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Author Archives: pfmarchive

Youth focus on addiction prevention

February 17th, 2011 | Posted by pfmarchive in uncategorized - (Comments Off on Youth focus on addiction prevention)

Nanaimo Addiction Foundation works with youth to create a forum for learning, raising awareness

Substance abuse among Canadian youth is a significant issue and can result in serious harm—including injury, overdose, car crashes and sexual assault. Young people are the most likely to use substances, to engage in risky forms of use, and to experience harms as a result. 60% of illicit drug users are 15 to 24 years old.

Prevention programs are often the first line of defence in preventing and reducing drug use among youth. When done well, they are the best investment that we can make. (more…)

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Psychiatric meds and health problems

February 10th, 2011 | Posted by pfmarchive in uncategorized - (Comments Off on Psychiatric meds and health problems)

People using psychiatric medications can experience greater physical health problems

Linda Chamberlain knows eight people with mental illness who have recently died and she says that medications and nutritional issues are to blame. “Some of these medications are giving people diabetes,” she recently told the Toronto Star newspaper. Ten years ago Linda was taking seven medications to deal with her own mental illness, was overweight, and had developed diabetes. Linda made changes in her life and she now leads workshops on exercise and healthy living at a community health centre in Toronto. (more…)

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Leadership hopefuls challenged

February 10th, 2011 | Posted by pfmarchive in uncategorized - (Comments Off on Leadership hopefuls challenged)

Faith groups ask that Liberal and NDP leadership candidates explain homelessness, housing positions

The Vancouver Interfaith Alliance to End Homelessness is calling on leadership candidates from B.C.’s NDP and Liberal parties to declare a commitment to end homelessness in BC by 2015. The Alliance is a non-partisan group whose members include over 60 diverse faith leaders representing community-based churches, mosques, temples, synagogues and spiritual centres from across Vancouver.

A letter delivered last week invited all leadership candidates to respond and make their positions clear. Responses to that letter will be made public this week. (more…)

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Churches oppose Harper justice

February 3rd, 2011 | Posted by pfmarchive in uncategorized - (Comments Off on Churches oppose Harper justice)

Christian faith leaders endorse and sign letter to PM opposing plan to send more Canadians to prison

Christian churches across Canada are being asked by an advocacy group to tell the federal Conservative government that they don’t want to pay for its prison-based justice agenda. The Church Council on Justice and Corrections is a national faith-based coalition involved in education, advocacy and community development initiatives to foster healthier communities and crime prevention through social responsibility. (more…)

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On madness, myths and stereotypes

February 3rd, 2011 | Posted by pfmarchive in uncategorized - (Comments Off on On madness, myths and stereotypes)

Mental illness hardly ever leads to violence, contrary to media distortions and general misunderstanding 

Mental illnesses can take many forms, just as physical illnesses do—and are common—but mental illnesses are still feared and misunderstood by many people. Debate on the tragedy in Tuscon, Arizona last month, for example, has covered the gamut of gun control, partisan politics, drug abuse and mental-health care.

Jared Loughner shot 20 people, killing six, including a nine-year-old girl. His actions provoked discussion about his sanity—and speculation about violence and the mentally ill. One U.S. columnist wrote that “amateur diagnoses…concluded that Loughner was not so much a political extremist as a man suffering from ‘paranoid schizophrenia’” and suggested that the media is too quick to use mental illness as an explanation for violence. (more…)

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On Indigenous images and imaginings

February 3rd, 2011 | Posted by pfmarchive in uncategorized - (Comments Off on On Indigenous images and imaginings)

What are the policy and cultural relations implications of inaccurate and constructed images?

On Friday February 4th Vancouver Island University professor Keith Smith will give a talk called “On Black Hawks, Pontiacs, and Crazy Horse Malt Liquor” about the policy and cultural relations implications of ‘constructed images.’

Smith raises questions such as: Where do the images of Indigenous people come from that news media and advertisers offer up so regularly? Does it matter if these images do not accurately reflect the reality of the First Nations students and staff, for example, who study and work at Vancouver Island University? (more…)

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