Amy Candido lives in recovery from eating disorders
The beginning of February marks the launch of the Provincial Eating Disorders Awareness (PEDAW) campaign and National Eating Disorder Awareness Week (Feb. 3-9, 2013).
PEDAW coordinator Amy Candido has a passion for prevention, after being tortured for years by her own eating disorder. Amy’s eating disorder began in grade eight and continued until her mid twenties. “I was existing, not living,” she says. (more…)
Loving our bodies and ourselves is the focus of eating disorders prevention efforts
The Provincial Eating Disorders Awareness (PEDAW) campaign is launched the first full week in February with activities and events taking place throughout the year. It’s a British Columbia province-wide effort to raise awareness around prevention and early intervention of eating disorders as well as media literacy, resiliency, building healthy body image and self-esteem.
You are invited to take part in supporting the ongoing Love Our Bodies, Love Ourselves movement in promoting health and preventing disordered eating and eating disorders. (more…)
Quebec could be the first Canadian province to allow terminally ill patients to end their lives
A landmark report to the Quebec legislature in March 2012 [opens to PDF] suggested the province legalize doctor-assisted euthanasia. It recommended the Quebec government make it legal for doctors to help the terminally ill die, if they want to, under “exceptional circumstances.” The report was issued after more than two years of deliberations and public hearings. (more…)
Dying, caregiving and grieving are three of life’s greatest challenges, and the Community Hospice is ready to help
Nanaimo Community Hospice has been serving the community for over 30 years, and was Canada’s first community-based nonprofit charitable Hospice. The organization believes that the dying should experience dignity and peace, their caregivers should get the help they need, and their friends and family should be supported in their grief. (more…)
‘Dying with dignity’ has been supported by many members of Unitarian Fellowships across Canada—for over thirty years
It’s your life and it should be your choice as to how and when you die. That’s what British Columbia resident Gloria Taylor believed. That’s why Taylor, who had Lou Gehrig’s disease, took her case for the right to die to the B.C. Supreme Court. She won that battle. Now, Gloria Taylor has died, of natural causes. Gloria’s mother, Anne Fomenoff, said of her daughter’s passing, “Gloria was able to live her final days free from the fear that she would be sentenced to suffer cruelly in a failing body.” (more…)
Study finds more return visits to emergency departments for mental health crises among Aboriginal and poor children
First Nations children and those from families receiving government subsidies had more return visits to emergency departments for mental health crises than other socioeconomic groups, says a study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
The study revealed that more First Nations children presented to emergency departments for disorders secondary to substance abuse and intentional self-harm than other children, and that, compared with other children, First Nations children returned more quickly to the emergency department and had a longer time before visiting a physician in the post-crisis period. (more…)
