The post Newsletter #40: February 2023 appeared first on Pacific Public Health Foundation.

At local, regional, and provincial levels, the surveys measured the populations’ perceptions of risk, the acceptability of the public health response and recovery measures, and the broader impacts of the pandemic. Over 580,000 British Columbians completed at least one of the two surveys. These timely data were critical to informing public health response to the pandemic in our province, and we’re thrilled to share that the research methods have been published in the Canadian Journal of Public Health.

We are committed to funding projects supported by evidence, and rooted in health equity. The Social Determinants of Health Model was used to inform SPEAK survey questions, allowing for valuable insight into the health equity needs of our population. Some of the results of the two SPEAK surveys showed that families with children, young adults, and people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds have been most impacted by the pandemic. 

With the support of generous donors and partners, we have played a critical role in supporting BC’s COVID-19 public health response. Our newest campaign Your Health, Our Commitment is about applying lessons learned during the pandemic and capitalizing on new opportunities to prepare for emerging and future emergencies.

It’s about supporting recovery efforts and strengthening BC’s public health system to be ready for new threats.
It’s about mobilizing public health research findings for evidence-based and solution-oriented practice, policy, and decision-making.
It’s about identifying and delivering long-term solutions to address systemic inequities.

We invite you to learn more about Your Health, Our Commitment and how you can be a part of supporting BC through this next phase.

Once again, we’re thrilled by the publication of the SPEAK 1 and SPEAK 2 survey methods, we’re proud to fund this critical research, and through Your Health, Our Commitment, we’re energized as we think about rebuilding and reimagining a healthier and more equitable future for all. We hope you’ll be a part of this important next phase for our province.

The post Building on Lessons Learned: COVID-19 SPEAK 1 & 2 Survey Update appeared first on Pacific Public Health Foundation.

The post Newsletter #28: September 2021 appeared first on Pacific Public Health Foundation.

Many are familiar with the adage “A picture is worth a thousand words,” the notion that an image is more effective than a verbal description at conveying information. Whether in the form of an infographic, a video, or something else equally creative, visuals are appealing because they can help us make sense of complex ideas.

Trying to figure out how to describe a complex idea simply can be a challenging process and the social determinants of health (SDH)—the conditions and systems within which people are born, grow, work, live, and age—are a good illustration of this. There have been numerous attempts to capture the SDH and their impact on the health of individuals, communities and populations, whether through the use of definitions, frameworks, infographics, videos, and other types of visually engaging presentations. The endeavour to capture SDH as a concept is important because by doing so we can support innovative planning and policy development and identify opportunities for action.

But the process of capturing a concept in a visual is a circular one—how we capture the SDH is shaped by the ways that we understand the concept itself and vice versa. Each of us has our own set of beliefs and values. As we listen and learn new concepts, we try to fit what we hear into our existing lenses. And because many of our beliefs and values are so deeply held, even the most seemingly innocuous terms can be laden with meaning.

In the past, the SDH have typically been represented as a flat, horizontal line of categories or a bulleted list of decontextualized elements. One of the most prominently used visuals of SDH in BC for the past decade has been the Canadian Medical Association’s 2009 infographic titled “What makes Canadians sick?”

The CMA infographic has been widely used due to the reputability of its source, its Canadian focus, and easy-to-understand depiction of the concept. But limitations have also been raised and some of the limitations go above and beyond the need for an updated version of the same infographic. Anecdotally, we have heard from colleagues that the infographic lacks information/background on the weighted percentages, does not speak to the interconnections between determinants, and labels one’s “Aboriginal status” as a determinant and a negative asset.

Over the last few decades, our understandings of the SDH have expanded to recognize the complex, interrelated, and multilayered nature of determinants that work together to shape health, as well as the wider set of forces and systems that shape the conditions of our daily lives.

In glancing at SDH visuals on public health websites, we can see that while visuals still highlight lists of elements–like housing, education, employment, and income—they also offer more informative, creative and easy-to-understand entry points to the concept with both number- (maps, graphs, data) and context-oriented (narratives that can situate people in their own places and spaces) information.

They can also subtly shift the language we use to describe the SDH. Consider, for example, the different taglines between the CMA above (What makes Canadians sick?) and the UK Health Foundation below (What makes us healthy?). We might say that this represents a minor and insignificant shift in terminology or we might say that the latter is encouraging a paradigm shift in how we work to address SDH, pointing us away from health services and toward people’s daily lives.

There are also visuals—such as the First Nations Health Council’s depiction of the social determinants of health—that point us to a more holistic view of the determinants of health, telling us that while SDH is a relatively new term, it is a concept with a much longer history, one that puts the transformation of relationships and a non-siloed way of thinking before the transformation of services.

How do we do this within the current public health parameters in BC? As others have pointed out, we will need to be open to “new principles and new ways of knowing, measuring, and governing.” We will need to reframe how we conceptualize health in a way that takes into consideration the relationship between ecological, social, and structural determinants, and commit to more inclusive public health approaches and methodologies that respectfully engage with diverse knowledge systems and ways of knowing.

As the past year and a half has poignantly highlighted the interconnected impacts from COVID-19 and climate change, public health is being challenged to consider the social, structural, and ecological determinants together. We know that structural and ecological forces are inevitably going to shape the future of our work. Our understandings of the SDH, and visuals conveying this understanding, will need to reflect this as well.

The post Visualizing the Social Determinants of Health appeared first on Pacific Public Health Foundation.

“I have this vision of ‘the healthy human’—creating a system, a society where we strive to have the healthy human.”

Early this year, our Executive Director, Kristy Kerr, was invited to be a guest on the Small Conversations for a Better World Podcast—a podcast focused on the question “What is health?” led by co-hosts Gillian McCormick and Susannah Steers.

The topic of conversation was on the social determinants of health, because you can’t talk about public health and the health and well-being of our population without addressing them—the factors that connect a person to the societal structures surrounding them, influencing all aspects of a person’s life like where they live, work, and play.

In this podcast episode, Kristy delves deeper into this public health concept, and not without some intriguing follow-up questions from Gillian and Susannah like:

• How are social determinants determined?
• Do physicians pay attention to social determinants of health?
• Is there anything we can do as individuals if we’re not sitting in the luxury of privilege?
• Do you think we as individuals need to consider the group at large?
• What are the things that are most impactful about changing the story of our health outcomes?
• What does prevention look like?

If you’re interested in both your personal health, as well as the health of those around you—your family, friends, neighbours, community, and population, listen to this episode.

Near the end, Gillian and Susannah ask Kristy the question they ask every guest, “What is health?” You must hear Kristy’s answer to this.

At the same time, we also encourage you to ponder that same question, “What is health?” How do you think about this question? And how might that have changed during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Grab a cup of your favourite beverage and take a listen to this stimulating conversation, and then be sure to share it with those you know. Let’s get everybody thinking about the social determinants of health and what positive health really means, and striving toward creating ‘the healthy human.’

The post The Healthy Human and the Social Determinants of Health appeared first on Pacific Public Health Foundation.