitioners dedicated to the understanding, teaching and application of ecosystem approaches to address current challenges to a healthy and sustainable global future.»
2012 CoPEH-Canada Activities update
Many things happened in 2012 for the CoPEH-Canada, summarized below:
Click here for the long version.
2012 ECOHEALTH SUMMER COURSE
This year's course was hosted in conjunction with l'Université de Moncton (U de M), New Brunswick from June 16 to June 27, 2012. The student cohort included 8 students and 6 career development participants from different parts of the country and representing a variety of fields including: Anthropology, Urban studies, Public Health, Epidemiology, Environmental studies, pathology, veterinary medicine, pharmacy, and family medicine.
2013 ECOHEALTH SUMMER COURSE
The 2013 summer course will be held in Prince George, BC at the Univeristy of Northern British Columbia, June 20-30, 2013.. More information will be on the CoPEH-Canada website shortly. In the meantime you can contact Lindsay Beck for more information (beckl@unbc.ca ) or Maude St-Cyr Bouchard (copeh-can-est@uqam.ca).
FUNDING
Our submission to the Public Health Agency of Canada for their Public Health Scholarship and Capacity Building Initiative -Workforce Development Products and Tools Contribution Program entitled "Linking public health, ecosystems and equity through ecohealth training and capacity building" was successful. This funding will support the next three years of CoPEH-Canada intensive summer courses (2013-2015) as well as some targeted workshops.
ECOHEALTH 2012 – KUNMING
Twenty CoPEH-Canada members participated in the fourth Biennial conference of the International Association for Ecology and Health, held in Kunming, China from October 15th to 18th. The pre-conference workshop: EcoHealth: Why Build a Field was co-hosted by CoPEH-Canada and the IDRC.
ECOHEALTH 2014 - MONTREAL
CoPEH-Canada has been selected to co-host the 5th Biennial Conference of the International Association for Ecology & Health (IAEH) in Montreal in 2014, along with Cinbiose, UQAM. The title of the conference is Connections and Dialogue in ecohealth. You can contact Maude St-Cyr Bouchard (copeh-can-est@uqam.ca ) for more information.
TEACHING MANUAL
Our teaching manual has been published online in three languages (English, French and Spanish) at www.copeh-canada.org. It has already served us well at the Moncton course! The manual contains six modules and it also provides four teaching tools.
CANADIAN PUBLIC HEALTH ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE 2012
Three CoPEH-Canada sponsored events were held at the 2012 CPHA conference. A proposal to hold a pre-conference session was also accepted for the 2013 CPHA conference. The title of this session is: Ecohealth Practice and Policy: Innovations to Link Health, Ecosystems and Society.
RESEARCH PORTFOLIO - SHORT- TERM FOLLOW UP
The CoPEH-Canada's research and evaluation activities continued throughout 2012. The research team concentrated its efforts on the analysis of data already collected as well as the third medium term survey. You can find past research reports on the site http://www.copeh-canada.org.
ALUMNI
All research grant recipients have now submitted their final reports and received final payments. You can see a one page profile of each of the awardees and their research on the training and awards section of our website (scroll down). The alumni organized a methods retreat in February of this year. Two 'Alumni Wine & Cheese Events' were organized, one at the University of Manitoba by Parnali Dhar Choudry (Alumni 2011) and the other at the University of Saskatchewan by Jasmine Dhillon.
NODAL ACTIVITIES
Ontario node
In 2012, the Ontario Node organized three important networking activities: full-day Ecohealth Symposium at the Environmental Studies Association of Canada (ESAC) Conference and a half and full day workshops on Ecohealth, and 'Healthy Watersheds, Healthy People'. The Ecohealth Club at the University of Guelph continues to and Ontario node members are working with Trees Ontario, Conservation Ontario and other local groups to inspire new action on ecology and health in the province.
