Though it may feel different, as we are learning to live with SARS-CoV-2 as a circulating respiratory virus, we must understand that there remains a global health emergency of which we cannot become complacent. We must still protect those who have been made more vulnerable due to the pandemic, and we must also focus, for example, on long-term data collection for vaccine effectiveness, advancing vaccine equity, and applying lessons from the current pandemic to future threat responses.

Our work, therefore, continues.

The SPEAK Surveys data are critically important to help us understand where to focus our efforts. To date, data show negative impacts on mental health and stress and that societal impacts are inequitably distributed, with families with children, young adults, and people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds most impacted. Taking this into consideration, much of the work of public health is shifting from acute, and often real-time, response, to strategic, proactive recovery and addressing the societal consequences of the pandemic and pandemic-related measures, as well as applying lessons to help us prepare for the future. These efforts will take years.

What does this mean for us?

It means we’re actively listening, learning, engaging, and convening work to advance equity, community resiliency, the social determinants of health, and a stronger, innovative public health sector. Here’s a snapshot of some of our current solutions-focused projects and priorities, as we shift towards the future.

• As BC shifts towards pandemic recovery, there is a limited window of opportunity to learn from the experiences of those engaged in the pandemic response and identify areas for improvement to prepare for emerging pathogens and future pandemics. It is critical to learn from the public health experience of the pandemic in order to prepare for the future. We’re funding a project that aims to articulate learnings to inform a provincial pandemic preparedness and response guidance framework, which will ensure BC is ready for future threats.
• Working with Michael Smith Health Research BC, the Simon Fraser University Faculty of Health Sciences, and the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue, we convened a dialogue event to distill key lessons, strengthen partnerships among public health and research stakeholders, and identify structures and mechanisms to support evidence-based practice, policy, and decision-making, as well as community-relevant public health messaging and tools.

• We continue to fund key areas of immunization research and service, with a specific focus on advancing equity for Indigenous communities. This includes vaccine monitoring, reporting, access, and stewardship in the North to strengthen these areas to ensure that Indigenous communities receive the same access to, and supports for, vaccination.
• Evidence of Indigenous-specific racism in the health system surfaced in powerful ways during the pandemic. We’re supporting a project that will systematically look at the ways in which Indigenous-specific racism, white supremacy, and settler colonialism showed up within the public health response.

• Addressing the societal, or unintended, consequences of the pandemic and pandemic-related measures is critical to rebuilding, recovery, and resiliency. Working with the Ministry of Health and the BC Centre for Disease Control, we’re providing grants across the province focusing on equity in regional health authorities and local communities.
• One fundamental consequence of the pandemic is that youth mental health and wellbeing has been negatively impacted—data from the SPEAK surveys have demonstrated that this must be a core area of work for public health. We’re supporting provincial research to understand the needs and gaps, and build and strengthen interventions for youth.

We look forward to sharing outcomes of these and other projects in future stories and as we advance our new strategic plan to help shape public health over the coming years by focusing on equity, partnerships, innovation, and social justice, anti-racism, and truth and reconciliation. 

Together… a constant theme

In early 2020, our Executive Director wrote her first reflections blog, followed by a second reflections piece in early 2022—the theme of both was ‘together.’

In 2023, ‘together’ remains a core theme.

Much of what we are learning and hearing is that public health needs to do a better job of incorporating your voices. The SPEAK Surveys are a vital tool, and one example. Public engagement is important to us, as it brings us together and ensures public health is working for you.

Our work has been, and will continue to be, accomplished together through collaboration and partnerships. This also means our donor community and we’re continuing to advance efforts through Your Health, Our Commitment — a way for you to get involved and help too—gifts to Your Health, Our Commitment will advance the projects above and other critical initiatives.

National COVID-19 Awareness Day was March 11th, to commemorate the day the WHO declared a global pandemic in 2020, offering a day to both remember and to look ahead, and bring people and communities together. As we focus on learning from the pandemic, supporting recovery efforts, and addressing the societal consequences, let’s not forget we still have work to do, together. 

The post New Pandemic Recovery Projects Helping BC Advance Equity and Community Resiliency appeared first on Pacific Public Health Foundation.

The post Newsletter #37: November 2022 appeared first on Pacific Public Health Foundation.

We know that the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have not been equally distributed; older and younger adults have been disproportionately impacted, as well as people who already experience health inequities, intersecting inequities, and broader systemic inequities.

