Student Blog

2015

Public Health 2015: Connections, commendations and climate change

October 15, 2015

Climate change is no doubt the most important issue we as students and young professionals will tackle in our lifetime. It will affect the way we practice public health and the way we conduct our day-to-day lives. The Public Health 2015 conference heavily emphasized the environmental determinants of health, both with the release of a new discussion paper on the Ecological Determinants of Health and with the first plenary session, entitled Public health in the Anthropocene: Responding to the ecological determinants of health. The conversation at the conference included a discussion of health challenges in the face of climate change and resource depletion, adopting an ecosocial approach to health, and integrating the environmental determinants with the social determinants. We look forward to continuing this conversation into the future.

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Reflections on the first year of work

May 6, 2015

I graduated in May 2014 from my Masters of Public Health at McGill. After 20 years of full-time education, it was time to enter the workforce. I began working as the Research Coordinator for the Old Brewery Mission, a homeless shelter in Quebec. As spring approaches, I can look back on this first working year and share some observations and insights.

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2014

Reflections from an MPH Practicum in Global Health Policy

January 31, 2014

This past summer, I had the privilege of pursuing my practicum with the People’s Health Movement (PHM): a global network of civil society organizations, health activists, professionals, and students. As a movement, PHM is horizontal in structure and is composed of over 70 country “circles” (national networks of activists that organize together), a series of regional networks, several campaign circles, and a global secretariat. PHM organizes at the grassroots and policy levels to promote Health for All and address inequities in health through a social determinants approach.