Training + education = healthy province + less death | News | Halifax, Nova Scotia

In 2002, Nova Scotia became the first province in Canada to establish a specific government body dedicated to preventative healthcare. At that time, it was called the Office of Health Promotion, and its goal was to educate people on ways in which they could adopt a healthier lifestyle and reduce chronic illness and premature deaths.

Stop smoking. Move more. Eat healthier.

The department has moved, merged and changed names in the years since its inception, but the mission remains the same today: to collaborate with private, public and non-profit sectors to strengthen health promotion and protection initiatives in the province, and take advantage of opportunities to create environments that support improved health.

Improved health, meaning less illness and death.

In short, when it comes to issues of public health, the equation is pretty simple: education + training = less death. The government believes in this equation, which is why they continue to fund health promotion and wellness programs and initiatives to the tune of millions of dollars each year.

They get it; if we can take steps to prevent bad things from happening to people, we should.

But what about the extremely preventable gender-based violence epidemic that has permeated every corner of our lives? The insidious disease that has infected our province, that is hurting and killing more people each and every day?

Why doesn’t the same equation apply?

Dee Dooley is the sexual violence advisor at Saint Mary’s University, where she works in SMU’s sexual violence support centre. She is also currently working on her doctorate in education, looking specifically at how we can prevent this kind of violence from occurring.

“What I have really noticed in my time working in this field is how much resources go into responding to incidents of gender-based violence, rather than to preventing them from happening in the first place,” says Dooley via Zoom with The Coast. “Of course we need to have services to help people leave dangerous situations, but we need the same amount of investment and education going into prevention and education.”

Dooley believes that the training and education needs to start with the people working on the frontline, workers who are confronted with gender-based violence on a daily basis, starting with police.

Gender-based violence is severely under-reported to the authorities because of the stigma, shame and fear of reprisal that surrounds these crimes. And a huge part of that is because first reponders—like police—have little formal training on how to interact with victims using trauma-informed care and attention. And when they handle it poorly, the victim is retraumatized.

That’s the problem Dooley is hoping we can solve.

“I would argue that the theoretical backgrounds and practical skills that we need to support people who are experiencing violence could be significantly improved with proper training,” Dooley says. “I would love to see a bigger investment in that baseline-level training, so that

we’re all starting from the same place and we have all of the information that we need in order to provide effective responses that are really going to positively impact survivors and make the cultural change that we need to see to prevent this issue from continuing to happen.”

The response that victims receive when they report incidents of violence can have a profound and lasting impact on healing, and enable them to leave—and stay away from—violent situations.

“There’s been a lot of research that shows that when someone receives a validating, supportive response, they’re much more likely to have a positive healing outcome,” says Dooley.
“And when they get any type of response that is internalized or perceived as shaming or victim blaming in any way, they’re much more likely to shut down and internalize the shame.”

And that shame makes them sick, emotionally and physically. “The consequences are dire,” Dooley says. And as a province, aren’t we committed to preventing people from getting sick? Isn’t that why we’re pumping government funding into health promotion and protection—and have been for over 20 years?

From Dooley’s perspective, effective gender-based training and education requires a three-pronged approach. The first is the individual response—the frontline training—to ensure that when people report, they feel heard, believed and validated. The second is a systemic response, meaning government buy-in through money, legislation and policies. And the third is a community response.

So, yes, we need robust legal reform in the province and more training for police, educators and first responders for certain . But we also need to educate all Nova Scotians on ways they can show up for the victims and survivors in their communities. Isolation kills. Community saves lives.

“We need a complete cultural shift in our understanding of gender-based violence and the huge impact it has on our communities,” says Dooley. “I hope we can agree in theory that violence against women is a problem and gender-based violence has negative impacts on people.”

Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like we can agree, because none of the candidates in the current provincial election have had anything to say on this pressing, life-or-death issue. And if they won’t acknowledge it, they won’t fix it, despite knowing exactly what to do. Prevention and education are not unique concepts in this province. Premier Tim Houston himself once said “by focusing on prevention, we can help people lead stronger, healthier lives, which reduces the burden on the health-care system.”

The toolkit is right there Mr. Houston, lean down and pick it up and let the experts teach you how to use it.