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Population Health Mobilization: A Regional Strategy - June 1999
Appendix D: Showcasing Regional Initiatives
The purpose of showcasing specific regional initiatives is to demonstrate how to mobilize people, communities and institutions to use the population health approach and to demonstrate the early results of the use of this approach. Learning from these initiatives will help develop knowledge about best practices and contribute to the evidence base regarding which interventions are the most effective. It is intended that this will lead in the long term to outcomes such as healthy public policy, increased citizen engagement, and improved health status. There is a multiplicity of effort in the regions to mobilize the use of the approach, but it has been decided to chose just one initiative from each region upon which to focus attention, largely because of the anticipated additional effort required to adequately monitor, analyze, evaluate and report on these initiatives. There are, therefore, six initiatives in total. They were chosen to address the mobilization strategic priorities -
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to increase the focus on the broader determinants of health such as income and social status, employment, social environment and health services;
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to give priority to initiatives which involve a range of sectors in developing healthy public policy; and
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to generate a variety of evidence which can inform processes and strategies for influencing healthy public policy and support the development of future programs and initiatives.
They fall into one or more of the following categories:
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Initiatives that were developed to address a particular health issue or set of health issues. There are four such initiatives, covering a range of health issues, but sharing a number of determinants of health as the focus of their efforts.
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Initiatives organized around innovative partnerships and decision-making models. All six initiatives share a common focus on innovative partnerships.
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Initiatives that focus on creating an environment conducive to the population health approach. Three initiatives share this focus, however, one of the three has this aspect as its primary focus.
The six initiatives are summarized in chart form on the following pages and fuller descriptions are appended.
The regional Population Health Managers will oversee the development of a common analytical framework in order to provide a consistent approach to analysis and reporting on the initiatives. The development of this framework will be coordinated with related work going on in the Branch.
Regardless of the specific elements of the analytical framework, it is likely that regions will collectively be able to report on the learnings about the following at an appropriate time in the future:
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how to mobilize people/communities/institutions/governments around the determinants of health
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how to develop effective intersectoral partnerships
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learnings about a number of key determinants of health: income and social status, healthy child development, social and physical environments, employment and working conditions, personal health practices and coping skills
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how to collaborate across regions to extract best practices, learn from mistakes, complement one another's work.
Summary of Regional Mobilization Initiatives
| Name/Description | Determinants | Approaches/ Strategies |
Social and Economic Inclusion (Atlantic Region) Mobilization Priorities: Focus on broader determinants X-sector work on public policy Generate evidence Focus: To address child poverty by addressing health inequities through public policy that includes women and children. Form partnerships with policy-makers and advocates across key sectors in order to effect change. |
Income and social status social environment healthy child development social support.
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Develop a framework for a partnership on social and economic inclusion Development and dissemination of evidence on child poverty to policy decision-makers Workshops and forums to foster and promote plans and partnerships in each province |
Outcomes |
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Formation of sustainable committed partnerships Evidence of influence on policies that promote economic and social inclusion |
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| Name/Description | Determinants | Approaches/ Strategies |
Food Security (Québec Region) Mobilization Priorities: Focus on broader determinants X-sector work on public policy Generate evidence Focus: To address issues related to access to nutritional affordable food, making links to sustainable agriculture |
Income and social status Education Personal health practices Employment Social support networks
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Evaluation of pilot projects on food security Dissemination of findings Development of committed partnerships Public education campaign Focus on specific at-risk populations, e.g., single mothers and young people 18-24 |
Outcomes |
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Formal commitments from partners to address these issues A provincial policy on food security |
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| Name/Description | Determinants | Approaches/ Strategies |
Ontario Campaign for Kids (Ontario Region) Mobilization Priorities: Focus on broader determinants X-sector work on public policy Generate evidence Focus:A multi-staged public awareness and citizenship engagement effort to stimulate changes in public policy in the area of healthy child development. |
Income and social status, education, coping skills, social support, healthy child development. |
Multi-sector: participation of 60 partners Multi-strategy: takes place in five domains - family, school, community, government/society, workplace public education - multi-faceted and pervasive identification of health status indicators local action by community leaders on specific issues |
Outcomes |
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Effective partnerships Increase in societal commitment to healthy child development, across sectors Change in the way people regard children and responsibility for their growth |
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| Name/Description | Determinants | Approaches/ Strategies |
Population Health Partnership (Manitoba-Saskatchewan) Mobilization Priorities: Focus on broader determinants X-sector work on public policy Generate evidence Focus: The Saskatchewan Population Health Promotion Partnership is a forum for doing coordinated heath planning across three levels of government. |
Initiative focuses on partnership model. Determinants are addressed as appropriate to respond to priority health issues (e.g., diabetes in the Aboriginal population) identified by the partnership.
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Public education about the linkages amongst the determinants of health and their impact on health status Professional education and training about the population health approach Enhance community capacity to take action on determinants Include key sectors in work on specific health issues |
Outcomes |
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Common understanding of the determinants of health among the general public, across sectors and at the community level. |
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| Name/Description | Determinants | Approaches/ Strategies |
Community-based Models for Mobilizing the Population Health Approach (Alberta/NWT/Nunavut) Mobilization Priorities: Focus on broader determinants X-sector work on public policy Generate evidence Focus: To foster a climate that supports the ability of communities to take action on healthy public policy. |
Initiative focuses on the involvement of a range of sectors in developing public policy, regardless of the determinants that are being addressed
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Cross-sector collaboration Knowledge development Workshop to build skills in influencing policy development Documenting the experience of using the population health approach Piloting "tool kit" |
Outcomes |
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Description of emerging models and documented community learnings Evaluation framework to assess population health projects Success stories linked to specific policy outcomes |
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| Name/Description | Determinants | Approaches/ Strategies |
Vancouver's Downtown Eastside (BC/Yukon) Mobilization Priorities: Focus on broader determinants X-sector work on public policy Generate evidence Focus: A multi-strategy, multi-determinant, multi-sector initiative to address the health crisis among injection drug users in DTES by addressing the underlying factors. |
All of them
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Address community development, labour market development and strategic/sectoral development Develop and implement Urban Development Agreement Tackle specific health issues through - eg, Coalition for Crime Prevention DTES Revitalization Plan Drug Court Sobering Centre Urban Aboriginal Strategy etc. |
Outcomes |
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Short/mid-term: e.g., developing partnerships, plans, communications, evaluation framework, resources, strategy Longer term: e.g., reduction in specific health issues,e.g incidence of HIV/AIDS, overdose deaths, crime, drug offenses; increase in housing, treatment services, etc. |
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