Our team spoke with Dr Réka Gustafson, Vice President, Public Health and Wellness, PHSA & Deputy Provincial Health Officer (who oversees the BC Centre for Disease Control), to find out exactly what public health professionals need to address the pandemic. Dr Gustafson identified two key areas where our public health professionals need support urgently:

Rapid Guideline Development
The situation is rapidly changing, and we need to have additional experts on the ground investigating new information and evidence as it arises, and turning that evidence into guidelines for healthcare professionals and the public. The healthcare system and individual practitioners rely on official guidelines developed by public health officials to instruct them on best practice, and the public relies on accurate and timely information on prevention and protection measures. Right now, we need more humans to investigate, evaluate, and develop those guidelines in real time.

Research in Real Time
During a pandemic, situations are constantly changing and evolving. Public health professionals must react immediately. What often isn’t able to happen during an outbreak is for research to be undertaken simultaneously in real time, to observe, describe, gather evidence and inform our experts on what’s working, what’s not, and what’s needed. Having infectious disease and outbreak experts dedicated to observing and describing what’s happening as it happens is critical to understanding a shifting landscape and to learning from it. We need to learn now, as this unfolds, so we can both react and respond quickly, and be prepared for future emergencies. This is imperative to allow public health to be prepared for the future and take steps faster. We have an opportunity to support this work like never before. 

Projects like these are what the Emergency Response Fund will support. We need to raise $325,000 right now to be able to make this work happen. More needs will be identified and updated as the situation progresses.

We’re calling on all British Columbians, businesses, and funding organizations to contribute towards these measures that will keep you, your family, and our population safe right now. We need to band together as British Columbians today to take action to protect our population.

You can donate online through our website here.

Cheques, cash donations, and donations over the phone can be made using the information at the end of this post.

Charitable tax receipts will be issued for all donations of $20 or more.

Please share this information widely. This affects all of us. We need everybody’s help right now. Help us by making a donation and sharing this information on social media, and via email with your friends, family, and colleagues.

For up to date information on the situation and how to protect yourself and others visit the BCCDC website and Health Canada.

The post Calling on British Columbians: Help Rapid-Response Efforts appeared first on Pacific Public Health Foundation.

Donations to the Emergency Response Fund will go towards understanding and preventing the spread of COVID-19 now, and be available for future outbreaks or emergencies. By making a gift to this fund, you’ll be helping address the most pressing public health needs to keep you and your community safe and healthy.

This fund will enable experts to protect our province by providing funding for things like:

• Research to understand and address the threat as it’s happening in real-time;
• Equipment and lab technology needed for testing and analyzing samples;
• Additional expert staff to carry out time-sensitive work and projects;
• Logistics, data management, data visualizations, and knowledge translation to ensure that experts across the spectrum can work together seamlessly and with the tools they need;
• And more, as the situation develops.

You can make a difference in preventing the spread of this outbreak and protecting the health of our population by making a gift to our Emergency Response Fund. Help us meet the rapidly-evolving needs in this global health emergency today. Your donation will assist experts at the BC Centre for Disease Control and elsewhere take action today that will keep us safe tomorrow.

All donations of $20 or more are eligible for a charitable tax receipt.
Should you require assistance making your gift, or have questions, please contact us at donate@bccdcfoundation.org or (604) 707-2415.

For the latest up-to-date information on the coronavirus outbreak, check the BC Centre for Disease Control. And, to learn about how to protect yourself from getting sick, use evidence-based information accessible from the BCCDC.

The post Emergency Response Fund appeared first on Pacific Public Health Foundation.

Not sure what conversion therapy is? In simple terms it’s the practice of trying to “repair”, change, or suppress a person’s sexual orientation/attraction to members of the same gender, or do the same to their gender identity or expression. It is neither effective at changing sexual orientation or gender identity, and can cause numerous psychological harms.

Here’s the point where you may be wondering “why is the BCCDC Foundation, which focuses on public health, talking about conversion therapy?” That’s fair. This is important to us and part of our current Emerging Areas priority because of the health implications that are caused and exacerbated by conversion therapy, and because it’s an issue of health equity.

We at the Foundation believe in and support work that promotes health and wellness in all its facets, and that our role is to foster health equity  across the board. Because of the trauma and psychological harms (self-hatred, depression, anxiety, and suicide) that conversion therapy can cause, along with challenges with substance use and threats to mental health, we see this as an important and aligned space to be involved in, and are areas of work at our partner organization, the BCCDC.

We’re working with Dr Travis Salway to support his new work and research into conversion therapy (also known as sexual orientation and gender identity change efforts, or SOGICE). Dr Salway has partnered with the Community Based Research Centre and Born Perfect on a dialogue event that brings together survivors, researchers, support workers, policy advisors, and legal experts. Their conversation will support survivors in telling their stories in a supportive, affirming, and collaborative environment. Those stories and the collective expertise will begin to form important research questions to answer with the aims of empowering survivors, identifying how to best support the health and wellness of LGBTQ2S youth and adult survivors, how to create institutional change, and what advocacy can be done to end SOGICE practices. The health of LGBTQ2S communities is an essential part of public health.

We really need your help to support this cause, improve LGBTQ2S health, and promote health equity by making a gift to the crowdfunding campaign today. You can also help us out by raising awareness and sharing this campaign and post with your friends.

The post Conversion Therapy in Canada and LGBTQ2S Health appeared first on Pacific Public Health Foundation.