Minds on.

In Unit 1, Activity 1, we learned about the Social Determinants of Health.

Long Description

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), when considering all of the determinants of health, the primary factor that determines how healthy you are is your living conditions.

All of these components make up your living conditions:

This is the discussion icon. Assignment: A Good Start to Living in Canada

This image shows a doctor holding a stethoscope with a Canadian flag printed on the bottom of the stethoscope.

Consider a family who is new to Canada and has relocated to your community. There are two children in the family and two caregivers. One of the caregivers has completed high school while the other caregiver has not. However, this second caregiver has a few basic employment skills.

You are a part of the community contact welcome team and your role is to help this family get a good start in your community.

Think about the determinants of health you have learned about and how these factors might affect this family’s fresh start in your community.

  1. What help might your committee provide this family to help them get established and on their way to good health? Consider help such as support with finding a job, transportation, or community social groups.
  2. Explain why the help you are planning to provide is important to this family’s health and well-being.
Action.

The impact of some of the social determinants of health may not be apparent at first, but when we really examine them we can make connections to our own health. For instance, possessing key supportive relationships in your life has a very strong correlation with your health.

A strong social support network such as friends, family, and community support can be the difference between feeling included in a community or feeling isolated from others. Being connected to family and community beliefs and culture, such as customs and traditions, is part of a supportive network which has a strong impact on a person’s health outcome.

Baya Voce, is the host of The Art of Connection, a web series that looks to experts from across the globe for advice on how to the live a most fulfilled life. Baya's business journey started as a cast member on MTV's The Real World, where her interest in relationships was nurtured.

Watch this This Ted Talk with Baya, who reveals a simple tool you can start using today to create more happiness, fulfillment, and connection with others to enhance your own health outcomes and those around you.

Having real world connections, and not just relationships online, is the secret to feeling like you have actual connections. You need to feel seen, heard and valued. Blue Zones are areas in the world where people live the longest and happiest lives. These communities walk, pray with and nurture their families. They very simply focus on their relationships--and make their relationships an important ritual in their lives. For Baya, repeated action and intention are her secrets for success. She suggests that relationships need to be formed like habits.

The people inhabiting Blue Zones share common lifestyle characteristics that contribute to their longevity:

  • family is put ahead of other concerns;
  • there is less smoking;
  • the majority of food consumed is derived from plants;
  • legumes are commonly consumed;
  • constant moderate physical activity is an inseparable part of life;
  • people of all ages are socially active and integrated into their communities; and
  • they choose social circles that support healthy behaviours.

You can read more at bluezones.com.

This is the dropbox icon. Assignment: Your Blue Zone

Baya Voce talks about creating an anchor in your life, which becomes a ritual, and helps to build and keep relationships strong.

  1. Think about a cultural tradition or practice that you can take part in with friends or family that would serve as a ritual to carry you through an emotional storm. Write down your tradition or ritual or take a picture that illustrates it.
  2. Think of a Blue Zone quality (listed above) that you could foster within your own life. Write down your tradition or ritual or take a picture that illustrates it.

Another important factor that affects your health is the availability of health care services. A large part of how good your health care is in Canada involves where you live, both geographically and the actual home or apartment in which you live. Access to housing and education also plays a key role in your health.

Options in health care

The World Health Organization has acknowledged the importance of traditional healing, The best health outcomes occur when there is an opportunity to be treated through a comprehensive health-care plan that includes both traditional and conventional practices.

We have learned that more education, socioeconomic status, and having access to health care are all key aspects of health. Considering all of the different fields of health care, there could be a great divide among communities and resources they have to provide for health and wellness. Having a greater number of options for health care such as access to both traditional and conventional health care practices and services increases the chances that you are more likely to thrive.

This is the enrichment icon. Enrichment

To learn more about "Why traditional healing has a place in modern health care," read the following article:Traditional healing practices versus Modern Medicine.

A community might use traditional healers which involves working with a person to help them heal, not just physically but mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Also known as holistic healing, it involves an integrative approach that seeks to balance the body, mind, and spirit with the environment. Modern medicine uses research and technology to offer insight into healing based on science.

Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre - Sioux Lookout, Ontario

Sioux Lookout is located in North Western, Ontario.

The Meno Ya Win hospital, in Sioux Lookout, offers a wide complement of modern medical services along with many options for traditional healing.

Meno Ya Win" is an Anishinaabe term that connotes health, wellness, well-being, and individual spiritual, mental, emotional and physical wholeness. The Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre (SLMHC) provides health services to all residents within Sioux Lookout and the surrounding area, including the Nishnawbe-Aski communities north of Sioux Lookout, the Treaty #3 Community of Lac Seul First Nation, Hudson, Pickle Lake and Savant Lake.

