News

Conference 2022 Featured Speaker – Dr. Shannon Waters

Posted on July 25, 2022

Dr. Shannon Waters. Medical Health Officer, Island Health. Dr. Shannon Waters has extensive leadership experiences with Indigenous health, health authorities, and the Ministry of Health. Head shot of Shannon Waters within an Indigenous illustration of an eagle and a bear. Artwork is credited to Nisga’a nation artist Peter Thomas McKay.

Dr. Shannon Waters

Dr. Shannon Waters is Coast Salish and a member of Stz’uminus First Nation on Vancouver Island. She completed the First Nations Family Practice program at the University of British Columbia and worked as a family doctor in Duncan, BC.

While honored to work close to home, Shannon became frustrated with seeing people when they were unwell, and wanted to focus on maintaining health and well-being. She returned to school and completed her specialty training in Public Health and Preventive Medicine.

Shannon worked as the Director of Health Surveillance at First Nations and Inuit Health Branch and, at First Nations Health Authority as the Acting Senior Medical Officer for Vancouver Island Region. She has worked with Vancouver Island Health Authority as a Medical Director and with the Ministry of Health as the Aboriginal Physician Advisor.

She is currently honored to have come full circle and to be working in her home territory as the local Medical Health Officer with Island Health.

See the full list of PHABC’s 2022 Conference speakers here.

Monkey Pox Vaccines

Posted on July 18, 2022

Island Health is starting a targeted vaccination campaign for those currently at highest risk of acquiring and spreading monkeypox. We encourage those who meet the following criteria:

At least 18 years old and transgender or self-identify as belonging to the gay, bisexual or as other men who have sex with men community and answer yes to any of the following:
- Have received a diagnosis of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and/or syphilis in the past 2 months;
- Have had two or more sexual partners within the past 21 days;
- Have attended venues or other locations for sexual contact within the past 21 days (e.g., bath houses, sex clubs, park play) or may be planning to;
- Have had anonymous sex in the past 21 days (e.g., using apps, online sites, formal/informal gatherings) or may be planning to;
- Engage in sex work or may be planning to, either as a worker or a client.

Fore more information and to book an appointment go here: https://www.islandhealth.ca/learn-about-health/diseases-conditions/monkeypox

Conference 2022 July update: Join us for “Our Planet, Our Health” Nov 9 & 10 in Victoria, early bird registration opens soon!

Posted on

About PHABC’s 2022 Conference

Public Health Association of BC (PHABC) is pleased to share this year’s conference topic: “Our Health, Our Planet: Creating Well-Being Societies and Making Peace with Nature.” The conference topic was inspired by recent WHO and UN initiatives, as well as the importance of recognizing the role Indigenous knowledge has in creating a healthy relationship between humans and the Earth.

There is urgency from globally and locally to focus on making peace with nature. According to the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, “Humanity is waging war on nature. This is suicidal.” (December 2020). The UN 2021 report Making Peace with Nature further identified climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution as a “triple crisis” that threatens our well-being.

Creating well-being societies is dependent on making peace with nature and focusing on ecojustice and applying a eco-social approach to everything we do. The public health community has an opportunity here to weave eco-social approaches into their work to address both ecological and social injustices.

Creating a truly healthy public will only be possible if we work together to create healthy, sustainable and equitable communities.

Conference Goal

To bring together public health and other related professionals to work towards improving planetary health and creating well-being societies in ways that will enable progressive and effective policy changes and improve the lives of people and communities in BC and beyond.

Together we will explore the population health and health equity implications of global ecological changes (aka the Anthropocene) and identify innovative, effective societal and community level interventions.

Conference Themes and Structure

To invigorate public health practice, education and research towards a healthy, just and sustainable future. The conference plenary sessions will focus on four inter-related themes:

Making Peace with Nature for Public Health
Ecojustice/Eco-social Equity and Public Heath
Well-being Societies
Local (Practice) and Action

Learn More About the Conference

Conference Promotions

Hotel Discounts: Conference attendees will receive discounts to partner hotels. Once registered, you will be provided with a discount code.

Volunteers: All volunteers will be provided FREE tickets to the event. For more information on volunteering, contact conference@phabc.org.

Join PHABC’s Board of Directors

We’re looking for dedicated public health professionals to join our board for the 2022-2024 term. Help make a difference in the province by joining our board!

Nominations open August 2, deadline for applying is September 16.

Learn about what it means to be a board member and fill out the application. Learn More

Awards Nominations Open

Do you know someone or an organization in the public health community whose hard work & dedication deserves recognition? Nominate them for a PHABC award!

Check out the award categories & nominate today! Winners will be announced at the annual PHABC conference. Learn More

Sponsorship Opportunities

Interested in becoming a sponsor for the conference? Contact us for more details regarding tiers, target audiences, and benefits. Email: conference@phabc.org.

BC Not for Profit Sector Survey

Posted on June 9, 2022

Vantage Point and SPARC BC have received funding from the Ministry of Advanced Education, Skills and Training through the Sector Labour Market Partnership program to gather information on the not-for-profit sector in B.C. This research is designed to support long-term strategic and sustainable workforce solutions and will provide the first new data about BC’s not-for-profit workforce in a decade. Hence, your input is very important to informing the organization of this research.

The research aims to answer the following questions:

What do we know about the composition of the non-profit sector in British Columbia?
What do we know about the workforce needs and challenges of the non-profit sector?
What do we know about worker mobility within the non-profit sector?
What do we know about access to opportunities or barriers experienced by under-represented populations within the non-profit sector?
What do we know about working conditions and worker compensation within the sector?
What is the estimated future demand for labour in the non-profit sector in the next year and over the next five years.

If you are interested in participating in this research in June/July, sign-up now or copy this link into your browser to access the survey: https://sparcbc.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_dnFX8HsUwgCoTQi

Age-friendly Communities Grant Program

Posted on May 20, 2022

BC Healthy Communities (BCHC) is excited to announce our new Age-friendly Communities Grant Program is now accepting applications. All local and Indigenous B.C. governments working to build age-friendly communities through equitable policies, programs, and services have access to age-friendly communities funding and support to help make it happen. BCHC is the new administrator for the Age-friendly Communities Grant Program in partnership with the Ministry of Health. The program is open for applications across two funding streams: Planning (Stream 1) up to $25,000, and Projects (Stream 2) up to $15,000. Both grant streams include in-kind, customized capacity-building supports provided by BCHC staff.

To learn more and apply go here: https://bchealthycommunities.ca/programs/age-friendly-communities/

The Big Switch: Powering Canada’s Net Zero Future

Posted on May 4, 2022

Today the Canadian Climate Institute launched a major new report: The Big Switch: Powering Canada’s Net Zero Future. This report finds that switching from fossil fuels to electricity is critical to Canada’s climate progress and to making energy more reliable and affordable for all Canadians.The Big Switch explores both the technical and policy changes needed in Canada’s electricity systems to achieve net zero goals. In particular, it examines the technologies that are needed to build electricity systems that are bigger, cleaner, and smarter, and identifies policies that can drive Canada’s “big switch” in ways that make sense in the Canadian federation.