Strategic Initiatives

Atlantic-wide Action to Promote Wellness
The Deputy Ministers of Health from the four provinces and Health Canada’s Regional Director General have recently come together to identify opportunities for co-operation related to wellness. This Atlantic Health Strategic Planning Group (AHSPG) is working on a Wellness Strategy that will enhance community capacity for promoting healthy eating and active living, increase awareness and understanding through a collaborative social marketing campaign and identify the policy framework needed to support people and communities in making healthy eating and active living choices. A regional stakeholder planning workshop on enhancing community capacity will be held early in 2003. For more information about AHSPG initiatives, please contact Deborah Bradley (community capacity) mdbradley@gov.pe.ca, Tracey Taweel (social marketing) Tracey_Taweel@hc-sc.gc.ca or Eleanor Swanson (policy) Eswanson@gov.nf.ca

Healthier Together: A Strategic Health Plan for Newfoundland and Labrador
Two of the three goals in Newfoundland and Labrador’s new Strategic Health Plan are expected to have direct impacts on diabetes prevention. Goal #1 - to improve the health status of the population - includes the development of a wellness strategy based on health promotion, illness and injury prevention; health protection and early intervention; and a comprehensive health promotion campaign to be carried out in collaboration with the other Atlantic Provinces (see above). Goal #2 - to improve the capacity of communities to support health and well-being - will use a healthy communities’ strategy to strengthen community partnerships for health and well-being, building on the work of the Newfoundland and Labrador Heart Health Coalition. The report is available on-line at www.gov.nf.ca/health/strategichealthplan

Equity and Disease in Atlantic Canada
PPHB Atlantic has recently contracted GPI Atlantic (Genuine Progress Index for Atlantic Canada - www.gpiatlantic.org) to examine the links between social equity and chronic disease in Atlantic Canada. The report is expected in early fall 2003.

Getting to the Root Causes We need to ask the tough questions and think about how the determinants of health work together to either promote or create barriers to healthy living. Here is how just a few of the determinants of health affect choices for healthy eating and physical activity: Income and social status inability to purchase healthy foods and participate in organized sports Employment inflexible and part-time work that takes parents away at mealtimes Education little formal instruction about nutrition and food preparation limited ability to read written health information Social environments busy, stressful family lives with less time and energy for family meals and physical activity limited availability of healthy food choices at school lack of school food policy intense marketing of less-healthy food choices inadequate funding for schools, resulting in the use of food sales for fundraising

 

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