The Chronic Disease Prevention Alliance of Canada Conference

A conference to discuss reducing chronic diseases in Canada from the standpoint of some of the social determinants of health.

For any that are interested....

Link is HERE

On being below Health Care

(Me and a classmate in 2005 posing with Dexter, the head/teeth model)

When Lori came to speak, she said something that struck me. Being in recreation and competing for resources and respect is difficult when you are 'under' health care. She said they market with buzz words common in health promotion now to interest people who are thinking only in the health care realm.

As a dental hygienist, people often think my job is to 'clean teeth'. Don't get me wrong, debridement is a very large part of my job, but there are so many other facets to my profession. In dentistry, we're constantly trying to prove to the public and other health professionals that oral health is incredibly important to your overall health. With periodontal disease being linked now to heart disease and pre-term low birth weight babies among other serious medical complications, the science is finally backing up what we've been saying all along. Oral health is important! Yet, I completely understand Lori's point of view - being 2nd fiddle to Health Care.

It's easy to get lost in your own professional bubble. I think about teeth so often that I forget sometimes that people don't care about oral health as much as I do (although watch out when a group of hygienists get together - you can't stop us from sharing work experiences and talking for hours about teeth! Thank goodness our husbands are all IT professionals and they can relate to each other ;)) I was completely oblivious to the fact that we might not be the only profession that feels marginalized in the health community.

I'm writing my paper about how professionals can work together to form a better, more holistic focused medical system. Part of being able to work together involves being aware and respectful of other's practices. Lori helped to open my eyes to the fact that there are other professions that contribute to a healthy society that may not be strictly under the 'health care' agenda.

My CSA Experience: Skeeter Farm

On the very first class, I had talked with a few people about my participation this season in a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) and said I'd share the name of the farm that I'm a part of. Now that I have just received my very last CSA bag for the year (sad!) I thought I'd share my experience.

Week 2 of my CSA (Personal Photo)

We signed up for a farm share with Skeeter Farm in February this year. Our share was for 15 weeks of delicious veggies grown but the lovely young farmers at Skeeter. We paid $375 in February and started receiving veggies in July. Skeeter farm sets up various pick up locations across the lower mainland on Wednesdays (Vancouver and Maple Ridge I think?) and for all those near Coquitlam, we picked up our weekly veggies at the Coquitlam Farmer's Market on Sundays. Farmer's market day pickup was great for me because I could pick up some fruit, bread, eggs and delicious cinnamon buns while I was there from other local growers and bakers! 

Being part of a CSA changed my shopping and cooking habits for sure. Instead of finding a recipe and buying what I needed, I'd look at the veggies I received that day and plan out what I'd make with what I have. It was a great transition in to more local and seasonal eating as well as forcing me to try some different things (I still don't like fennel!). 

Amy, Amanda and Patrick (the owners/farmers of Skeeter Farm) sent out a weekly newsletter with info on the veggies we'd be receiving that week as well as a recipe to try that included a veggie we'd receive. We made an amazing green salsa with the tomatillos we received one week! 

All in all, this was a fantastic experience. We're both so sad that we don't get any more veggies from Skeeter this year. We'll definitely be signing up next year for more delicious veggies from Skeeter (and hopefully the winter CSA they've been planning will happen next year too!) 

If you want to sign up for a CSA with Skeeter next year, head to their website and send them an email. If you'd like to check out other CSA's offered in BC, a list of them can be found here (although I think the website needs some updating, it's a good place to start!)

The Mane Event

Personal Photos, April 25, 1992

I've always been enamoured with horses. I took lessons for a few years when I was quite young and have always been fascinated by them. Horses seem to be so intuitive, understanding the excitement or fear of their human companions. 

