Men’s health project at BCC a success
I’m a recent nursing graduate from the Nunavut Nursing Program and hope to be nursing in Nunavut very soon.
I would like to thank people in my community who were instrumental in helping me with a health promotion project that I completed this past spring for the Katak Program at Baffin Correctional Centre. This was a project that I completed through my health promotion course in the nursing program.
The focus of this project was to promote men’s health, specifically through education about healthy lifestyle management, adequate nutrition, screening for disease, and prevention of diseases through health teachings and behaviours.
The workshops for the participants were tailored to their level of understanding with presentations, videos, and written material taught in English and Inuktitut. Providing culturally appropriate health information was a key factor in delivery of this project.
The topics that were covered were: Hypertension – what is high blood pressure? (prevention, teaching and screening); sexual health ( prostate and testicular cancer and self-examination techniques, sexually transmitted infections, prevention, screening, signs and symptoms) and overall, who to ask or approach about their health concerns.
This type of learning environment also supported an interactive way for the participants to learn and ask questions about their health.
Qujannamiik, thank you, to Jim Curry of Iqaliut Enterprises who generously donated about $200 worth of country food from his store, along with nutritional information fact sheets for distribution. Qujanamiimarialuk!! The food was so tasty!
Your donation helped me to promote healthy lifestyle and diabetes and hypertension prevention using the Nunavut Food Guide for the group that I was teaching. This was the most enjoyable part of the project!
Kelly Loubert was the Tobacco Reduction Coordinator with Health and Social Services who provided me with tobacco reduction kits free of charge. Every participant really enjoyed all of the health promotion goodies in this bag and will help those who want to quit smoking or stay smoke free.
Lastly, I’d like to thank Sue Strader, the institutional nurse at the Baffin Correctional Centre, for her support as well as Todd Slaney, the case worker for the Kataq Program at BCC, who also helped me to identify some of the learning needs of this special group, and finally John Fuller, who was involved in evaluation of the project.
The participants expressed appreciation for these sessions and walked away with a better understanding of various aspects of their health.
This was an excellent learning experience and I hope that community organizations and the government continue to support health promotion activities in their communities.
Thank you all for your much needed support. You’ve helped a group of people learn how to become healthier through your support.
Becky Lonsdale
Iqaluit
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