Centre for Health Promotion
University of Toronto
Public Health Sciences
155 College Street, Suite 400
Toronto, ON
M5T 3M7
Tel: 416-978-1809
Fax: 416-971-1365
centre.healthpromotion@utoronto.ca

   E-Info Update Fall 2006

Contents

To subscribe to the email version, contact us at centre.healthpromotion@utoronto.ca.

Director’s Remarks

The Centre for Health Promotion has linkages and projects that engage many people and collaborate with different organizations and agencies. This is one of its strengths. In relation to the determinants of health, I resubmitted a proposal to Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) to examine the factors affecting people’s ability to cope while they are waiting for social housing in Toronto with Sandy Welsh in Sociology, Jim Dunn (a geographer at St. Mike’s) and colleagues at the Toronto Community Housing Corporation. In addition, I was invited by a consortium of agencies involved in inclusion research around stroke to guide them in a participatory analysis of their data. This was an exciting opportunity to break new ground on how to analyze qualitative data in a participatory way and hear from marginalized women about their needs.

I continue to be in a major partnership with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) particularly focused on mental health promotion. In addition to creating a mental health promotion guide for frontline practitioners working with children and youth, we have begun work on the next guide in the series focused on mental health promotion with seniors 55+. With organizations across Canada including CAMH, the Centre is a partner in planning the International Mental Health Promotion Symposium connected to the IUHPE conference in June 2007.

My ongoing interest in economic evaluation of health promotion programs now has two components - one is to complete the Guide to Economic Evaluation for Health Promotion in collaboration with Ligia de Salazar at Universidad de Valle in Colombia and Alan Shiell at University of Calgary. We have clarified key aspects of the economic evaluation process applied to health promotion programs and identified areas for new research. I have also been part of an advisory group to an economic evaluation of primary health care project with the Canadian Alliance of Community Health Centre Associations. This is now moving towards a project to look at systems models of primary health care across Canada in preparation for conducting economic evaluations.

Continuing on the primary health care theme, I have been interested in examining community outreach and health promotion programs in community health centres and the critical success factors in a variety of contexts. With this in mind, I submitted a Community-University Research Affiliation (CURA) grant to SSHRC with the Association of Community Health Centres. Unfortunately it was not successful. The Centre is also involved in linking health promotion to primary health care in our work with the Canadian Society for International Health in Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

One of the most exciting areas of work over the summer has been the Centre’s work with WHO to explore the issue of policy coherence. A group of us have described the best practices for how to work across sectors (horizontal coherence), connect all levels of government (vertical coherence), and understand the implications of policies of one country on other countries (international coherence). This is the most macro level for healthy public policy thinking in health promotion. We hope to publish our ideas, write a report for WHO and bring a group of experts from around the world together to talk about this. This work ties well with the course on Global Public Health that I am preparing as the core course for the new master level global health concentration in Public Health Sciences at U of T. The first cohort of students in this program started in September 2006.

The other new activity for me this year is to be a co-investigator on a Team Grant funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research around “Averting Emerging Chronic Diseases in Northern Populations: A Circumpolar Collaborative Research Initiative.” This project will take me to northern Canada to work with people and organizations to develop and evaluate health promotion programs.

These may sound like a lot of projects for one person! However I do engage my Masters students and others within the Centre to help. In the rest of this newsletter, you will read information from other units of the Centre, including our new additions of TeenNet Research and the TeenNet Gambling Project. It is exciting to have more projects underway and more ways that we can connect with others.

--Suzanne F. Jackson, Director

To Top

News from the Centre

Welcome to Mohini Athia, the new Financial and Administrative Assistant for the Centre for Health Promotion. She has worked on graduate admissions and policy at the School of Graduate Studies (UofT) but comes to the Centre after spending the past four and a half years in South Asia teaching and traveling.

Welcome to two new units of the Centre for Health Promotion – TeenNet Research, with Charlotte Lombardo as the Manager. TeenNet Research has been passed to the Centre from Harvey Skinner as he has taken up a position as Dean at York University’s newly created Faculty of Health. The TeenNet Gambling Project has also been transferred to CHP with Jennifer Reynolds as Manager. The Centre now has space on the fourth and seventh floors of the Health Sciences Building.

As a result of the acquisition of the new units, there are new Fellows of the Centre for Health Promotion. Harvey Skinner and Cameron Norman are Fellows linked to TeenNet, ehealth and health literacy and David Korn is a Fellow linked to the Gambling Project. Welcome to everyone!

Visitors and guests to the Centre from May to October 2006 came from many parts of the world.
Rae Walker (Australia) gave a seminar on her work around trust between organizations as an important component of partnership formation;
Eberhard Goepel (Germany) visited in July from the European-Canadian exchange;
Shumei Wang (China) visited in June and is engaged in healthy city projects in Shanghai;
Ana Maria Spirandotti (Brazil) is involved in a network of healthy city projects in Brazil and came to the Summer School as well.
Lucia Y. Izumi Nichiata, and Lislaine A. Fracolli (Brazil) visited the Centre while doing a short post-doctoral fellowship at UofT. Their interest lay in developments in the field of child health, community empowerment and HIV/AIDS.
Lorenza Mariscal and Lucero Rodriguez (Mexico) visited in May and met with various members of PHS to learn about training and health promotion.

