SDG 3 - Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

Find the most recent Gazette stories for this goal here.

Teaching and Learning:

• In 2017, the Faculty of Medicine began offering a mandatory course for physicians on safe prescribing practices for opioids, stimulants and benzodiazepines as a part of the province’s Opioid Action Plan. The implementation of this course will help strengthen the prevention of substance abuse by helping physicians learn about appropriate prescribing practices.
• As a part of a program called Seeing Beyond Good Medicines, students from the faculty of medicine, nursing, pharmacy, social work, and kinesiology traveled to Sheshatshiu, Labrador in 2017 to highlight health-related careers to local Grade 6-12 students. There, they delivered simulation activities and met with Innu elders and community members to learn about their traditional medicine.
  
• In 2019, Memorial offered a workplace mindfulness training program for undergraduate and graduate students to improve their self-awareness and reduce their anxiety. The 10-week program consists of sessions on mindfulness instruction and practice, and presentations on topics such as building respectful relationships and how to navigate stress and uncertainty. 
• The Master of Occupational Health and Safety (MOHS) is an interdisciplinary program providing advanced-level study of multiple aspects of occupational health and safety.
• The Master of Health Ethics degree program will help students develop the skills needed to identify and analyze ethical issues in health care and in the life sciences, and to propose solutions to these issues as they arise in the clinical, research, and policy contexts. 
• The Master of Public Health is an advanced program of study for students from various fields who are interested in a professional degree which will prepare them for practical work in a variety of public health practice settings.

Research: 

• In 2017, the School of Pharmacy’s Medication Health Services (MTS) partnered with Lawton’s Nursing Home Services and St. Patrick’s Mercy Home to help identify duplicate, unnecessary and potentially harmful medications that their residents may be taking. The goal was to evaluate whether the residents’ overall health and well-being was improved after unnecessary medications were removed and the doses of required medications were optimized.
• In 2018, the Faculty of Medicine’s Global Health division partnered with Worec Nepal to develop a peer-to-peer sexual health program for schools in Nepal. The program will roll out in 10 intervention schools in earthquake-affected areas outside the Kathmandu Valley with four male and female peer educators, ranging from Grades 7-10.
• In 2018, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) funded three-health related research projects at Memorial. These projects included research aimed at identifying family practice nursing competencies to help improve access to primary health care, research on how the hepatitis C virus could cause cell death, and research aimed at enhancing community-based mental health and addictions programming in NunatuKavut.
• In 2019, Dr. Jennifer Shea, an assistant professor of Aboriginal health, worked on a project to destigmatize mental health within the NunatuKavut Community Council and to enhance access to mental health and addictions programming.
• Nursing professor Dr. Kimberly Jarvis travelled to Ghana in 2020 to work on two projects funded by the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Scholarship as well as Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHR) focused on women’s reproductive health and the eradication of a condition called obstetric fistula.
• In 2018, Dr. Jennifer Shea founded a project called Courage, Compassion, and Connection, The Journey to Healing: Exploring Cancer Pre-diagnosis for Indigenous Peoples in Labrador with the goal of making cancer care delivery more respectful and culturally responsible for Indigenous people.  She hoped to bring light to "the challenges and opportunities in the pre-diagnosis journey for Labrador’s Indigenous communities and identify tools and resources to make the journey more seamless."

Public Engagement:

• In 2015, the Pathways to Mental Wellness for Indigenous Boys and Men: Community-Led and Land-Based Programs in the Canadian North program was co-founded by Dr. Michael Jong. The land-based program helps combat growing mental health issues and rising suicide rates in young Indigenous men and boys through traditional counselling and reconnecting the participants with their land-based Indigenous traditions.
• In 2017, researchers in the School of Pharmacy conducted an APPROACH study, which aimed to develop and implement effective, community-pharmacy based, free HIV point-of-care testing program for residents of NL. 
• Choosing Wisely NL is an initiative at Memorial University’s Faculty of Medicine founded in 2016 to raise awareness about the true signs of a stroke to help patients get the treatment they need as soon as possible. The initiative seeks to match a patient’s medical needs more efficiently with the most appropriate and safest type of care.
• In 2017, Tyla Charbonneau and Jodi Stuckless, two doctoral residents with Memorial’s Student Wellness and Counselling Centre, introduced the Walking Mindfulness program. This program held mindfulness walks each week on or around MUN’s campus, and aimed to  reduce stress and improve the mental and physical wellness of its participants.
• In 2018, Drs. Gabe Woollam and Margo Wilson, members of MUN’s Faculty of Medicine, co-chaired the 26th annual Rural and Remote Medicine Course. This conference discussed topics such as the difficulty of building and maintaining surgical services in rural hospitals, using physicians with expanded skill sets, and supporting rural specialists.
  
• 5th year Doctor of Pharmacy students and 4th year Bachelor of Nursing students at the Western Regional School of Nursing in Corner Brook helped support Memorial’s vaccine mandate administering COVID-19 vaccines in the summer of 2021. This was done through the completion of the Community Health course.

Administration:

• Grenfell Campus has been working to expand their health and wellness services for students, faculty, and staff. This includes the opening of a health services centre in 2014, the availability of many different types of physicians on campus, and the availability of mental health and counselling services.
• In March 2017, Memorial launched the Mindful MUN campaign to encourage the use of two free online mental health support programs. The MUN Listeners: Online Peer Support (or 7 Cups) program is a confidential peer support program allows individuals to connect with a supportive person to have a conversation. The Mindwell 30-Day Mindfulness Challenge consists of a 5-10 minute mindfulness training session a day for 30 days.
• In 2017, Memorial launched the Stepped Care 2.0 system to provide clients with rapid, same day, flexible access to wellness and mental health resources, intended to encourage patients to manage their own wellness. A wide variety of services are provided, and patients are guided by a primary care provider to determine the best combination of resources and programs for their issues. 
• The Office of the Associate Vice-President Academic (Students) created Memorial’s guide to Recognizing and Responding to Students in Distress in 2020. The online resource is a step-by-step guide to assist faculty and staff when helping students who may be struggling with mental health concerns by identifying the steps of recognizing a student in distress, responding to a student in distress and properly referring to a student.
• Eastern Health worked with MUN’s Faculty of Nursing and the Centre for Nursing Studies to recruit fourth-year students as nurse collegians during the February 2021 COVID-19 outbreak. Students were provided with some physically distanced swab training and pitched in at the drive-through COVID-19 testing sites.