Event Details

What is your family doing to remain physically active and mentally resilient through the pandemic?

In this episode of Open Dialogue Live, researchers from the Faculty of Health will discuss the emerging impacts of COVID-19 on our well-being and how to keep families thriving in this new environment.

They will discuss family dietary health, household consumer purchasing changes and how changes in movement, outdoor play behaviours and recreational pursuits may have affected the physical and mental health of your family.

Wednesday, Jan. 20, 6:30–7:30 p.m. (AST)
Livestreamed via Facebook

Watch now!

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Register to receive event reminders and details on how to join the event. Attendees are invited to participate in the discussion by posting questions and comments during the live event. Although we hope you can watch live, you will also be provided access to the recording following the event.

Presenters

Covid-19 emerging impacts on food purchasing and dietary health in Atlantic Canada

Catherine L. Mah MD FRCPC PhD is Canada Research Chair in Promoting Healthy Populations, Senior Research Scholar with the Healthy Populations Institute and Associate Professor in the School of Health Administration, Faculty of Health at Dalhousie University. Dr. Mah directs the Food Policy Lab, a multidisciplinary program of research on the environmental and policy determinants of diet and consumption. Dr. Mah leads a range of population nutrition assessment, population health intervention, and policy research projects to promote health and prevent noncommunicable diseases, and in partnership with underserved communities facing food and nutrition disparities. Her work is supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, and the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). She also holds appointments at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto and Saint Mary’s University.

Child and family health during COVID-19

Sarah Moore is an assistant professor in the School of Health and Human Performance in the Faculty of Health and scholar at Dalhousie’s Healthy Populations Institute at Dalhousie University. Dr. Moore’s research promotes physical activity, sport, recreation, and play across the lifespan. Her work focuses on children and adolescent health and she is interested in how healthy lifestyle behaviours track into adulthood. She recently led a ParticipACTION study assessing changes in movement and outdoor play behaviours of children resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Moore has a specific expertise in promoting physical activity in under-represented groups, such as children and adolescents with chronic conditions and disabilities.

Recreation for mental health

Crystal Watson (BRec’00, MA(Leisure Studies)’10) has spent the last 20 plus years in the recreation field working with individuals from various backgrounds. She also has a BA in psychology from Saint Mary’s University. After a number of years working in community recreation, Watson practiced as a Recreation Therapist for 10 years in various clinical settings and in junior high schools. She began teaching at Dalhousie as a sessional instructor which was when she developed an interest in post-secondary education. Prior to her current role as Executive Director for Recreation Nova Scotia, she was the lead core faculty at the Nova Scotia Community College teaching the Therapeutic Recreation Diploma Program. Watson is currently a Health PhD Candidate at Dalhousie pursuing her research interest in understanding the play experiences of African Nova Scotian children.

Host

Sara Kirk is a professor of health promotion in the School of Health and Human Performance, and the Scientific Director of the Healthy Populations Institute. She holds cross-appointments with Community Health and Epidemiology, is an adjunct professor at Mount Saint Vincent University, in the Department of Applied Human Nutrition, and honorary senior scientist with the Beatrice Hunter Cancer Research Institute. Dr. Kirk’s research seeks to understand how we can create supportive environments for chronic disease prevention. She applies a ‘socio-ecological’ approach that considers how individual behaviour is influenced by other broader factors, such as income, education and societal norms.