The services at the hospital encourage overall wellness and include dialysis, new parents programming and alternative school options for children who are receiving care, or are in the hospital with a family member.

You can read more about the Health Centre by visiting their site.

This is the dropbox icon. Assignment: What Should You Choose to Help you Heal?

Treatment methods such as acupuncture, osteopathy, homeopathy, naturopathy, chiropractic, reflexology, massage therapy; stress management techniques such as yoga, meditation, deep breathing; and traditional First Nations, Métis, and Inuit healing remedies are all examples of complementary and alternative health care practices.

Perform a little research on your own in order to learn more about complementary medicine.

  1. List two similarities and two differences between conventional Western medicine and complementary and alternative health care practices.
  2. What information should you seek before choosing any health care service or therapy?
  3. Recall your community map that you created in unit one activity seven. Which of these services are available in our community? Which ones do you think would be beneficial to you to have in your community and why?

The following article on complementary medicine may be helpful.

This is the dropbox icon. Assignment: The Social Determinants of Health and Your Community: Your Opinion Counts

Inquiry Question
Which social determinant of health (SDOH) has the greatest impact on the community in which you live?

1. Respond to the inquiry question above by writing an opinion paragraph. You may choose one of the factors of the SDOH as the basis for your opinion, or a combination of up to three factors.

2. Read one of the the following articles or watch the video to gather your information to answer the inquiry question. When gathering information, it is useful to record your information as you look at a source. Use the following graphic organizer, or a mind map of your own, to record what you find in your source.

This is the required reading icon. Required Reading

Read or watch one of the following:

3. Consider the information in all of the articles/videos as you evaluate the information you have gathered to draw your conclusions.

4. In drawing your conclusion, be sure to include specific examples from within your community to support of your opinion.

Time to formulate some questions...

What makes a good inquiry question?

In Unit 1, you used images and infographics with a See, Think, Wonder or Q Chart to help you brainstorm and begin to create questions. Some questions were simple knowledge questions, while others might have involved higher order thinking skills requiring analysing or evaluating.

The next step to move you forward in creating an effective inquiry question is to understand the criteria for a rich, open-ended question, and to practice identifying questions that meet this criteria. This is important for you to learn because you will need to know how to create an effective inquiry question in Activity 6 of this unit.

An Effective Inquiry Question...

  1. Is open-ended (will not have a single, final, and correct answer).
  2. Is thought-provoking and intellectually engaging - (often sparking discussion and debate).
  3. Calls for higher order thinking (such as analysis, synthesis, inference, prediction. It cannot be effectively answered by recall alone).
  4. Points toward important, transferrable ideas within (and sometimes across).
  5. Raises additional questions and sparks further inquiry.
  6. Requires support and justification, not just the answer.

From McTighe and Wiggins. (2013) Essential Questions- Opening Doors to Student Understanding

Considering the above criteria, complete the following interactive that asks you to decide classify questions as either good or poor in regards to their inquiry.

Long Description

Consolidation

This is the discussion icon. Assignment: What Job Will I Choose?

Having access to a health care practitioner is critical for optimum health. Consider one of the careers listed in traditional methods, or consider the modern medicine careers you learned about in Assignment 2.

Use your gathering and organizing skills to find a listing for a job in the health and wellness field that you would like to learn more about. Consider jobs that focus on both healing and health promotion.

Include the following with your job description:

  • the name of the job;
  • the training required;
  • hours you might be expected to work;
  • the salary range;
  • identify the skills you currently have and skills you need to develop to pursue this career;
  • include at least one educational institution that you might attend to obtain any certifications required for this job; and
  • explain why you think this would be an interesting job that would influence and support the health and wellness of others in your community.

Possible Careers

The Aboriginal medicine wheel shows the four components of wellness, Spiritual, Mental, Emotional, and Physical. Each of the Four Directions (East, South, West, and North) is represented by a distinctive color, black, red, yellow, and white, which for some, stands for the human races.

The Aboriginal medicine wheel shows
the four components of wellness:
Spiritual, Mental, Emotional, and Physical.

Part of this activity has focused on the connections between the social determinants of health and the health of individuals in a community. Having access to a variety of health care services requires that you have several different supports within your area. A career in health care can involve any of the four parts of an Aboriginal wellness approach.

There are many different career pathways in the field of health and wellness. These careers include working with both traditional and complementary medicine. Read this article from Canadian Business to learn about the best jobs in Canada in the field of health care.

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This is the dropbox icon. Assignment: Assessing Your Learning Journey

Download and complete the following checklist to indicate how well you think you have met the learning goals and success criteria for this activity.

test text.