Health and Home

Two form letters that members of the public were asked to sign and send in to the BC Legislative Assembly (Colin Hanson) and to the BC Ministry of Health (Michael Farnworth). The letters demand that these politicians keep their promises of providing adequate funding for mental health services in the province, under the 1998 BC Mental Health Plan. These letters were composed in 2000 when it was clear that government was not contributing the funds it had initially promised and appeared to have no clear or firm commitment for the future.

Final draft of a proposal to establish the Institute for Health Research and Education (IHRE) at Simon Fraser University. The objectives of the IHRE would be to coordinate and support applied, biomedical and social scientific health research at the university. The institute would support faculty engaged in health-related research and would develop and offer graduate programs in health. This proposal describes the IHRE in terms of its purpose; vision; proposed areas of activity; administrative structure; and system of governance and reporting. Attached to the proposal is a letter from SFU's vice president to SFU faculty with interests in health research. The letter identifies several key issues discussed at a recent meeting about the IHRE proposal, with regard to the definition of "health" they will use; the need for the University to support established health research areas; the need for clarification with regard to the relationship between IHRE and various academic departments; and the need to bring together faculty with opposing views in order to develop an Institute that reflects diverse priorities.

This report details the epidemiology of health outcomes of drug use, and drug crime data, for Vancouver. It is primarily concerned with health outcomes and crime related to illicit drugs and alcohol. A demographic, health and drug crime profile is given for the Vancouver population as a whole, as well as by Community Health Area. The report presents a series of statistics of health outcomes, including mortality rates, associated with cocaine, heroin and opiates, amphetamines, cannabis, and alcohol use, among both males and females. The report illuminates the deep contrast between what is considered good overall population health for Vancouver, and what is now understood as a public health crisis occurring with regard to drug use in the Downtown Eastside.

A key goal of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) is to have an integrated health research agenda across sectors, regions and research disciplines. This discussion paper describes health issues and areas of research that fall within the four intersecting research approaches taken by CIHR. These four perspectives are Basic Biomedical research; Applied Clinical research; research on Society, Culture, and Population Health; and research on Health Related Services and Systems. The paper concludes with a discussion of how research on health issues from any one approach has impacts on the others (for example, clinical research can have impacts on larger population health). Challenges remain, however, in devising effective strategies to promote a truly integrated health research agenda while maintaining the unique strengths of each of the four approaches.