The pandemic has had vast and lasting impacts on us all and it has greatly exacerbated existing inequities for those already made vulnerable due to systemic barriers. It has shown us where we need to provide better, stronger public health solutions. We have much work to do to recover and address the societal consequences of the pandemic, and protect everyone in BC as we begin to live safely and thoughtfully with the current state.

We are committed to prioritizing BC’s recovery, addressing the societal consequences of the pandemic, and supporting BC through this next phase through our newest campaign, Your Health, Our Commitment.

Since February 2020, we’re proud to be playing an important role in supporting BC’s COVID-19 public health response. Over the past few years, thanks to our donors and partners, we’re supporting: population health monitoring critical for decision-making that is grounded in experiences; vaccine research, including vaccine effectiveness and helping to build vaccine confidence; key tools such as wastewater testing; and much more.

From understanding how the virus mutates and spreads, to the rapid development of novel vaccines, we’ve learned so much about the science of COVID-19, and we’re in a much different place than we were a few years ago. At the same time, we’ve also learned quite a bit about the societal aspects of the pandemic as well.

Just as we were able to come together in early 2020 in response to the pandemic, it’s time to mobilize again to rebuild, reimagine, and recover. Together, we can design a stronger, healthier, more equitable future. This is our commitment to your health.

Through Your Health, Our Commitment, we will keep working with our partners and donors to support BC in preparing for, and responding to, threats to the health of our communities now and into the future.

You can be a part of this next phase, too. By donating to Your Health, Our Commitment, you join a community of donors, public health organizations, government, academics, health practitioners, and other funders to foster healthy communities and strengthen our responses for the future.

A gift to Your Health, Our Commitment will:

• support research and people;
• address the long-term negative societal and health impacts of the pandemic;
• provide critical public health solutions for capacities and infrastructure;
• translate knowledge to action in practice and policy;
• bolster collaboration across the public health sector;
• mobilize evidence-based information to increase public knowledge; and
• enable us to direct funding in a responsive, and nimble way as we continue to deal with the flux of our times.

We invite you to join us with a donation to Your Health, Our Commitment and help us support pandemic recovery, strengthen public health, and build resilient communities for all.

The post Your Health, Our Commitment: Our New Campaign to Support Pandemic Recovery, Strengthen Public Health, and Build Resilient Communities For All appeared first on Pacific Public Health Foundation.

Time frame: 2020-2022

Overview:
Not long after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, Dr Natalie Prystajecky and Dr Melissa Glier, who had already been studying viruses in wastewater since 2018, were able to quickly leverage an existing collaboration, methods, and equipment for testing enteric viruses in wastewater to be able to test for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Recently adopting an alternative sampling method that allows to test wastewater from an entire community, their team is also working on a method to test wastewater as it exits a building, thus providing key information on how COVID-19 is being spread throughout and among BC communities.

Results:
Funding for their work allowed Drs Prystajecky and Glier’s team to optimize their methods and test for SARS-CoV-2 in five wastewater treatment plants in Metro Vancouver, covering nearly 50% of BC’s population, along two regional health authorities. Weekly reports are shared with medical health officers and epidemiologists within regional health authorities, BC Centre for Disease Control staff, and Metro Vancouver.

Their collaborations have extended to the development of a three-day rapid sequencing method to effectively track COVID-19 variants of concern within a region, and key findings from their studies have been published in the Journal of Environmental Sciences and the American Society for Microbiology, with more to come. With the Omicron variant, wastewater testing has become a critical and necessary component of SARS-CoV-2 monitoring and surveillance.

Rapid SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine Research Initiative in BC

Time frame: 2021-2022

Overview:
In a new and unique partnership with Genome BC and Michael Smith Health Research BC (formerly the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research), we funded nine new rapid-response vaccine research projects addressing COVID-19 vaccine research priorities and knowledge gaps. This funding program was developed and implemented in real-time, enabling us to get funding to critical research projects rapidly in order to have high-impact on vaccination roll-out for BC. Collective funding of around $1.3M is allowing for vaccine research that ultimately focuses on public health response and ensuring access to, and confidence in, vaccination programs for everyone in BC.

