Webinar recording on Human Rights, Violence, Spinal Cord Injury and Rehabilitation in Haiti Now Available

Fiona Stephenson, Clinical Nurse Specialist and founding member of the Haiti Spinal Cord Injury Working Group and Co-ordinator of the Haiti Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) Database presented an inspiring and insightful webinar on the context of violence as the leading cause of spinal cord injuries in Haiti. Fiona, who is also a Co-Founder of the International Network of Spinal Cord Injury Nurses and the International Spinal Cord Society (ISCoS), discussed in her webinar the challenges to providing basic life sustaining care and rehabilitation for gunshot injury survivors in a resource poor environment. Mortality and medical complications are extremely high, skill and extensive despite the great skill, creative mindsets and phenomenal willpower of the health care teams on the ground. The earthquake that shattered Haiti in 2010 has taken a further toll on a very rudimentary health care infrastructure. Gun violence is not abating. Despite much innovation and legislative changes, people who live with the disabling consequences of violence still find it difficult to find support, accessible environments and opportunities for full societal participation and inclusion. Many promising facilities are threatened by closure due to a lack of funding. But despite all adversity, there were many stories of hope, human spirit and resilience, of people pulling together and becoming advocates for their own life, against gun violence and for better support services and health care.

Fiona’s webinar presentation can be viewed here.  We will add an audiopodcast shortly.

Dr Damien Williams, School of Medicine, University of St Andrews gave a very nuanced and greatly reflective response to Fiona Stephenson’s presentation. 

If you would like to learn more about gun violence in Haiti and its disabling consequences, we recommend to purchase the book ‘Gun Violence, Disability and Recovery’, edited by Cate Buchanan, Director of the Surviving Gun Violence Project. The book is available as an ebook or paperback on the organisation’s website. 

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Violence Prevention – Policy, Practice and Advocacy

The Violence Prevention Group at the University of St Andrews are hosting a day of presentations and discussion around the issues of violence prevention policy, practice, and advocacy, and the official launch of the report on the World Health Organization, Scottish Government and University of St Andrews International Collaboration on Violence Prevention Policy Development (2009-2014).

This event will be held on Tuesday 25th March, in the School of Medicine, University of St Andrews and is free to attend with refreshments and lunch provided.  For catering purposes please register your interest in attending by email to
VPEvent @st-andrews.ac.uk

The deadline for registration is Midnight Tuesday 18th March

Further information can be found here

Work and Cancer – Seminar

Dr Beth Grunfeld from Birmingham will be presenting a Seminar entitled ‘Work and Cancer’ on Thursday 13th March at 4pm in Seminar Room 2, Medical Science Building, North Haugh Site, University of St Andrews

Advances in the early detection and treatment of cancers have resulted in an improved prognosis and, thus, an increasing number of people of working age are able to return to usual aspects of life, including work. Along with the obvious financial implications, participation in work is recognised as important for overall psychological and physical well-being, and for many cancer survivors, returning to work represents a sign of returning to normality and social reintegration.
This presentation will outline findings of a mixed methods study examining working following cancer treatment cross four different cancer groupings (breast, gynaecological, head and neck and urological cancers) reporting on predictors of working following cancer treatment and in-depth interviews exploring the experience of work among cancer survivors. The presentation will finish with an outline of how these findings have been incorporated into the protocol for an intervention study to improve work related outcomes for cancer survivors.

host: Dr Jo Cecil (jc100 @st-andrews.ac.uk)

SDHI podcasts

If you have followed us over the last few years you will have noticed that we continue to add new ways of sharing information. A few things, we have given up over the years (such as the compilation of social dimension news items), others have been of secondary importance (e.g. the use of our Facebook page). Now we are adding podcasts to our spectrum of media tools. We are making a start with an audio podcast version of Emma Burnett’s webinar presentation [Foto by Stuart Miles] but we are expecting to use podcasting in other ways in the future as well (e.g. SDHI seminars and events, interviews). At the moment we are using audio podcasting only. Hope you will be enjoying this service.

Social media use in research: Webinar and Podcast

Emma Burnett, Lecturer in the School of Nursing & Midwifery at the University of Dundee presented a very informative Webinar on how to use social media in research. Emma is currently a PhD student and has made use of the numerous opportunities that Twitter for example present for PhD students to network, provide social support and share information and resources. Emma also spoke about how social media can be used to disseminate research findings to broad and targeted audiences for impact. Social media are here to stay and it is useful to reflect about how to engage with these technologies in a meaningful and safe way. If you have missed Emma’s talk, you can listen to it here on our website. You have the choice between an audio podcast and the webinar that includes the full slide presentation (available shortly). For streaming of the recording, click here. We are working towards improving the audio quality. So apologies if it is not perfect. [Foto by MR Lightman]