Tag Archives: health

Rapid testing in Canada lagging behind

January 14, 2021|CTV News via UVic News

Although there are a number of researchers that are concerned about the effectiveness of self-administered rapid tests, there is still a push to distribute them to ensure Canada is staying on top of frequent testing.

“Health Canada has authorized the sale and importation of COVID-19 tests only for use by health care professionals or trained operators,” Health Canada wrote on its website. “However, we are open to reviewing all testing solutions. This includes approaches that use self-testing kits, to enable individuals with or without symptoms to assess and monitor their own infection status.”

Alexandre Brolo, a chemistry professor at the University of Victoria and acting chair of the department, told CTV News that he’s currently working with a team on the development of two rapid testing products. He reports that one will be an “at-home” test and should be commercialized in April if all goes well. The Copyright and Scholarly Communications Office encourages you to explore more of Dr. Brolo’s important work by visiting UVic’s institutional repository, UVicSpace.

How Better Toxic Drug Alerts Could Save Lives

November 19, 2020 | The Tyee via UVic News

In a recent Tyee article, Bruce Wallace, of the University of Victoria’s Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research (CISUR), commented on BC’s Toxic Drug Alert System.

“We haven’t really figured out a way to convey that information that can be really useful for people who will be able to use it without also providing another disservice, and that disservice is basically how drug alerts can also feed into ongoing drug scares,” said Bruce Wallace, a scientist with the institute and associate professor at UVic.

Dr. Wallace’s research “focuses on substance use and harm reduction, poverty and homelessness and access to health care, including dental care. He is an engaged scholar with many years of community-based research in Victoria employing health equity and social justice approaches to his projects.” He has also published open access articles in relation to his previous research. They are available in the University of Victoria’s institutional repository, UVicSpace. We encourage you to visit UVicSpace to browse and read more of his work.

Direct Messaging: Warning Labels on Alcohol

December 12, 2019 | UVic News

Researchers from the University of Victoria’s Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research (CISUR) and the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction in Ottawa (the Canadian Substance Use Costs and Harms project) are working on a pilot project in the Yukon. Together they are studying changes in consumer drinking patterns and knowledge of health risks after warning labels are affixed to alcohol containers. The results from the pilot were so well received that the project findings became:

[an]… international media story, with articles in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. Media outlets in Ireland, a country that was debating cancer warning labels on alcohol containers around the same time, were frequently referencing the Yukon study…

Both Tim Stockwell (UVic’s CISUR director) and Kate Vallance who participated in the study have also published open access articles that are available in the University of Victoria’s institutional repository, UVicSpace. We encourage you to visit UVicSpace to browse and read the important work of both Stockwell and Vallance.

Victoria Hand Project helps amputees and kids in Canada and US

December 3, 2019 | UVic News

A University of Victoria initiative that provides 3D-printed prosthetic hands to amputees in seven developing countries around the world will now be able to extend its reach to help people in underserved and remote communities in Canada and the US. 

This initiative led by Nick Dechev, UVic professor of mechanical engineering and executive director of the Victoria Hand Project (VHP), received a $1-million award by the 2019 TD Ready Challenge. UVic was one of ten 2019 grantees announced on December 3, 2019.

Interested in reading more about Nick Dechev’s exciting work? Follow this link to read his papers in UVicSpace, UVic’s institutional repository.

Congratulations to everyone at the Victoria Hand Project!

Research on Safer Water

December 12, 2019 | UVic News

Jody Paterson for UVicNews reports that:

In UVic’s Department of Civil Engineering… [Heather Buckley] and [Caetano] Dorea share an interest in extracting resources from water. Dorea is exploring how to extract phosphorous from waste water, which would both get rid of an environmental contaminant and recycle a non-renewable resource. Buckley is exploring ways to extract valuable metals from mining effluent, which she hopes could lead to a reduction in mining activities.

UVic’s Research and Learning Repository, UVicSpace, contains recent open access publications of both Dorea and Buckley’s vital research that you can read now by following the links provided here, here and here.

 

Are you UVic faculty or researcher?

We’re here to help! Email us a list of your publications (or CV containing the list) or any items you would like added to UVicSpace by contacting us at dsphelp@uvic.ca .