More specifically, the projects funded address areas such as:

• vaccine breakthrough infections;
• vaccine effectiveness in the context of Variants of Concern and in immune response;
• viral transmission;
• equitable distribution;
• vaccine acceptance and attitudes towards vaccines; and
• vaccine literacy and hesitancy among people who are pregnant or breastfeeding, people who are incarcerated, people who work in long-term care homes and a variety of multicultural communities in the Lower Mainland.

For a summary of the projects, go here.

Results:
We’ll continue to share outcomes of this research as these projects progress. You can stay connected on project updates by visiting this page and subscribing to our newsletter.

The post COVID-19 Response: From Monitoring to Vaccination appeared first on Pacific Public Health Foundation.

• Share professional and lived experiences about SOGIECE in a supportive, affirming, and collaborative environment
• Identify key health and social service needs of SOGIECE survivors
• Exchange ideas about pan-North American interventions, including policy and advocacy work, public awareness & education, and improved supports for SOGIECE survivors
• Determine how research could be undertaken to fulsomely characterize the prevalence and nature of SOGIECE in Canada, as well as to inform interventions to prevent new harms and ameliorate ongoing negative health and social impacts of SOGIECE

By funding this work through the Community-Based Research Centre (CBRC), this event was a catalyst for broader research priorities around supporting the health and wellness needs of SOGIECE survivors. Through conducting in-depth interviews with survivors across Canada, researchers aim to shed light on the specific needs of this population to better support their long-term positive health outcomes.

Results:
Because the health of LGBTQ2S communities is an essential part of public health, the stories and collective expertise from the Vancouver Dialogue was used to form important research questions, with the aims of empowering survivors, identifying how to best support the health and wellness of LGBTQ2S youth and adult survivors, how to create institutional change, and what advocacy can be done to end SOGIECE practices in Canada.

The following are some of the outcomes and ongoing work being done:

• Researchers published a detailed report entitled Ending Conversion Therapy in Canada
• Advocacy around the conversion therapy conversation led to Prime Minister Trudeau issuing a mandate letter to Attorney General Lametti to “… amend the ‘Criminal Code’ to ban the practice of conversion therapy and take other steps required with the provinces and territories to end conversion therapy in Canada.”
• Ongoing interviews are being conducted across Canada to continue the research
• A second Dialogue event is being planned for Fall 2020

For more information, visit our website for a guest blog post from Dr Travis Salway Beyond the Ban: A Public Health Strategy to Eradicate Anti-2S/LGBTQ Practices and SOGIECE through the Centre for Gender & Sexual Health Equity.

The post Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and Expression Change Efforts (SOGIECE) Dialogue Event and Research appeared first on Pacific Public Health Foundation.

A few weeks ago, I walked into my office to see this above the door:

Now, if you love Ted Lasso, no explanation is probably needed. But, if you don’t watch the show, Ted’s spirit, love for his work and team, and ability to dream big, is genuine, heartwarming, and inspiring. His goofy nature just adds to his charm. 

My team, knowing how much I love Ted (and soccer), knew this ‘Believe’ banner in our office would make me happy and feel supported, and bring us closer as a team. At the same time, it also reminds me of Ted’s earnest and kind-hearted wisdom about hope and believing, and this makes me think about what it means to really believe in something, and how belief itself needs to be nurtured and nourished. 

I believe in our work, I believe in my team, I believe in our purpose, our value, and that we make a difference. I also believe in kindness, to others and to ourselves, and that authentic and genuine belief in something also means being vulnerable, open, and hopeful. And I believe in trying to model this every day. Like Ted (I’d even love his job, truth be told).

You might not know this, but I’ve been with the BCCDC Foundation for many years. We were a two-person rodeo, a ‘behind the scenes’ organization doing good work, but quietly in the background. In 2019 we decided to change that. Thankfully we did because we have been able to support BC with two public health emergencies since then, as well as a multitude of other projects and public health work. In fact, it’s our third anniversary of the launch of our newsletter coming up in June. Since then, we have been publishing our monthly newsletter—35 total to date!

What you also might not know is that we’re still a pretty small bunch—a wonderful team who now surrounds me every day with their passion, commitment, kindness, and ability to believe—we’re ‘small but mighty,’ we like to say. Each day, we’ve been doing our best in service of our purpose to make a positive impact on the health of our communities in BC. And we remain committed to this, 100%.