QAA Node
The QAA node concentrated on three projects in 2012: the course held at the University of Moncton, a meeting entitled "Improving children's health through ecosystem approaches to health" collaboratively with the New Brunswick Children's Environmental Health Collaborative and its initiative to publish a special issue of the journal VertiGo on ecosystem approaches to health, in order to broaden the French literature on ecohealth.
Western Node
This year's CPHA conference was held in Edmonton, Alberta, with the theme "Creating and Sustaining Health Environments" (June 11-14, 2012). The Western Node team worked on preparing and supporting a host of COPEH-Canada related CPHA activities (see above). An Informal Ecohealth get together – 'one year since the 'Healthy by Nature' gathering in 2011' was organized by Margot Parkes (with support from Timothy Gray and Lindsay Beck). Craig Stephen, Bob Woollard and Margot Parkes also worked together on the planning of the second-ever online undergraduate/graduate Ecosystem Approaches to Health Course (HHSC 440-640).
CoPEH-Canada is pleased to announce the launch of a Pilot Ecosystem Approaches to Health Teaching Manual. The manual is the result of four years of collective teaching experience designing and facilitating a Short Course in Ecosystem Approaches to Health for graduate students and professionals, and is a collaborative project amongst core researchers, adjunct ecohealth researchers around Canada and course alumni within CoPEH-Canada. The manual is comprised of a series of modules designed to support people in designing, developing and teaching their own ecohealth courses. The manual is intended to serve as a guide or a structure which can be modified, adapted and developed by the users (ecohealth teachers). CoPEH-Canada itself sees the modules as open to further development as the manual is tested in various contexts and as feedback from testing and review is incorporated into the development of the modules in future iterations. The manual has been fully translated into French, and an abridged version is available in Spanish. It is licenced under Creative Commons: Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share Alike and is available for download and dissemination.
A PDF version is available in English, French and Spanish!
pre-EcoHealth2012 half-day workshop “EcoHealth: Why build a Field?”
CoPEH-Canada is co-hosting a half-day workshop prior to the EcoHealth2012 conference in Kunming.
The workshop will take place on Monday morning (9-12), October 15th.
The aim of the workshop is to facilitate a forward looking discussion on how best to sustain a supportive environment that enables the evolution of diverse partnerships and forms of collaboration in ecohealth, and increases demand for this type of research and practice. Please read the discussion paper (working draft) we have prepared with more details on the content. We welcome your feedback on this discussion paper at any time.
We welcome your participation and that of your colleagues at the workshop. Please circulate this information to them. Please confirm with us your intent to participate (at copeh-can@uqam.ca) so we can better plan the event. The number of expected participants is 70.
Sarah Dickin, a 2010 CoPEH-Canada Ecohealth training programme graduate, recently received one of the most prestigious graduate scholarships in Canada, the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship. In her research, she is interested in using a systems approach to mapping vulnerability and resilience of communities to water-related impacts of global environmental change.
Congratulations Sarah!
Sherilee Harper, a 2008 CoPEH-Canada Ecohealth training programme graduate, recently received one of the Canadian Public Health Associations graduate student awards for Knowledge Translation. The purpose of the awards is to recognize the work of graduate students regarding knowledge translation (KT) in public health. Congratulations, Sherilee!
CoPEH-Canada is pleased to announce that Jerry Spiegel has been awarded the prestigious CPHA international award for his work in promoting public health globally, and particularly equity in access to health-promoting environments and community participation. Congratulations, Jerry!
CoPEH-Canada is very happy to announce that Mélanie Lemire has won the prestigeous Governor General's Academic Medal for her thesis and doctoral career! Congratulations, Mélanie!
On the occasion of the Canadian Public Health Association (CPHA) 100th anniversary, the CIHR-IPPH and CPHA launched a call for Milestones in Population and Public Health Research that have significantly contributed to the public's health in Canada and globally. A collaborative manuscript from CoPEH-Canada members was submitted on this occasion, "Tools for Thoughtful Action: the role of ecosystem approaches to health in enhancing public health," emphasizing why EcoHealth should be considered a Canadian Public Health Milestone.