What was explained to me as a child as sensing ("the horse senses when you're scared, so be confident Brittany!") was so interesting to see played out in the trainer's challenge and by Jonathan Field. I was particularly impressed by Kade Mills' approach to 'natural horsemanship.' I felt he really had a connection with the horse and was able to encourage him to overcome his fear to accomplish different tasks. I was struck almost immediately by his calm energy. He talked at the beginning that he must be calm and collected at the beginning because the horse is nervous and anxious after just entering the pen. It was amazing to watch the horse calm down and stand still or follow him around in such a relaxed manner just by Kade changing his energy. 

Jonathan Field was very impressive also. He seemed to notice even the slightest change in the horse's attitude or reaction, which often to me wasn't even detectable. He had a really connection with his horses and what appeared to be a deep respect for each other. I know that type of relationship is something honed over time and it shows how much effort a relationship like that requires. 

In my field of work, I see lots of people that are very scared or anxious. After watching the events at the trainer's challenge, I'm going to focus on the energy I'm projecting. Perhaps thinking of a calm and safe feeling will help my patients feel that calm and safe feeling too. I'm sure that without thinking I do some of these things anyways, but it will be interesting to see if there is a change when I consciously think of projecting a certain energy. 

Fauja Singh

This inspiring man broke a world record while running the Toronto Marathon last weekend by being the oldest person to complete a marathon. He's 100 years old.

Here he is, talking about the things that have kept him healthy: Being kind to others, walking, and eating less.

Relating School and Life

(Blurry blackberry photo of a card that's been on my bulletin board for years)

Dental hygiene education was intense. I spent three years of my life immersed in early morning classes, late night clinics and rubrics for every little project. Perhaps it's because I was so used to having every assignment, clinical task and exam laid out in little boxes in rubric form that I find graduate studies to be a very difficult concept to wrap my brain around. As many sources as I need? As many pages as it takes? These are foreign concepts to me. 

Also foreign is truly applying the theories and discussions to real life practice and using them to hopefully foster real change in my life. Yes, I learned clinical skills in my undergrad that I apply daily in my life, but actually understanding how the social determinants of health come into play in my clinical practice? Definitely different now. (I'm embarrassed to admit that I spent a lot of time attempting to sleep with my eyes open during the public health classes on the social determinants in my 2nd year of university!)

I thought the active living journal part about social determinants and life course would be challenging or that I would feel as if I needed to come up with something extremely profound (and probably not relevant to my daily life). Thankfully, through our class discussions, reading other classmates' blogs, and amazingly even the social determinants text book, I'm finding that I'm relating the social determinants to my daily life. I'm not seeing them as something that effects only the marginalized members of society. I'm seeing how it's effecting me and my daily pursuit at being a healthy, active woman. 

Last week I pretty much failed at active living. Being sick, it was all I could do to get out of bed in the morning. Without my support network (thank god for my husband!) the dog wouldn't have been walked, I wouldn't have clean scrubs to wear, and I probably wouldn't have nutritious dinners to eat. I used to believe that since running was a 'free' (not really because you still do need to purchase things like shoes!) activity, everyone could run within their ability. This week I saw that even those relatively blessed in the social determinants department can still be side-railed in their healthy living pursuits without the critical component of a support network. 

Here's to making more links between class and life! What a novel concept! :)

Communicating health effectively

Journal article about the ways that health professionals view health. The different views that they hold may help or hinder them in promoting and communicating health in their professions.

The approach of the health professional is so important in how your information is received and used or discarded.

"It depends on what you mean": a qualitative study of Swedish health professionals' views on health and health promotion

Johansson, H., Weinehall, L., & Emmelin, M. (2009). "it depends on what you mean": a qualitative study of swedish health professionals' views on health and health promotion. BMC Health Serv Res, 9(191), Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2770468/pdf/1472-6963-9-191.pdf

Informed vs Empowered

I've been looking for articles relating to being responsible for your own individual health. While there are a lot of aspects involved (ie. if health care infrastructure/policy etc aren't in place, are people in a position to be responsible for their own health?) I found this article to be interesting.

