DLSPH Researcher to Helm $2.5 Million Training and Mentorship Hub in 2SLGBTQ+ Health
March 31/2022By Elaine Smith An interdisciplinary research team has received a $2.5 million grant from the Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR) to develop the 2SLGBTQ+ Health Hub: an intersectional training and mentorship platform. This innovative hub will tackle a major training and capacity gap in intersectional and community-informed 2SLGBTQ+ health...
DLSPH Researchers Study Canadian Vaccine Distribution From an Equity Lens
March 25/2022DLSPH researchers and colleagues from across Canada are studying the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines in seven Canadian jurisdictions to learn the best ways of reaching equity-deserving and at-risk populations. Prof. Monica Aggarwal and her team received $500,000 from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research for a year-long study that will...
Let’s Really Talk: Stigma Still Clouds Suicide Numbers
March 23/2022by Françoise Makanda, DLSPH PhD Candidate C. Dalrymple-Fraser wants the conversation on suicide to change. Dalrymple-Fraser [they/their] does not have answers—just questions about statistics, personal responsibility and disability that could help spark a frank conversation about how the stigma around suicide has not changed. Recent studies have shown that suicide...
Meet DLSPH’s New Associate Dean, Public Health Sciences
March 07/2022By Heidi Singer In the early 90s, Carol Strike was working as an HIV researcher for Health Canada when she met a group of epidemiologists working directly with HIV-positive people to develop research most relevant to the community’s needs. Thirty years ago, the idea of community-based research was still fairly...
Managing Diabetes and Hypertension Remotely in Rural Pakistan
February 22/2022By Heidi Singer Researchers at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health are working to implement telemedicine for managing diabetes and hypertension in rural Pakistan – care that is urgently needed to replace traditional services disrupted by the COVID pandemic. Amid the chaos and calamity of COVID, the potential for...
“A Perfect Storm”: DLSPH Researchers Fight Vaccine Hesitancy in the Philippines
February 16/2022By Heidi Singer DLSPH researchers are working with NGOs, religious and other community leaders in the Philippines to build trust in COVID vaccines -- helping to address unique historical and geopolitical factors underpinning a vaccination rate that is among the world’s lowest. “COVID has been a big tragedy in The...
Antipsychotic Use Declining in Nursing Homes in Ontario: U of T Researchers
February 15/2022By Heidi Singer Residents of Ontario nursing homes are taking fewer antipsychotic medications and benzodiazepines, and more antidepressants and anticonvulsants, according to a study by researchers at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, the Faculty of Medicine, and colleagues. The findings, published Feb. 15 in the peer-reviewed journal JAMDA,...
High Levels of Hazardous Chemicals Found in Canadian Nail Salons
February 14/2022Researchers at U of T's Dalla Lana School of Public Health, in collaboration with Parkdale Queen West Community Heath Centre and the Healthy Nail Salons Network, have found that nail technicians in discount salons are exposed to several chemicals widely used as plasticizers and flame retardants. The study, published Feb....
Shelly Bolotin to Head Centre for Vaccine Preventable Diseases
January 28/2022By Heidi Singer Shelly Bolotin has been fascinated by infectious disease all her life – first the biology of it, and then the profound way social, economic and other human factors drive its spread. “Viruses are smarter than we are -- that blows my mind,” says DLSPH’s Associate Professor of...
A Blueprint for Black Food Sovereignty in Toronto
January 05/2022By Heidi Singer DLSPH faculty helped make history last month with the launch of North America’s first Black Food Sovereignty Program – an attempt to address food insecurity by creating a Black-run food pipeline from field to table. The Toronto Black Food Sovereignty Plan, the result of a unique partnership between...