But, I’m tired. We’re tired. And without being too presumptuous, I can guess you’re pretty tired too. It’s been a long, difficult, and emotional couple of years. We want to be honest with you because we believe you’ll understand why I’m writing this, and when I tell you that we are going to take a purposeful and thoughtful pause.

What kind of pause, you might be wondering?

We truly believe in what we’re doing and we want to honour that. But that belief drives us to take on a lot, meaning we feel we need some time and space to regroup, reenergize, and refocus. 

We need some time to nurture and nourish our hope and belief, and I’m personally trying to keep my commitment to model openness, kindness, and authenticity. 

This pause means we have some really big things we’re working on, including continuing to support the public health response to COVID-19, that includes planning, recovery, and learning for future emerging threats. We’re also working with our partners on solutions to address the overdose crisis. And that’s not even all—we have a lot of things in progress! 

This pause means that even though we strongly believe in consistently sharing evidence-based content, we aren’t going to send our regular, monthly newsletter for a little while, and we’re going to evaluate how and when we share information so it’s most meaningful to you. 

But, this pause also means we’re not disappearing entirely. You’ll still hear from us by email here and there, we’ll make sure to stay available on social media, and we remain committed to sharing public health content, stories, and exciting news with you. 

And you can still donate to support public health, whether you want to support a specific project or let us decide where your gift is most needed. If you don’t already, you can also follow us @bccdcfoundation on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram—lots of good content there not to be missed. 

Know that this wasn’t an easy decision to make. We hold ourselves to high standards, and for a small team, we tackle some pretty big stuff, and we want to do it all, all the time. But we’re only human, and although the past few years have been fulfilling, rewarding, and given us a lot to be proud of and believe in, they have also been difficult, tiring, and emotional. 

From the war in Ukraine, to the humanitarian crises in places like Sudan, Yemen, and Ethiopia, from the absolutely horrific racist attack recently in Buffalo and the mass shooting in Texas, to the multitude of murdered children uncovered at sites of residential schools. These tragedies don’t even include the daily toll of living in a pandemic, or thinking about the six people on average dying per day in BC right now due to the toxic drug poisoning crisis, or the witnessing of, and worrying about, climate change every day. These are all public health issues that weigh on us.

So this is us being honest, self-compassionate, and taking a little pause. A small moment to catch our breath, so that we can be better and stronger for you, our community. We are fully committed to continuing our public health work to fund, support, advocate, share, engage, lead.

We show up every day because we care about your health, the health of our communities in BC, and the health of everyone across the globe. Like Ted, we believe. 

This pause may be a little unconventional, but it’s intentional and grounded in our belief system, and our values. And hey, maybe we’ll start a trend and inspire others to be open about a need to take the foot off the gas pedal, just a little? We do work in the health sector after all, and talk about mental wellness and wellbeing a lot. So here’s hoping this spreads and we all feel it’s okay to be vulnerable, honest, and continue to meet each other where we are at. 

I’d like to thank my team for all their hard work and dedication. And to you, our supporter, we see you and appreciate you! And I hope you can take a pause, a break, some time to breathe too. Stay safe and healthy, and we’ll catch you on the flip side (we won’t be gone long, don’t fret!). 

Keep believing. We will too.

The post We BELIEVE, so we pause… appeared first on Pacific Public Health Foundation.

The post Newsletter #13: June 2020 appeared first on Pacific Public Health Foundation.

January 28, 2020

Health Minister Adrian Dix and Provincial Health Officer Dr Bonnie Henry held a press conference at the BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) today to announce the first presumptive positive case of the novel coronavirus, 2019-nCOV, in British Columbia.

The BCCDC Public Health Laboratory (PHL) tested a sample that was confirmed positive late on January 27, 2019. This case is classified as a “presumptive positive” because the sample is now being sent to the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg for confirmation. Based on the affected individual’s symptoms and recent travel, and the accuracy of the BCCDC PHL’s testing, there is high confidence in the results.

Dr Henry emphasized that risk to the general public of BC remains very low, but that healthcare workers across the province are working diligently to monitor, test, and care for the population. The best ways for the public to protect themselves are with regular hand washing, coughing and sneezing into a tissue or your elbow, and not touching your face (especially your mouth and nose), and staying home when sick.

When accessing information about this new virus, we encourage you to use reputable sources and to avoid rumors spread on the internet and through social media. The BCCDC will be issuing periodic updates as more information comes in, and is your most trusted source of information for coronavirus in BC.

