1

Message from THA

We are thrilled to see that the excitement and commit-

ment from the community and our volunteers has re-

mained strong! Over the past 20 months, the Tamil

Health team has been involved in some very important

projects that have paved the path for many more excit-

ing initiatives for the future. Research is a primary fo-

cus at Tami Health and this issue of our newsletter

focuses on some great projects we have been working

on! Health research provides important information on

population trends, identifies risk factors and deter-

mines outcomes of public health interventions. It is one

of our missions at THA to inspire research within the

Tamil community - we hope to receive your ongoing

support!

The Tamil Health Association Team

IN THIS ISSUE:

Healthy Food Program

2014 Movember Meesai

Strength in Unity (SIU)

THA First AGM

Opportunities to Join THA

Tamil Health Association Newsletter | தமிழ் சுகாதார அமமப்பு | Vol. 2 Issue 1 May 2015

Spice and herb palette from the Healthy Food program booklet – Courtesy of King Pictures

2

Health Research | சுகாதார ஆராய்ச்சி

Project Inform

South Asian Autism Awareness Centre (SAAAC) and

Ninety9Thirty Creative Consulting, in partnership with THA have

launched Project InForm, an autism awareness campaign for

newcomers and recent immigrants. This project will promote a

basic understanding of autism and early screening and diagnosis

for autism amongst South Asian communities. The research

component (phase 1) will involve the assessment and

identification of gaps and barriers of current practices in autism

screening and diagnosis through a rigorous research process.

Phase 2 will involve identifying current autism screening tools,

promoting the use of appropriate screening tools, and the

development of accessible educational tools for autism in the

South Asian community with low health literacy. And finally, phase

3 involves the development of a toll-free helpline to support and

connect the South Asian community to autism resources.

Tamil Health Association’s

Strategic Plan, Mission, Values & Vision

The Strategic Planning Committee has been working on developing mission and vision statements that accurately re-

flect the Tamil Health Association. As you can imagine, this has been no easy task, especially faced with issues in se-

mantics and variability in the language used to develop these statements. Through much perseverance, research, and

brainstorms we have reached what we feel are statements that accurately convey the message of Tamil Health Associ-

ation to the public.

Our vision is to be at the

forefront of health promotion,

education and research.

We are on a mission to…

Explore Health beyond conventional understanding

Inspire Research through population specific perspectives

Expand Resources in a culturally relevant manner

3

Healthy Food Program

The Tamil Health Association was 1 of 25 projects funded by the Women’s College Hospital to improve the health of

women in our community. The overall goal of the project was to improve the health of Tamil women by increasing their

access and utilization of healthy eating and food preparation resources. We wanted to be able to provide women with

the resources that could help them make healthier recipes and improve their cooking and food preparation skills. We

want the Tamil population to enjoy their eggplant curry, but we also want to make this curry a lot less oiler and

perhaps a little healthier. In addition, we also wanted to see whether providing these resources could influence the

eating habits of Tamil women. We chose to focus on the women in the family, as they are usually responsible for meal

preparation in their family (we know this is not always the case but for majority of the population). We want the Tamil

women in our community to make healthier choices and since they are primarily responsible for cooking, they can also

help improve their families’ eating habits!

We are pleased to announce the completion of the Healthy Food Program (HFP) Workshops! The HFP team

successfully delivered two workshops that were well received by the participants. The team worked hard to pull

together a unique resource that is bilingual (Tamil & English) which was presented to attendees at the workshops by a

Registered Dietician. This was a pilot program and we hope that this will inspire others alike to focus on developing

culturally relevant tools to help facilitate lifestyle changes that promote health.

The next steps of the project includes some additional analyses, write-up and knowledge translation activities; to

capture the amazing work that this team has done over the past 18 months. We look forward to sharing the outcomes

with the team and the community in the next newsletter! For now we will leave you with these pictures (courtesy of

King Pictures) that have captured the fun we had at these workshops.

If you are interested in working to complete the next steps of the HFP program, check out page 7!

THA will be conducting an environmental scan of mental health services

available to the GTA Tamil population. The objective of this project is to identify,

assess and categorize mental health services in accordance to whether they

provide culturally sensitive services to the target population. There is currently a

need to understand the gaps and limitations of existing services to see whether

they are able to provide adequate services to the population in need. This

project will be lead by Vinusiya Peranandan, for her Masters of Public Health

degree at the University of Toronto, under the guidance of THA. Experts in the

field of mental health within the Tamil community will act as advisors to steer the

project. The proposed end deliverable is an accessible tool for the public to help

identify relevant services available to the Tamil population in the GTA.

The Mental Health Project An Environmental Scan to Identify Relevant Mental Health Services

4

5

Community Health| சுகாதார விழிப்புணர்வு

Movember Meesai Campaign 2014 THA once again joined the global Movember movement in 2014 and attracted 43 Mo Bros and Mo Sis from the Tamil

community to be the walking talking billboards for Men’s Health. For those that aren’t aware of Movember, it is a

globally recognized month long campaign during November that focuses on raising funds and bringing awareness to

Men’s health – particularly prostate cancer, testicular cancer and mental health.

We had an awesome turn out to our Annual Movember celebration.

6

THA ran another successful social media campaign for

the duration of the month of November. Through joint

efforts from our community, we raised over $1000 and

raised awareness on men’s health across our Tamil

community.