The manuscript was selected and was published in a special insert in November/December 2010 issue of the Canadian Journal of Public Health (Webb, J., D. Mergler, M. W. Parkes, J. Saint-Charles, J. Spiegel, D. Waltner-Toews, A. Yassi, R. Woollard. (2010). "Tools for Thoughtful Action: the role of ecosystem approaches to health in enhancing public health." Canadian Journal of Public Health 101(6): 439-441).
to see the online absrtact click here
or to download the PDF version click here
CoPEH-Canada Ecohealth expert David Waltner-Toews attended the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) to talk about how ecohealth research provides a rich multidisciplinary understanding of the complex factors affecting human health. He discussed how the use of ecohealth approaches can lead to better policies and practices across a variety of issues — from agriculture and environmental sustainability to social equity, nutrition, and local democracy.
You can listen to the interview by clicking here.
The International Association for Ecology & Health (IAEH) granted Mélanie Lemire with the inaugural 2010 IAEH Award for “Exceptional Early Career Contributions to the Field of EcoHealth”, and David Waltner-Toews with the 2010 IAEH Award for “Outstanding Contribution to the Field of EcoHealth” at the 2010 biennial EcoHealth Conference in London.
More details about Mélanie and David’s EcoHealth accomplishments are available at the International Association for Ecology & Health website.
Read David Waltner-Toews acceptance speech and poem The Task of Being Human here.
On June 16th 2010, CoPEH-Canada gathered research and policy leaders from throughout Canada for a meeting focused on “Actions to link public health, ecosystem sustainability and social equity”. Participants from academic, policy and non-government settings shared an interest in the social and environmental dimensions of complex public health challenges such as emerging infectious diseases, the anticipated effects of climate change, and how to ensure safe and secure food and water supplies. The executive summary can be found here.
We have launched an interactive directory that will enable members of the CoPEH-Canada to easily view other members, post a forum, update profile.
We'd like to invite you to visit the website and have a look on the CoPEH-Canada member directory.
To see a short documentary on the 2008 course click here or, for the version with French subtitles, here.
CoPEH-Canada researcher Karen Houle from the Department of Philosophy at the University of Guelph was interviewed about saving heritage breeds of livestock on the CBC's the Current.
Syed Imran Ali (University of Guelph), an alumni of the 2009 CoPEH-Canada EcoHealth Training Program, received a Walkerton Clean Water Centre Graduate Scholarship for his work on Alternative Safe Water Systems for South Asian Slums.
Congratulations Syed!
Sherilee Harper, a 2008 CoPEH-Canada Ecohealth training programme graduate, recently received one of the most prestigious graduate scholarships in Canada, the HR Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship. In her research, she is interested in using Ecosystem approaches to health research to investigate waterborne illnesses in vulnerable populations.
She will be beginning a PhD program at the University of Guelph in the Department of Population Medicine in collaboration with the Public Health Agency of Canada in January 2010.
Congratulations Sherilee!
Ecosystem Approaches to Health (Ecohealth) have developed in response to the recognition that health and wellbeing are embedded within ecosystems. Ecohealth initiatives are characterised by integrated approaches to health and environment issues, where priority is given to participatory and interdisciplinary research that is conscious of social and gender equity. Research in Ecohealth brings together esearchers in natural sciences, health sciences, social sciences and beyond, who work in direct collaboration with interested parties, political decision makers and stakeholders.
The Canadian community of practice in ecosystem approaches to human health (CoPEH-Canada) is open to any person interested in ecosystem approaches in research and/or intervention related to health.
This Canadian community of practice was initiated by a consortium of researchers from the Université du Québec à Montréal, the University of Guelph and the University of British Columbia, and is financed by IDRC. The community's foundation is built on the three initiating university's expertise in Ecohealth approaches; an expertise that hinges on research projects, education, and development projects with Latin American, African and Asian partners.
The coordinating bodies in the institutions of the CoPEH-Canada are:
This website presents an overview of who we are and what we aspire to do. You can navigate in either English or French.
We hope you enjoy the site!
