Promoting Women's Wellness

September 1996 - Issue #6
Newsletter for the McMaster Research Centre for the Promotion of Women's Health (MRCPOWH)

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I - UPDATE

MRCPOWH has inititiated a new TECHNICAL REPORT SERIES and three reports are now available for distribution (see page 11). In addition, we continue to publish a number of working papers, which may be ordered from the MRCPOWH office.

Researchers have been actively presenting their work nationally in Toronto, Montreal, St. Catharines, and Ottawa. We hosted workshops on women, work and health at the National Health Promotion Research Conference in Montreal and the International Multidi sciplinary Conference on Teaching to Promote Women's Health in Toronto.

I Update II MRCPOWH Workshop series III Participation at Conferences IV New Projects of Graduate Students V Current Research Projects Funded by MRCPOWH VI Completed Research Projects Funded by MRCPOWH VII Research Activities / Research Affiliates VII Training of Graduate Students IX Publications X Workshops Planned

MRCPOWH, along with three other partners formed a COMMUNITY/ACADEMY CONSORTIUM to respond to the Women's Health Bureau's call for proposals for Centres of Excellence for Women's Health. While our proposal was judged most worthy, and was selected in Stag e I, we were unsuccessful in Stage II of the application. We wish to thank our affiliates and our community partners who contributed their time and effort in support of our proposal. We congratulate the Centres that received funding and we are very plea sed that five other Centres will be joining us in researching women's health issues. The funded Centres are:

• Maritime Consortium, Dalhousie University, Halifax
• Consortium-Université de Montréal, Montreal
• National Networks on Environments and Women's Health, York University, Toronto,
• Prairie Region Centre of Excellence for Women's Health, Women's Health Clinic, Winnipeg
• British Columbia Consortium Women's Health, B.C. Women's Hospital and Health Centre, Vancouver

An important concern which has surfaced this year among the health promotion research centres has been the shift by Health Canada to a population health framework. Participants at the National Conference on Health Promotion met to develop a declar ation on the complementary dimensions of health promotion and population health. Known as the "Montreal Declaration" this document argues that health promotion and population health share a common purpose: "To enable individuals and communities to improve their health and well-being by increasing their control over the determinants of health and well-being." This declaration has been sent to all conference participants for ratification. Its objective is to propose broad research and development directions to guide the work of research teams and the allocation of resources.

In the meantime, the Canadian Public Health Association presented its Perspectives on Health Promotion at its annual conference in Vancouver in July. On the 10th anniversary of The Ottawa Charter, it has published its Action Statement for Healt h Promotion in Canada.

As we move into the next two years, we will be seeking publication for a book of powerful stories from women in the Hamilton Region about women, work and health. Plans are underway to organize a conference on women, work and health. We also plan to colle ct papers for an edited book on women, work and health and to publish the results of many of our research initiatives in our working paper and technical report series, as well as in academic journals.