At the end of a successful Movember campaign, we

hosted a celebratory event, the Meesai Party, to thank

fellow Mo Bros and Mo Sistas. This free event was held

at a cozy Scarborough venue, attracting just about 100

Mo Bros and Mo Sistas. The night included a series of

team activities that engaged attendees to identify major

health concerns in the Tamil community and further,

brainstorming solutions for these problems. Our annual

Meesai fashion show allowed Mo bros to show off their

month-long hairy journeys on the THA runway. The Mo

Bro with the best Meesai (by audience vote) received a

prize pack full of Movember goodies. The night

concluded with phenomenal presentations by two guest

speakers Dr.Vathsala Jayasuriya-Illesinghe and Arthy

Sathasivam. Dr.Vathsala shared information about the $3

million Movember funded project, Strength In Unity, and

Arthy Sathasivam shared her personal story about her

father’s journey with cancer. An incredible performance

by Unplugged Tunes of Bharathi Arts melodiously

concluded the night with Nishan, Praveen, Thadjenan,

Nirosh and Thuzhi who serenaded us with a compilation

of over a dozen AR Rahman classics.

The Meesai Party was once again brought to the

community at no cost and was possible due to our

generous sponsors. The cost of running the event was

covered by our friendly Real Estate Agent Chandran

Sornalingam, who specializes in serving your residential,

commercial and investment property needs. The mouth

watering food was prepared and presented by Fusion By

T. Audio and special effects was provided by Akkash

James from The Experience by A.James and SPSYN

captured the moments of the evening.

Finally special thanks to those who attended the event

and helped with the coordination. Everyone’s efforts had

made Meesai party a fun and educational event that

brought the community together!

Strength in Unity (SIU)

THA collaborated with Ryerson University as a

community partner for Strength in Unity (SIU), the first

comprehensive anti-stigma intervention research project

among Asian communities in Canada - a $3 million

project funded by the Movember Foundation. SIU aims to

reduce mental illness stigma in Asian communities by

mobilizing Asian youth and men to become Community

Mental Health Ambassadors (CMAs) by training them in

either Acceptance Commitment Training (ACT) or

Contact-based Empowerment Education (CEE). Data will

be collected pre- and post-study to evaluate the

effectiveness of both the ACT and CEE interventions.

THA assisted in recruiting Tamil males for the study by

hosting a Let’s Talk About Men’s Mental Health

networking event where several community members

signed up to participate. Additionally, an active and

insightful dialogue about the need to address mental

health in the Tamil community was conducted that will

7

subsequently inform the mental health study that THA

is developing. THA remains a part of the Project

Advisory Committee as the study unfolds.

SIU is currently recruiting Asian males (aged 17+) for

the study. Contact on@strength-in-unity.ca or (416) 979

-5129 if you are interested. Compensation will be

provided to participants ($50-$400).

Mental Health Week - Let’s Talk Healthy Minds!

“Manathil Uruthi Vendum - Let's Talk Healthy Minds!”, an annual mental health awareness campaign, is a grassroots

effort to promote action that changes attitudes and behaviors toward mental health at the individual and community

level. The expectation is that the annual awareness campaign will increase the interest in the community to learn more

about positive mental health, bring awareness about mental health services in the community and promote

collaboration among community groups and organizations.

The 2015 campaign is three-fold and will run from

May 4, 2015 to May 9, 2015.

Media campaign (May 4-8): disseminate knowledge

about mental health through local Tamil media outlets.

Online campaign (May 4-8): engage the audience in

conversations related to mental health using social

media.

Half-day workshop (May 9, 2015): marks the end of the

mental health week; aims to mobilize strong voices to

stamp out stigma.

8

What is "good" mental health?

We all have mental health, just as we all have physical health. It’s a state of well-being. Every one of us has the

potential to live an optimal healthy life that includes good mental health. When we are mentally healthy, we enjoy

our life and environment, and the people in it. We can be creative, learn and try new things, and take risks. We are

better able to cope with difficult times in our personal and professional lives. We sometimes feel the sadness and

anger that can come with the death of a loved one, a job loss or relationship problems and other difficult events. But

with having good mental health, we bounce back and start enjoying our lives once again. What does it take to

maintain one`s mental well-being? In today's lifestyle, this is a question that we all ask ourselves. To learn more,

join us! Let’s start learning, talking, reflecting and engaging with others on all issues relating to mental health.

Join our team!

Do you want to leave a positive impact on the Tamil community?

Do you want to get involved in some amazing projects? We are always seeking energetic, passionate, individuals with a variety of skills and experiences to join our team in community health, health research and operations!

Contact us at info@TamilHealth.ca and include “Volunteer Interest” in the subject line. Examples of current opportunities include:

Operational

Financial Committee Co-lead

Communications Committee Co-lead

Community Health Co-lead

Research Committee Member, Grant Writing

Fundraising Committee Member, Event Planner

Projects (Community Health & Health Research)

THA Website: An Information Hub, Project Design

Healthy Food Program, Research Assistant

Stay connected!

www.TamilHealth.ca /TamilHealth @TamilHealth

May 9th Workshop Agenda:

8:00AM - 9:00AM | Complimentary Breakfast

9:00AM - 9:15AM | Introduction

9:15AM - 10:00AM | Breakout

Session 1: Grief & Loss by Denley McIntosh

Session 2: At-risk Youth & Addictions by James Erdt

Session 3: Nutrition & Mental Health by Thevaki Kulendran

Session 4: Postpartum depression by Pushpa Kanagaratnam

10:15AM - 10:45AM | Healthy Dance Break & Group Activity

10:50AM - 12:00PM | Mindfulness