CBC Maritimes

Literacy, planning for H1N1, and regulating naturopaths : all can affect your health

Senior government officials in Nova Scotia are trying to reassure people that they're dealing properly with the H1N1 pandemic and will be prepared if the flu intensifies this fall.  
Last July, Nova Scotia's auditor-general released a highly critical report. At the time, Jacques Lapointe told MN that the province was just not ready for a pandemic and that the stockpile of medical supplies needed to respond effectively was inadequate.
We heard Mr Laponte recount the broad strokes of his report before a legislature committee, followed by Duff Montgomery,  the province's Deputy Minister of Health Promotion and Protection, and  Kevin McNamara, the Deputy Minister of Health.


 An international emergency effort was launched in the Samoan Islands following the September 29th tsunami. Dan Bedell explained what Red Cross officials in the Maritimes doing to help co-ordinate monetary donations.


In some provinces, going to a naturopathic doctor can be harmful to your health...because not all those who call themselves a doctor actually are. For instance, there are only 5 licenced naturopathic doctors on Prince Edward Island, but several other people have hung up a sign and called themselves  naturopaths. That concerns the PEI Association of Naturopathic Doctors. They want their profession to be regulated - as is the case in five other provinces.  
Nova Scotia is already part way there. For example, people in NS can be fined if they don't have the proper certification and call themselves a naturopath.
Lindsay Carroll spoke with two members of the PEI Association of Naturopathic Doctors : Kali Simmonds and Lana McMurrer, who both have practices in Charlottetown.

There's been plenty of noise about spending billions of dollars of public money to fund so-called "shovel-ready" projects like roads & building upgrades to stimulate the economy.
But more than half a century ago, the respected economist John Kenneth Galbraith said "we are coming to realize...there is a certain sterility in economic monuments that stand alone in a sea of illiteracy. Conquest of illiteracy comes first." He concluded that literacy is the single most important determinant of economic performance.
So, how much has been invested in tackling that problem ?
Adult men & women in the Maritimes who can't read or write well enough to play their full part in society continue to bear the heaviest burdens of economic downturns. A lack of functional literacy also eats away at  feelings of self-worth.
A new book entitled "Breaking the Word Barrier" introduces us to 17 men and women engaged in either adult literacy programmes or academic upgrading and illustrates the courage it takes to learn those skills as an adult.
But as a region, we still have a long way to go in connecting with every adult who could benefit from that experience & delivering the goods to them.
Our guests were Dennis McLeod - whose personal story is in "Breaking the Word Barrier"; Peter Sawyer, of the Moncton Regional Learning Council and Laubach Literacy; and Ann Marie Downie, Executive Director of Literacy Nova Scotia.
Our question : "What would most help adults get the literacy skills they need ?"