My Health My Community (MHMC) aims to develop an interactive web‐based health and wellness survey  to collect data on health, lifestyle, environment, and community characteristics. Using online resources to engage community members, participants will be encouraged to provide information about  their health status and lifestyle choices, in order  to establish a baseline and track data  over time.The survey  will be launched on June  27th,  2013.

As part of the online effort, MHMC is planning to have people deployed at key places throughout the summer, and possibly beyond into fall, to promote and engage VCH and FH residents. MHMC is looking to hire a core team of field outreach representatives.

Job Description

To Apply
Please send a completed application form and résumé to  jobs@myhealthmycommunity.org by Wednesday May 22th,  2013 at 5pm.

Thank you very much for your  assistance in spreading the word about this job opportunity,

The Men’s Depression Help Yourself website highlights key findings from Dr. Jon Oliffe’s (Associate Professor, School of Nursing) program of research that focus on raising awareness around men’s mental health. Findings focus on college-age men, older men, and middle-aged men and their female partners.

The eHealth Strategy Office designed the functionality and graphics for the Men’s Depression Help Yourself website as well as creating brochures and a suite of 25 videos that highlight men’s personal experiences with depression and findings from the research study.

Thanks to the hard work of the entire team involved on this project. A special thanks to ehealth staff  Sha Xiao for her graphic savvy and Jon Rawlinson for his video production talents.

Thanks to the School of Nursing for the opportunity to work together to help highlight the importance of men’s mental health and bring awareness to an often undiagnosed and stigmatized issue using interactive and online communication technologies.

To learn more on how online technologies can facilitate mental health awareness and discussion, download the literature review on Telehealth for Mental Health and Substance Use.

The workshop hosted thirty participants in an intimate setting that facilitated hands-on activities and skill demonstrations by health experts. Conducted in Cantonese, the 3.5-hour workshop was designed to build patient capacity in managing personal risk factors associated with various chronic diseases.

The goal of the workshop was to provide skills, tips and resources for a healthier lifestyle for the Chinese-speaking community. The workshop focused on developing patient knowledge in key prevention and self-management areas:

1)    Introduction to eHealth literacy (resource navigation)

2)    Exercise and stress management

3)    Nutrition and healthy eating

Guest Speakers:

Registered dietitian, JoJo Wang shares tips on cooking with healthier ingredients.

Dr. Kendall Ho, Director of the eHealth Strategy Office, and Barbara Ho, iCON’s Chinese Division Health Director, explored the realm of eHealth and eHealth literacy with participants. Participants were presented with the latest examples of technological applications in health and how they could use such tools in tracking, monitoring, and managing day-to-day wellness.

Certified yoga instructor and Fairchild Radio personality, Danny Lau discussed myths surrounding exercise and how to recognize stress triggers and apply exercise and stress reduction techniques to promote mental wellness.

Registered dietitian, JoJo Wang engaged enthusiastic participants in a lively cooking demonstration and food tasting aimed at introducing healthier foods, ingredients and methods of food preparation.

The workshop was filmed and can be viewed online.

Stay connected with iCON to learn about future workshop opportunities by becoming an iCON member.

As part of the BC Ministry of Health Healthy Minds, Healthy People plan, the eHealth Strategy Office conducted a literature review for the Mental Health and Substance Use (MHSU) Branch to address how to best enhance the use of telehealth services for mental health and substance use problems in BC.

The report summarizes the best and promising practices in telehealth for mental health and substance use, including service delivery models, associated policies and the evidence for their use with specific mental health disorders across the care continuum.

A few key learnings from the report:

- Newer technologies, such as email and mobile devices, are actively being studied in the telehealth for mental health and substance use problems.

- The decision to use telehealth services for mental health and substance use services needs to consider many factors (e.g., severity of the disorder and patient and clinician readiness).

- Policies to guide the use of telehealth services for mental health and substance use problems need to be complete and clearly address all legal, ethical and technological issues that may arise and should be backed by all relevant governing bodies to ensure uniform adherence.

- While technologies may come and go, it is important to continue to study their use in telehealth for mental health and substance use problems to understand the principles underlying their effectiveness to guide the adoption of the next ‘big thing’.

Download the report to learn more about the current body of evidence in this area.