Emerging Areas Priority

As the charitable partner of the BCCDC, we support important public health projects and initiatives that keep our population safe. You can play a role in protecting the health of our population by making a tax-deductible donation to our Emerging Areas Priority.

Funding to our Emerging Areas Priority provides both the flexibility and rapid response that is necessary to address public health threats immediately, when they arise. That type of rapid response is what keeps British Columbians and Canadians safe and healthy. Make your gift to Emerging Areas today.

The post First Novel Coronavirus Case in BC appeared first on Pacific Public Health Foundation.

When I was a teenager, I did my best to hide the fact that I was gay. I had a girlfriend and a buzzcut and avoided talking about topics that would raise the subject of sexuality. I was fortunate to have not attended ‘conversion therapy’, but looking back on it now, I’m not sure I would’ve passed up the opportunity had it been presented to me as an option.

‘Conversion therapy’ is a misnomer applied to practices that start from the premise that any sexual orientation other than heterosexual and any gender identity other than cisgender should be denied and suppressed, rather than affirmed and supported. These practices include things like pseudoscientific forms of psychotherapy, aversion or shock therapy, religious teachings, behavioral coaching, and delaying access to gender-affirming care.

And yes, they are still happening, in Canada, today.

My own experiences of societal norms, attitudes and sexuality have always driven my public health research. My doctoral research was on estimating rates of suicide among gay and bisexual men–and understanding why these rates are so high. In the spring of 2019, I was invited to make a statement before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health, in support of their historic study on The Health of LGBTQIA2 Communities in Canada. When I asked the Committee policy analysts what they wanted to know, they said they understood that rates of suicide were unacceptably high in queer and trans communities, but they want to know what the federal government can do about it.

The federal government had just reviewed a petition from MP Sheri Benson to ban conversion therapy for minors in Canada. The petition had 18,200 signatures from across the country, signalling a strong desire among Canadians to end these practices. (in fact, a national poll conducted this year found that 58% of Canadians support a ban on conversion therapy.) The government responded by acknowledging that conversion therapy does not reflect the values of Canadians, or those of the federal government; however the petition was rejected on the basis that “this issue primarily implicates the regulation of the health profession, which is a provincial and territorial responsibility.” I responded by challenging the assumptions of the federal government’s rejection, specifically that the denouncement of conversion therapy by more than 49 health organizations has to-date not brought an end to conversion therapy. Therefore, more action is needed, at all levels of government.

MPs at the Committee hearing had no shortage of questions for me about what a federal ban on conversion therapy should look like. Ron McKinnon (Coquitlam-Port Coquitlam) asked, “first, I’d like to understand who is performing conversion therapy?…are these people doing this for hire or for profit?” He also wanted to know–acknowledging my statement that some people are taken to conversion therapy against their will–“who gets compelled [to attend conversion therapy], and how are they compelled?”

Don Davies (Vancouver Kingsway) asked, “in your view, does this answer [the federal government’s response to Benson’s petition] satisfy you, or would you like to see an explicit Criminal Code provision to ban conversion therapy?” Robert-Falcon Ouellette (Winnipeg Centre) wondered, “how many kids go out of the country [for conversion therapy]?”

My answers to these questions are limited by the scarcity of research on the topic in Canada. Therefore, I have spent much of the past year talking with conversion therapy survivors. In November, I convened a group of 31 survivors, community leaders, researchers, healthcare providers, religious leaders, and policy analysts to set the stage for research to better describe the prevalence and nature of conversion therapy (also known as SOGIECE, sexual orientation and gender identity and expression change efforts) in Canada, as well as the health and social service needs of survivors. In January 2020, we will begin in-depth interviews with survivors from across the country. Leaders of at least two of the federal parties have made election commitments to banning the practices. The policy-action iron is hot, and we are moving quickly to ensure that policy-makers have the data they need to enact effective policies.

Talking with survivors has helped me appreciate the scope and severity of ongoing conversion therapy practices in Canada. What could have been a reality for me–growing up in fear of society’s attitude toward my own sexual orientation–remains a threat for tens of thousands of Canadians. I hid my sexuality throughout my teenage years, and thereby averted opportunities for conversion therapy to be presented to me. Today, LGBTQ2 people are coming out at younger ages. While this is undoubtedly a sign of social progress, it also means that youth may be more vulnerable to conversion therapy because they are more visible than the LGBTQ2 youth of my generation were.

