Bevel Up News

September 15, 2010

Outreach/Street Nurse Program Receives Human Rights Award

Team behind “Bevel Up” is honoured to be presented with this prestigious award

The BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) Outreach/Street Nurse Program is receiving a Human Rights Award from the International Centre of Nursing Ethics (ICNE). This prestigious award was presented yesterday at the 2010 ICNE conference in Turku, Finland.

The award, which is usually presented to an individual nurse, was awarded to the BCCDC Outreach/Street Nurse team in recognition of the important contribution it has made to nursing and human rights. The nominations for this award were put forward by national and international colleagues.

“This is an honor that builds on our harm reduction strategy and recognizes the exceptional work being done every day by our street nurses as well as the caregivers, physicians and employees who embody BCCDC’s commitment to excellence in healthcare," explained Dr. Robert Brunham, Provincial Executive Director of the BCCDC, an agency of the Provincial Health Services Authority.

The Outreach/Street Nurse Program was started in 1988 in response to the increasing HIV infections in the community, as a way of reaching those people who were most at risk. The program provides prevention services focused on HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STI) for people who do not access mainstream healthcare. Services include clinical care, education and training, project development and implementation and research.

“This innovative nursing program was forefront in introducing and implementing harm reduction practices as a part of nursing practice,” explains Juanita Maginley, Outreach Program Leader at the BCCDC. “Our program works to create an environment where individuals and communities can make and sustain healthier choices that reduce vulnerability to and HIV.”

The Outreach/Street Nurse Program also co-produced the 2008 award-winning documentary and teaching tool, Bevel Up: Drugs, Users & Outreach Nursing, that is being used widely in health care education, practice and policy, both nationally and internationally.

The outreach/street nurses are grounded in their values of respect, health equity and social justice. They are committed to reaching the populations who typically face barriers to health services and who face stigma and discrimination in the face of complex health and social issues.

Congratulations to all the amazing and courageous current and past registered nurses and health care workers who are a part of this team. Award proceeds will be donated to the Stephen Lewis Foundation, “Grandmother to Grandmother”.

October 5, 2009

Drugs, users and outreach nursing: From Vancouver to Chicago

“Bevel Up” imparts its compelling story and compassionate approach to public health providers and the public alike.

In conjunction with the College of Nursing at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) is pleased to invite you to attend a screening of “Bevel Up: Drugs, Users and Outreach Nursing” on Wednesday, October 7.

BCCDC street nurses will be in attendance at the screening, along with a range of community organizations in Chicago. The screening will be followed by a Q&A session that promises to be lively and thought-provoking. The strength of “Bevel Up” is that its lessons can be adopted and adapted by any city, in any country.

Beyond the documentary itself are 4.5 hours of educational modules that offer instructors and students access to the experience of an entire community of health care practitioners who work with drug-using populations. These lessons in nursing – and in life – stem from the documentary, using the hard-hitting stories of eight people to illustrate a compassionate, and sometimes controversial, approach to health care.

WHEN: Wednesday, October 7, 2009 1:30-4:00 p.m.

WHERE: 3rd Floor Lounge UIC College of Nursing UIC West Campus 845 S. Damen Avenue Chicago, IL 60612

RSVP: Linda Graham, UIC College of Nursing, lgraham@uic.edu, (312) 413-3695

We hope you will join us in exploring this fascinating film and its multimedia teaching platform, a prime example of how film can cross over into the realms of education and public health. “Bevel Up” is a truly extraordinary event. We look forward to seeing you there.

August 1, 2009

Bevel Up Outreach Program Receives International Accolades!

The Bevel Up outreach program won the prestigious American Academy of Nursing 2008 Media Award and the 12th Annual PRISM award for Best Original DVD.

In July, the Bevel Up Outreach nursing team was featured in the prestigious American Journal of Nursing. “Street Nursing” -- a photo essay written by Street nurse Fiona Gold with photos by Bevel Up filmmaker Nettie Wild describes the approach taken by the outreach team. Harm reduction, often a hot-button topic in US discussions of drug use, is described as “respectful listening and a non-judgmental approach” which form the foundation of the Vancouver-based program. It includes “providing care so that nurses can help individuals and communities achieve the best health possible. Examples of harm-reduction measures might include distributing condoms, providing access to clean needles in a supervised injection clinic, making referrals for addiction treatment, or developing a population-specific service.”

(Street Nursing by Fiona Gold, BA, RN, with photographs by Nettie Wild. American Journal of Nursing, July 2009 - Volume 109 - Issue 7)

For the full article subscribe to the AJN here.

THE BEVEL UP JOURNEY CONTINUES!

Says street nurse and educator James Tigchelaar, “The film has found its way into some pretty interesting places this year, the diversity of which reflects the versatility of Bevel Up as an educational resource.”

Internationally, Bevel Up screened at some high profile venues: the International AIDS Conference in Mexico; The National Harm Reduction Conference in Miami; and the International Urban health Conference. Closer to home it was presented at the Psychiatric Conference in Vancouver, the Canadian Community Health Nurses Conference, and the second National Homelessness conference in Calgary.

In January, nurses from the BCCDC outreach program were invited to Squamish to present Bevel Up and lead a discussion in a community that was struggling with how to deal with homelessness in a compassionate manner. Two subsequent presentations, one in Sechelt, and another in Campbell River were unique in that representatives from a broad range of community services gathered together to discuss local challenges and to strategize about solutions regarding people who use drugs and are homeless within their communities.

A Bevel Up screening and discussion about local issues (facilitated by a BCCDC outreach nurse) were at the center of these gatherings, which included members of the RCMP, the ambulance service, social workers, representatives from shelters and volunteer organizations and health care workers and hospital workers. Many workshops with emergency staff were done in local hospitals as well as with university students in Vancouver and around the province.

Because of its sensitive handling of issues related to marginalization and service provision for people at risk for contracting HIV, parts of Bevel Up have been integrated into the Pre and Post test HIV education sessions that BCCDC offers to nurses across British Columbia. Bevel Up continues to be used as an educational resource on a regular basis by BCCDC outreach nurses in their on-going work with people living on society's margins. It has been used in presentations to the Sexual Assault team, the staff of the Downtown East Side Women's Centre, and for staff from housing services in the Vancouver area.

Bevel Up was featured in a presentation at the annual workshop for BC Corrections workers. It was also integrated into several professional development days for nurses working in First Nations communities across BC that were sponsored by First Nations Inuit Health.

BEVEL UP IN THE SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES

Says Juanita Maginley, BCCDC Program Manager, “I feel a real responsibility for seeing Bevel Up continue to have an impact in the broadest possible sense, which is why we hope we can build a community around the work we are doing."

To this end, we’ve launched a group on Facebook, and the outreach team of street nurses teamed up with HelloCoolWorld to put up this microsite BevelUpOutreach.com, launch an e’Zine, and a group on Facebook. Working with all this social media is a means to provide networking tools to help us get the message of Bevel Up out to as wide an audience as possible and to support a way of learning and doing practice. We also want our website to be a tool for others in the work they are doing around issues of health, homelessness and poverty.