Population Health Mobilization: A Regional Strategy

IV Opportunities

Discussions in August about population health mobilization afforded regional participants a chance to look at the opportunities ahead.

While the understanding of the determinants is growing, communicating the approach continues to be a challenge. Regions are encouraged by the efforts to define population health and look forward to incorporation of the regional work, which will help focus a clear and succinct definition of the population health approach, one that can be used to rally staff and communicate effectively with potential partners.

Criteria/Checklist

In order to move forward meaningfully to mobilize the population health approach, a key question needs to be answered for staff: "How do we know when we are doing the population health approach?" or conversely, "How do we know when we're NOT doing it?". Because of a practical need for a tool that can help to answer this question, a number of parallel efforts have been undertaken in the Branch:

• Individual Regions have developed criteria or checklists to conduct analysis, to set priorities and to ensure their activities use a population health approach;

• The marketing component of the Blueprint has developed a success stories framework;

• and Taking Action on Population Health contains guiding principles, most of which could be considered criteria. There may be other efforts underway.

The report of knowledge development sessions with staff recommends the development of an easy to use checklist and/or set of probing questions which could be used by staff across all the functions of the Branch. The Regional Directors, as mobilization champions, have tabled a recommendation with the Blueprint champions that such a tool be developed and endorsed by the Branch. Most significantly, they recommend it be used by the Branch to assess all of its work: to set priorities, develop new initiatives, review national strategies and initiatives for congruence with the population health approach and to evaluate mobilization efforts. This kind of tool is necessary for the branch to move forward collectively to mobilize population health.

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