Key Facts
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Institutional Stewardship Initiatives
Student Wellness Initiative Towards Community Health (SWITCH)
The Student Wellness Initiative Toward Community Health, or SWITCH is a student-run clinic with volunteers from USask and other community and provincial partners. With the goal of delivering equitable access to culturally safe healthcare, nutrition, and health education, and a focus on service to disadvantaged populations, this clinic is a collaboration between USask, Saskatchewan Health Authority, and Saskatoon Community Clinic. SWITCH offers many services including medicine, social work, mental health and counselling, nutrition and dietary counselling, and child minding.
Dental Outreach Clinics
USask operates dental outreach clinics to improve access to care for disadvantaged populations in an inclusive and culturally appropriate manner. Local immigration and refugee support organizations also frequently refer their clients to these clinics. Treatment is provided by experienced dentists, dental residents, and senior dental students under the supervision of licensed dentists.
Peer Health
Peer Health is primarily run by students dedicated to promoting health to USask students on all of its campuses. Peer Health volunteers and student leaders are passionate about the health issues that impact student well-being. Peer Health is an initiative for the Student Wellness Centre. Peer Health volunteers works within the Be Well Strategy framework in three teams: Healthy Mind, addressing mental health and wellbeing and invisible disabilities; Healthy Body, addressing healthy eating, sleep habits, harm reduction, vaccinations, socialization, fitness, and more; and Healthy Life, addressing relationships, parenting, and cultural connections..
Athletic Facilites
Numerous sports facilities are available on campus and made accessible to not just students, staff and the university community, but also children and the general public within the city and surrounding area. Merlis Belsher Place is one example of a new facility, just opened on October 1, 2018. The culmination of years of planning, the multi-purpose facility has been an excellent example of the university and community coming together. The $51 million dollar facility hosts Huskie Athletics (university athletics), Campus Recreation, and a large number of Saskatoon Minor hockey games and practices and community events such as USask convocation, high school graduations, and major sporting events such as Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling. Annually, the facility provides more than 1500 hours of ice time for community minor hockey, and is home to two U 18 AAA hockey teams.
Student Wellness Centre
Yes, the USask’s Student Wellness Centre provides free access to a variety of sexual and reproductive health-care services. Our Family Physicians and Nurse Practitioners provide primary care for sexual health care, including contraception and sexually transmitted infections (STIs); they offer professional counselling for sexual health, including sexual orientation and gender identity; and the website offers a variety of self-help educational materials on sexual wellbeing, STIs, contraception, and pregnancy.
Health and Safety Policies
The university maintains a wide variety of health and safety policies designed to keep its community healthy, safe, and happy.
Employee and Family Assistance Program
Yes, the university offers free mental health support to staff (and eligible family members of staff) through its Employee and Family Assistance Program, including counselling therapy, self-serve information, and mental health tools and resources. Confidential services are accessible 24 hours per day and can be accessed by phone, online, or through an app.
Research Institutes, Centres, & Projects
Saskatchewan Population Health and Evaluation Research Unit
The Saskatchewan Population Health and Evaluation Research Unit (SPHERU) is a bi-university health research unit. Since it began in 1999, SPHERU has established itself as a leader in population health research – the study of social factors that affect the wellbeing of groups within a population.
While much population health research focuses on describing health inequities, SPHERU’s focus is on population health intervention research: It looks at how to address inequities by taking action on the social determinants of health. By intervention, this refers to any developments or changes to policies, programs, research, funding, or any other action that influences the determinants of health and positively affect population health outcomes.
The Mozambique Canada Maternal Health Project
The goal of the Mozambique Canada Maternal Health Clinic is to improve sexual, reproductive, maternal and newborn health in the province of Inhambane, Mozambique. A five-year project that began in April 2017 and is funded by Global Affairs Canada, the project is a partnership between the Inhambane Provincial Health Directorate and the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, which is the implementing agency.
Canadian Centre for Rural and Agricultural Health
The Canadian Centre for Rural and Agricultural Health is an embodiment of research, service, and outreach to support improved health outcomes for rural and agricultural people in Saskatchewan, across Canada, and around the world. Agricultural health and safety education and clinical services include rural elementary school presentations, health and safety clinics for agricultural producers, respiratory clinics (respiratory health maintenance testing, education, etc), hearing clinics and Rural Dementia Action Research (RaDAR), which offers diagnosis and management assistance for dementia care in rural and remote areas.Sylvia Fedoruk Canadian Centre for Nuclear Innovation
The Sylvia Fedoruk Canadian Centre for Nuclear Innovation was established in 2011 to help place Saskatchewan among global leaders of nuclear research, development and training. Its research projects in nuclear topics, support of new faculty positions, and operation of a top-quality cyclotron facility as a user-accessible resource for nuclear imaging science and training, has become a primary source of valuable medical isotopes for institutions around the world.
Research Impact
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Sample Courses
Introduces the sociology of physical activity, including sport, and challenges students to think critically about physical activity in Canadian society. Overarching topics include: (a) the emergence of physical activity as a way to promote health and prevent chronic disease in Canadian society, (b) social inequality, arising from social structural factors such as social class, age, race, gender, and sexual orientation, and physical activity, and (c) the impact of social institutions on physical activity in society.
An introduction to mental skills training for sport and physical activity. This course will build on the material presented in KIN 231.3 and focus on the development and application of a mental skills training program in sport and physical activity. Analysis, discussion, and application will focus on ethical issues, pre-competition and competition planning, goal-setting, arousal control, imagery, self-talk, attention control, and program evaluation.
Lectures and exercises will provide an introduction to epidemiology of infectious disease including issues in diagnosis and surveillance, disease ecology and transmission, options for control, discussion of diseases important to public health, emerging diseases, and reporting.
An introduction to the study of addictions, with a specific focus on problematic alcohol and illicit drug use. Introduces students to concepts and debates in the addictions field concerning causes, consequences and interventions from four standpoints: the user, society/culture, service providers, and decision/policy makers.
For a full listing of related courses, please visit the Office of Sustainability's sustainablity course inventory.