Healthy Minds, Healthy People – B.C.’s 10-year mental health and substance use plan – aims to reshape how we think about, talk about, and approach mental health and substance use across the lifespan. It’s about shifting and transforming health and broader systems that influence and support the mental wellbeing of British Columbians throughout the province

Surrey Vaisakhi Parade

Look for iCON’s booth along the parade route outside Faredeal Furniture, Unit 101, 8173, 128^th Street (opposite Bollywood Banquet Halls).  iCON will be handing out a variety of great health resources on the management and prevention of chronic disease.

Already considered the largest Vaisakhi celebration outside of India, the Surrey Vaisakhi Parade, is to commemorate one of the most important religious events on the Sikh calendar. Every April, millions of Sikhs world-wide celebrate Vaisakhi Day, a day that marks the New Year. Considered one of the most important festivals in the Sikh calendar, parades celebrating the event are held in Sikh communities around the world. One of the largest occurs in Surrey, where 80,000 – 200,000 people attend the annual Vaisakhi Parade and Celebration, making it one of the largest Vaisakhi parades outside India.

Date: Saturday, April 20th, 2013

Time/Location: Parade will start at 9:30 AM at Gurdwara Sahib Dasmesh Darbar, located at 12885-85 Avenue, and will conclude there at approximately 4:00 PM Parade Map

We will be tweeting live from the event! Keep up with updates and follow @ehealthstrategy

Mitigating Emergency Department Overcrowding: A Tale of Three Interventions

Speaker: Dr. Brian Rowe (Associate Dean, Clinical Research, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, University of Alberta)

Date/Time: Thursday, April 4th; noon – 1:00 PM PST

Evidence to Excellence & WEDOC, in partnership with the UBC Faculty of Medicine eHealth Strategy Office, Ministry of Health, and BCPSQC present this exciting virtual learning session. Dr. Brian Rowe, Professor and Canada Research Chair in Evidence-based Emergency Medicine, University of Alberta, will share his insights and lead a discussion on three strategies to improve through-put in our Emergency Departments.

To join this FREE webinar click here

The webinar link will open 15 minutes prior to its start time.

Dr. Kendall Ho

“Stroke is an important and devastating disease that affects many people,” comments Dr. Kendall Ho, Director of eHealth Strategy Office, and Professor, Faculty of Medicine. “Yet, if recognized promptly and medical treatment is sought, patients can receive appropriate therapies to significantly improve health outcomes.”

This is the second collaborative effort between Fairchild TV and iCON. In March 2011, the inaugural TV mini-series focused on mental health. “When we discussed the idea of leveraging the popularity of the Fairchild TV programming to spread health messages, Fairchild TV very kindly and promptly agreed, helping us to produce our first series “ states Dr. Ho.

The television series is developed in Cantonese to educate the Chinese community on best practices in detecting and managing stroke. iCON developed the content and curriculum for the series and secured guest speakers for each ten-minute long episode. The series will highlight topics such as stroke prevention, emergency care, recovery and rehabilitation, caregiver support and mental wellness.

“iCON is a community-driven health promotion initiative across the province of BC and we want to be able to reach the Chinese-speaking audience in different ways to promote health,” comments Dr. Ho. “ The popularity of Fairchild TV within the Chinese community makes the TV series an effective and popular way to deliver health messages within our province and across the nation.”

You can watch the series on Fairchild TV (check your local listings) every Wednesday at 6:50 PM starting March 20^th. Episode summaries will be available for download after each episode on iCON’s website www.iconproject.org

Episode 1: What is Stroke? – March 20, 2013

Episode 2: First Episode of Stroke – March 27, 2013

Episode 3: Recovery and Rehabilitation – April 3, 2013

Episode 4: Mental Health Change – April 10, 2013

Episode 5: Family Support and Support for Caregivers – April 17, 2013

Episode 6: Prevention – April 24, 2013

Organizational Energy: What is it? Why do we need to know about it?

Speaker: Christina Krause (Executive Director, BC Patient Safety & Quality Council)

Date: March 14th

Time: noon-1 PM PST

Evidence to Excellence Webinar Series, in partnership with the UBC Faculty of Medicine eHealth Strategy Office, Ministry of Health, and BCPSQC present this exciting virtual learning session. Christina Krause (Executive Director, BCPSQC) will present key concepts on organizational energy including affect on organizational change, creativity and productivity.

To join the webinar click here. You will be able to join the webinar up to 15 minutes prior to its start time.