With many people able to use the internet to find health knowledge, is this information making them health informed or health empowered? How do we as professionals enable our patients/clients to become health empowered with the information we give them rather than just informed. Being empowered allows people to feel some control over their personal situation, rather than waiting for things to happen to them. Interesting article, and very relevant to me in the dental field when I'm trying to find ways to make information meaningful and relevant (how many times do you want to be told 'you really should floss you know!' before you ignore me?!) to create real change and empowerment in my patients.

Informed Citizen and Empowered Citizen in Health: Results from a European Survey

Santana, S., Lausen, B., Bujnowska-Fedak, M., Chronaki, C., Prokosch, H., & Wynn, R. (2011). Informed citizen and empowered citizen in health: results from an european survey. BMC Fam Pract.,12(20), Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3101118/pdf/1471-2296-12-20.pdf

Active Living in Moderation?

I always have a hard time doing things in moderation. I tend to jump head first into everything in life which can be a blessing and a curse. When it comes to active living pursuits, it tends to mean that I decide to run a half-ironman or sign up for a half-marathon or join an inner tube waterpolo team (so much fun!)

Unfortunately, being so intense with my athletic endeavours makes me burn out really quickly. After I've completed the designated race or injured myself in pursuit, I sit on the couch for a while and get very lazy. My active living journal is trying to help me focus on moderation. Something small every day.

No matter what sport or activity I've done, I always come back to running. It's where I get to spend time with myself and the outdoors. Time to sort through all the dilemmas running through my brain. Time for silence and peace and occasionally time for chatting with a friend. My goal for this semester of active living (and hopefully the rest of my life, but I'm trying to remember moderation here!) is to get out and run short distances 3-4 times a week.

Last week went really well. I was outside running 4 times (Gus, my corgi-shephard cross does NOT have the legs for running I've learned) and felt invigorated and energized. I was so pleased with my progress, running a little bit longer each time.

This week, I've got this terrible cold. I'm sneezing and wheezing and using up boxes of tissue. I am learning that sometimes I can't run and that shouldn't kill my motivation to continue. Today, I'm walking with the dog instead.

Who am I?

My name is Brittany and I'm a dental hygienist. While  people often associate dental hygienists only with brushing and flossing (and nagging!) I'm out to convince the world that there is so much more to my profession. I work mostly as a clinical dental hygienist in a dental office, but I also teach dental hygiene students as a clinical instructor. I really enjoy having two different aspects to my career because I feel like I get to use two completely different parts of my brain. I'd really love to be a part of curriculum development for both dental hygiene students as well as public health dental programs in the future. Being able to help shape the future of dental hygiene and the way that we can serve the community at large would be very rewarding! I'm hoping that the HEAL MEd program will enable me to move towards my career ambitions as well as help me to be a promoter of health in my current positions.

As for health interests, food is a huge one for me. I've been trying to learn as much as I can about where our food is coming from and how what we eat effects our bodies. Treating the overall body as a whole rather than parts with symptoms is also important to me. Everyday, I see people who don't understand that their body is connected to their mouth and failing to take care of one effects the other. I'd love to explore ways to teach hygiene students how to approach oral health promotion in more of an overall health promotion way. Thirdly, I'm very interested in figuring out a way for other health professionals to work together (another bonus of our diverse MEd program!). So often, health professionals are singled out, but I think we have a lot to learn from each other as well as a lot to offer the public when we work together.

As for me, I've been active my whole life. I've always been a runner and I always seem to go back to running even after time away. I've played a variety of team sports (volleyball, basketball, rugby) in high school and focused a lot on triathlon in the years after university. I completed several sprint and olympic distance triathlons as well as a half-ironman (despite the fact that I still haven't found a way to love my bike!). I'm a fishy in the water and could spend hours swimming. I like to change things up (or have races to run) to keep things interesting which is why I've tried so many different things over the years (synchro swimming, bikram yoga, weight lifting, inner tube water polo). Trying to make my life as active as possible is a priority for me.