Population Health Mobilization: A Regional Strategy - June 1999

II From Health Promotion to Population Health

Before the concept of Mobilization was articulated as part of the Blueprint, action was already underway in the Regions to implement the population health approach.

One key step to undertaking the population health approach was to understand it in comparison to health promotion, the paradigm under which HPPB's programs had been operating for many years previously. Québec and Atlantic Regions carried out analyses that identified the differences between the two frameworks by examining health promotion projects "through a population health lens". The key findings common to both Regions, and largely confirmed by informal analysis in other regions, are described below.

With respect to the determinants of health, the three determinants most frequently addressed were personal health practices and coping, social support networks and social environments. The three determinants least frequently addressed were income and social status, employment and education.

With respect to their impact on populations, many health promotion projects provided support to individuals and to community development. Some projects influenced policies or programs with a focus on local impact.

With respect to intersectoral collaboration, the partners most often involved in project collaborations were from the health, social services and community sectors.

Regional staff understood that building on the health promotion work of the past and present to mobilize the population health approach would primarily require expanding the range of determinants that are acted upon, using interventions to affect populations and collaborating with a much broader range of sectors. They also saw the need for a shared understanding within the Branch about the role and impact of community level interventions on populations and sub-populations.

There is a continuum of population health initiatives underway in the Regions of HPPB. At one end are those measures that were undertaken to support staff to work effectively on population health and which create the necessary structures to carry out the work. At the other end are collaborative initiatives involving many partners, across sectors, working on a number of determinants of health at the macro level. These are described more fully in Appendix B.

Regions are already mobilizing the population health approach. The next necessary step is to develop a strategy which will ensure that this work is effective and contributes to the overall understanding of population health.

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