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Access to Primary Health Care for Women with Addictions
BCCEWH researchers have partnered with the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) to document and analyse the experiences of women who use illicit drugs in the Downtown Eastside when accessing primary health care services at walk-in clinics. The research team's goal is to increase understanding of how to improve health services for women with substance-use problems, to foster dialogue between women who use illicit drugs, health care providers and policy makers, and to identify opportunities to enhance continuity of care between primary health care, harm reduction services, and related health and social services.
For more information, contact Amy Salmon at asalmon@cw.bc.ca.
Other Resources: VANDU
Responding
to the Kirby Commission
In 2006, BCCEWH collaborated with women's health advocates
and academics ub tge Ad Hoc Working Group on Women, Mental
Health, Substance Use, and Addictions to prepare a response
to the release of the report of the Kirby
Commission. BCCEWH researchers also prepared a report
for Health Canada's Bureau of Women's Health and Gender Analysis,
highlighting the importance of incorporating gender-based
anlaysis into policies and programs targetting mental health
and substance use For more information, contact Amy Salmon
at asalmon@cw.bc.ca.
Download  Improving
Conditions: Integrating Sex and Gender into Federal Mental
Health and Addictions Policy (481KB
pdf)
Benzodiazepine use by Aboriginal seniors
For the Bureau of Women's Health and Gender Analysis, Health
Canada, BCCEWH prepared diversity and gender-based analyses
of benzodiazepine use among Aboriginal seniors in Canada.
One report describes the connections between mental health
issues experienced by Aboriginal seniors and the prescription
and use of benzodiazepines to relieve anxiety and related
symptoms. A second report considers the influence of sex and
gender, and their interaction with other key determinants
of health, on benzodiazepine prescription and use among older
Aboriginal men and women.
For more information, contact Amy Salmon at asalmon@cw.bc.ca.
Research with the Fir Square Combined Care Unit at BC Women's
Hospital - We are funded by the BC Ministry of Children and
Family Development and the BC Women's Hospital Auxillary to
study the twelve-month outcomes of mothers discharged from
the specialized stabilization and maternity care unit for
substance-using women and their infants at BC Women's Hospital.
This study will identify key health, housing, custody and
other issues mothers face when they leave the hospital.
For more information, contact Amy Salmon at asalmon@cw.bc.ca
or Nancy Poole at npoole@cw.bc.ca.
Go to Fir
Square for more information.
Housing Study
We are also working with the YWCA of Greater Vancouver on
a longitudinal study of the impact of supportive housing for
mothers with substance use problems and their children in
the perinatal period. This study will help us describe the
issues facing mothers with substance use problems, the services
they and their children use and how/if supportive housing
in the first year postnatally influences their access to services.
For more information on these studies, contact Amy Salmon
at asalmon@cw.bc.ca
or Nancy Poole at npoole@cw.bc.ca.
Other Resources:
Sheway
YWCA
Crabtree Corner and other programs of the YWCA of Greater
Vancouver
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Research Network
BCCEWH is the lead agency of a Network Action Team on FASD Prevention. Funded by the governments of the Canada Northwest FASD Partnership, this Team links and catalyzes researchers and collaborators across the four western provinces and three territories to address issues of FASD prevention with women from a social determinants of health perspective. This Team will build the knowledge base related to FASD prevention through work with women and their support systems on a range of health and social issues, and bring this knowledge into research, prevention, treatment, policy, and community settings. Priorities for this work include building awareness of the current approaches to FASD prevention being taken at all levels in all jurisdictions, identifying gaps in research, and building multi-sectoral, collaborative teams to address research and evaluation priorities of communities.
For more information, contact Amy Salmon at asalmon@cw.bc.ca or Nancy Poole npoole@cw.bc.ca.
Research Ethics Project
BCCEWH researchers have received funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to explore the theoretical, ethical, and practical implications of supporting the active and meaningful participation of women with substance use problems in health research. Together with community and hospital based service providers and organizations advocating for the rights of women who use drugs, the team will use the results of this study to support research-to-practice strategies that will enhance the capacity of REBs, health professionals, health researchers and substance-using women to evaluate research proposing to include substance-using Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal women.
For more information about this project, contact Amy Salmon.
Beyond the "plain language summary"
There is a pressing need for evidence-based health information resources that are developed by and for women with addictions, to ensure that they are relevant and reflect the realities of wlomen's lives. Funded by the CIHR Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health, and Addictions, researchers from the BC Centre of Excellence for Women's Health (BCCEWH) and Simon Fraser University have partnered with the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, the BC Association for People on Methadone, and the Magdalene Recovery Society to address this need by conducting systematic reviews of current health research and evidence on topics of immediate concern to women with addictions. We will develop these syntheses by integrating strategies from Participatory Action Research and Gender-based Analysis into the methodologies for conducting systematic reviews of evidence developed by the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) in the United Kingdom. Results of these syntheses will be used to create accessible, relevant, and respectful health literacy resources for diverse groups of women with substance use problems, including those with concurrent mental health problems.
For more information about ths project, contact Amy Salmon.
Other Programs
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