News & Updates

The Report: August / September 2000 vol.21 num.4 by YUKIE KURAHASHI How far would you go to help cure lung diseases? How about 5000 kilometres, across North America? On a bike? Thats what Recreation Therapist Cindy Bouvet is doing right now, as this magazine goes to press. She is taking part in The Big Ride Across America, joining a group...

The Report: August / September 2000 vol.21 num.4 by YUKIE KURAHASHI Its time that health professionals in therapy, counselling, and rehabilitation receive recognition for the skills, training and expertise that they bring to their jobs. This expertise can often makes a real difference with respect to health outcomes and a patients quality of life. Thats the message HSA is sending...

VANCOUVER - An interprovincial meeting of unions representing more than 75,000 health care professionals wrapped up an annual two-today conference today by calling for a national strategy to address the Canada-wide shortage of health professionals and the growing trend toward privatization."It is important for the federal government to realize that the shortage of health care professionals is not limited to...

Joint news release from HEU, BCNU, BCGEU and HSAHealth care workers and other medicare advocates in B.C. joined thousands of demonstrators across Canada today to demand immediate action by Ottawa to stop privatization of medicare.-We are on the brink of Canadas biggest medical emergency ever," Jim Sinclair, president of the B.C. Federation of Labour, warned a huge crowd outside the...

The Report: June / July 2000 vol.21 num.3 What are appropriate rules for the workplace? My employer wants to impose new rules that seem unreasonable to me. Are we required to comply? Canadian workers live every day with a variety of workplace rules that may dictate everything from their hair length to their footwear. In labour law, the employers power...

The Report: June / July 2000 vol.21 num.3 Downtown Blanshard Advisory CommitteeWelcome! to 51 new members at the Downtown Blanshard Advisory Committee, a Community Social Services facility. Our new members work at nine sites in Victoria, and offer various family and community service programs. They work as youth and family counsellors, after school care workers, administrative assistants, outreach workers, child...

The Report: June / July 2000 vol.21 num.3 by CINDY STEWART All eyes are on Alberta and the impact of Bill 11, the controversial health care legislation that passed third reading on May 11. I was attending the HSA Alberta Annual Convention the day following the Bills final reading and had the opportunity to hear directly from those who are...

The Report: June / July 2000 vol.21 num.3 by YUKIE KURAHASHI While on a three-month fact-finding mission several years ago, GF Strong Physiotherapist Ian Denison realized that it is difficult for most therapists to keep up to date on various equipment options for their patients. "It was very evident that clinicians working in the community, and even in the smaller...

The Report: June / July 2000 vol.21 num.3 by YUKIE KURAHASHI HSA is fighting to stop proposed layoffs at GF Strongs Prosthetics and Orthotics Services Lab. The Prosthetics and Orthotics Service provides a comprehensive program where medical specialists, orthotists, prosthetists, technicians, and physical and occupational therapists work together to provide the client with the device that will give the best...

The Report: June / July 2000 vol.21 num.3 by RACHEL NOTLEY and YUKIE KURAHASHI There may be light at the end of the occupational injury tunnel for ultrasound technologists. A recent study found that 91 per cent experience pain or discomfort at some point during their sonography career. However, HSA has been working to expose the extent of the incidence...