Conversion therapy practices are inhumane. They lead to years of psychological distress, and inhibit our ability to lead self-affirmed and self-actualized lives. In some cases, survivors have told me that they lost their ability to work and form relationships. Canadian youth deserve the opportunities to grow up confidently knowing that their sexual orientations, gender identities, and gender expressions will be celebrated and supported. Achieving this vision of a fully LGBTQ2-affirming country requires empirical descriptions of ongoing conversion therapy practices that will in turn enable us to end conversion therapy, once and for all.

If you want to support Travis’ work, make a tax-deductible gift to our crowdfunding campaign before December 31st. Donations will support his work in conducting research on conversion therapy and ensuring that LGBTQ2+ youth are protected from these inhuman practices.

The post The Threat & Reality of Conversion Therapy in Canada appeared first on Pacific Public Health Foundation.

Racism & health equity

“Racism within institutions & society influences how opportunities for health & well-being are distributed.”

Sume Ndumbe-Eyoh, from National Collaborating Centre for Determinants of Health took us on a deep dive into how race and racism impacts health, through the lens of equity. By looking at the different levels and ways in which racism permeates our world (internalized, interpersonal, institutional, and systemic), and how it negatively impacts health and contributes to inequitable access to health for those who are Black, Indigenous, and people of colour (BIPOC).

Regardless of the health issue we’re addressing—chronic disease, mental health, food security—race and racism must be examined in order to adequately address it. Sume’s workshop was a necessary and important reminder of this; as we grow as an organization we’re determined to incorporate those learnings into our individual and organizational work. You can learn more about racism and health equity here.

Project Inclusion, a study by Pivot Legal Society

Project Inclusion is an in-depth study and report taken on by Pivot that looked at anti-homeless and anti-drug user stigma and how those prejudices play out in policies, practices, and laws. Presented by Caitlin Shane, Meenakshi Mannoe, and Dave Hamm, they discussed how stigma against marginalized populations is perpetuated through cultural, economic, political, and legal powers, and constantly reinforces itself.

For example, labelling of a person as a person who uses drugs (cultural) then cause a knowledge gap in the form of stereotypes and misinformation (economic), which leads to loss of status through attitudes and behaviours (legal), which influences our laws and policies (political). These forces act on one another to continue the cycle.

This impacts public health in clear and direct ways. Stigma against people who use substances and who are homeless creates barriers to accessing services like healthcare, it contributes to increased rates of HIV and hepatitis C, it’s a factor in food insecurity, social isolation, and the list goes on. This is where social determinants of health are critical in improving health and well-being for our entire population.

You can check out the full report and some great explainer videos about Project Inclusion here.

ROSE Initiative, BCCDC, University of Victoria, RainCity Housing, Solid Outreach

Zahra Mamdani, Lacey Mesley, and Paige Phillips took us through the importance of supporting experiential/peer workers in overdose response environments. Since the overdose crisis was declared in 2016 challenges faced by peers (or experiential workers in front-line environments have grown exponentially. The ROSE Initiative (Recognition, Organizational support, Skill development, for Everyone) is an intervention designed to directly support these workers.

After conducting a needs assessment, significant gaps were found in adequately supporting peer workers. For example, providing workers with business cards and photo ID—to many of us, these are assumed to be provided to us as part of our jobs and we take for granted the legitimacy they provide. For experiential workers, this is a huge stepping stone in having their life-saving work properly recognized. Other interventions include having formal job descriptions, first aid and CPR and other skill development, peer debriefing supports, and networking opportunities with other professionals.

In a time where peer workers are leading the charge on overdose response work and are everyday heroes in their communities, it’s unimaginable that these supports are not already in place. But, we’re thrilled to see these groups working together to ensure peer workers have their needs met. Read more about the ROSE Initiative here.

Though there were many more great talks, the areas that align with our current projects and priorities were definitely stand outs and left us feeling inspired and invigorated to get back to the office and continue our work. Thanks to PHABC for putting on this conference every year so all us public heath folks can convene, engage and be inspired.

Stay up to date with this conversation and so much more by signing up for our monthly newsletter, and following us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

The post Reflections on PHABC’s “Simplifying Complexity” appeared first on Pacific Public Health Foundation.