New program provides mobile end-of-life support to people in poverty

September, 2019 | UVic News & UVic News

In 2 recent UVic News articles, Dr. Kelli Stajduhar has been recognized for her work in developing a Palliative Outreach Resource Team (PORT) in Victoria.

‘The Palliative Outreach Resource Team (PORT) is a collaboration of the University of Victoria, Island Health, Victoria Cool Aid and Victoria Hospice. PORT acts as a bridge between people with serious illness and their caregivers, palliative care, and other health and social support systems.

The program is built upon lessons learned from a three-year study led by UVic palliative care researcher Kelli Stajduhar, lead investigator of the Equity in Palliative Approaches to Care program with the Institute on Aging & Lifelong Health and the School of Nursing.’

PORT endeavors to fulfill the important need for respectful end-of-life care within vulnerable portions of the Victoria community whereby…

‘Mirroring similar models in Toronto and Calgary, people can self-refer or be referred by their caregivers to a palliative care nurse and a physician who manage the pain and symptoms related to life-limiting illness, support chosen family and caregivers, and provide grief and bereavement support.’

Dr. Stajduhar has published several open access papers that you can access via our institutional repository UVicSpace – you can read them now by clicking here and here.

The Copyright and Scholarly Communications office located in the UVic McPherson library wish PORT much success!

Featured Thesis: Emotional support, health, and burden among caregivers of people with neurological conditions

This 2019 M.A. thesis in sociology focuses on stress, health and the caregiver role in a multi-factored way.

Emotional support, health, and burden among caregivers of people with neurological conditions

by James Watkins

Abstract:

From 2011 to 2031, the Canadian population living with neurological conditions is expected to double, but the population able to give informal care is not keeping pace, leading to a greater care burden. One element of this increasing care burden is emotional care. However, the effects of giving emotional care on caregiver health outcomes have not been sufficiently explored in the caregiving literature, where the majority of studies focus on instrumental forms of care, or fail to differentiate between different aspects of caregiving. This problem is further complicated by findings from other contexts which indicate that emotional supporting and helping others actually benefits the supporter or helper. Informed by the stress process and other ancillary theories, I use data from the 2012 General Social Survey to test several hypotheses which may help us understand the mental health, functional health, and caregiver burden of caregivers of persons with neurological conditions who emotionally support their care receivers, and of caregivers who are the sole provider of emotional support. The results suggest that emotionally supporting a care receiver with a neurological condition is detrimental to caregiver mental health, and that being the sole emotional supporter is detrimental to caregiver mental health, functional health, and experience of burden. A significant interaction effect also exists between emotional supporting and caregiver gender for functional health. These findings have important implications for future research, for intervention planners, and for caregivers themselves.

To read more, visit UVicSpace https://dspace.library.uvic.ca:8443/handle/1828/11036

*UVic’s open access repository, UVicspace, makes worldwide knowledge mobilization possible. Through this platform, researchers at any institution have access to dissertations (and theses and graduate projects) published by our graduate students. This also makes works available to the interested layperson, who may be engaged in learning more about the research being done at UVic, with no paywall. UVic’s graduate students are doing valuable research every day – but sometimes it goes unsung. Our goal with this series is to shine a light on our students by featuring excellence, one achievement at a time.

The UVic LIbraries ePublishing Services Team

Expert Q&A on sexually transmitted infections in Canada and beyond

July 9, 2019 | UVic News

‘University of Victoria microbiologist Caroline Cameron … [is] Recognized internationally for her research on sexually transmitted infections, the Cameron Lab is one of only a few labs in the world, and the only lab in Canada, that is working to understand the basic science of the pathogen that causes syphilis, Treponema pallidum.

Recently, Cameron was recognized with a LifeSciences BC award for her work successfully advancing health outcomes in BC, while at the global stage, Cameron has been recognized by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases with a MERIT Award celebrating an outstanding record of achievement and acknowledging the promise of her research.’

Please follow the UVicNews link above to read the full Q&A session with Caroline Cameron and visit our institutional repository to read some of Caroline Cameron’s important open access (OA) articles in UVicSpace.