Dr. Rosanne Blanchet is a Registered Dietitian with a PhD in Population Health. She recently joined the School of Public Health at the Université de Montréal as an Assistant Professor. She is a member of WHO-Collaborating Centre on Nutrition Changes and Development (TRANSNUT) and at the Quebec Population Health Research Network. Her research examines how social determinants shape nutrition and health, particularly among Black people, Indigenous peoples, and people of colour (BIPOC), and how policy can be used to ensure that all individuals have equal access to opportunities and conditions conducive to good nutrition and health.Her research also examines and promotes effective community-based solutions to foster food security, healthy eating and health. She recently acted as Guest Editor with Dr. Noreen Willows on a special issue of Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism entitled “Strength-based health promotion activities improve Indigenous health and well-being”.
Black, Indigenous and people of colour (BIPOC) experience health inequities because of unfavourable social determinants of health (SDoH). For Indigenous peoples, the SDoH include poverty, low educational attainment, inadequate housing conditions, and food insecurity as well as colonial policies and practices, racism and stigmatization, loss of language, disconnection from cultural practices, lack of access to traditional territories, loss of food sovereignty, and exposure to trauma and violence. Strength-based interventions, programs and policies are required to improve Indigenous health and wellness through enhanced nutrition, physical activity, active living and land-based activities (traditional Indigenous lifestyles that encourage active living and provide nutritious food). APNM’s Editors-in-Chief, Wendy Ward and Phil Chilibeck, along with former Editor-in-Chief Terry Graham, supported a special virtual volume in Applied Physiology Nutrition and Metabolism (APNM) on Indigenous Health and Wellness that focused on strength-based decolonizing research which acknowledged the SDoH as a way to address Indigenous health inequities. In contrast to deficit-based research which focuses on what is wrong with a community, strength-based approaches focus on identifying and supporting the strengths, as well as the protective factors, within a community that help people in their journeys toward well-being. APNM has made all papers in the collection free-access and available to the public. This symposium will highlight 2 examples of strength-based research from the volume. Following the presentations there will be a panel discussion where speakers will discuss how strength-based research could advance health equity and justice for diverse populations.