Old friends also dropped by the Centre in July to give updates about their activities: Jaime Sapag (Chile), Juliana de Paula (Brazil), and Consuelo Andrade (Mexico).

Reza Shidfar from Iran is back at the Centre for a year to study the experience of Iranian immigrants to Canada from a health promotion perspective; and
Abdul Fattah continues to develop projects with Bangladesh and volunteer at the Centre.

-- Suzanne F. Jackson, Director

To Top

Centre for Health Promotion’s

Annual General Meeting 2006
Thursday November 30th
4:00-6:30pm
Croft Chapter House, University College

A formal invitation will be sent at the end of October.

News from The Health Communication Unit (THCU)

UPCOMING THCU EVENTS

THCU Provincial Workshops
THCU is pleased to offer its series of provincial workshops for 2006/7. All workshops are free of charge for Ontario residents. This year as an alternative to offering all of our annual workshops in Toronto, we will be holding one of them in the southwest region in partnership with the Middlesex-London Health Unit.

For more information, or to register online, please visit our website at http://www.thcu.ca.

Introduction to Evaluating Health Promotion Programs, November 21 & 22
The Grosvenor Club, 1 Grosvenor Street, London, Ontario
Robb MacDonald, The Health Communication Unit
*in partnership with the Middlesex-London Health Unit

Introduction to Health Promotion Program Planning, January 30 & 31, 2007
Oakham House, Ryerson University, 63 Gould Street, Toronto
Larry Hershfield and Heather Graham, The Health Communication Unit

Earlier this year, we held Developing Health Promotion Policy and Media Advocacy workshops (June 12 & 13 respectively) in Toronto. As well, Making the Case (October 3-4) was presented with co-hosts the United Way of Greater Toronto.

THCU Regional Workshops

Audience Analysis & Message Development, October 13
Algoma Health Unit, Sault Ste Marie – Robb MacDonald, THCU

Introduction to Evaluating Health Promotion Programs, October 24
Northwestern Health Unit, Red Lake – Robb MacDonald, THCU

Introduction to Evaluating Health Promotion Programs, October 26
Timiskaming Health Unit, Englehart – Nancy Dubois, THCU

Developing Health Promotion Policy & Media Advocacy, November 1
Porcupine Health Unit, Timmins – Nancy Dubois, THCU

Sustainability, November 8
Simcoe Muskoka Health Unit, Gravenhurst – Robb MacDonald, THCU

Media Skills, November 21
Regional Municipality of Durham, Whitby – Robb MacDonald, THCU

In order to maintain maximum participation in the workshops, we will occasionally offer space to individuals from outside the hosting organization. Please check our website for regular updates to this list.

THCU Website and New Products
New resources from THCU are available on our website. Visit http://www.thcu.ca and check them out!

• Our Learning Community (http://www.thcu.ca/blogs/lc) has been updated with a Q&A on survey methods arising from a workshop in May 2006. Past Community topics include Risk Communication (with Vicki Freimuth) and Managing Campaign Development (with THCU consultants). We invite you to visit and continue the discussion by adding comments, questions and resources related to any of these topics. If you are new to the world of blogs, you can visit http://www.thcu.ca/blogs/lc/?page_id=2 to help you get started.
• The What We're Reading column was updated in July, August and September with lots of reviews of useful articles from Health Communication, Social Marketing Quarterly, Health Education and Behaviour, the Report on Social Norms Working Paper series and more!
• New case studies will be added in early October, featuring discussion of our 12 step process as it was used to develop communication campaigns for tobacco (Breathing Space), injury prevention (Safe Kids), and oral health (2 for 2).
• Also in October, we'll be adding the results of literature searches we've done for clients, including searches on communication with teachers, ethical guidelines and corporate advertising for health organizations, preconceptional health for men, adult learning theories, and many, many more.

Ontario Health Promotion Email Bulletin (OHPE)
Want to know what people think about the OHPE? In September, we reported on our March 2006 reader survey and provided some feedback on your comments and concerns. To see other recent feature articles, visit
http://www.ohpe.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=40&Itemid=78


THCU's Workplace Project
THCU’s Workplace Project is now in its 7th year of promoting comprehensive workplace health promotion to intermediaries across Ontario. This year, we are continuing to facilitate the development of the Ontario Healthy Workplace Coalition (still in the early stages). We plan to hold another Provincial Gathering in March 2007, where the work of the Coalition will continue to grow. We will also be offering various e-learning opportunities this year, as well as working to update and expand some of our existing resources.

Upcoming resources to look out for on our web site (www.thcu.ca/workplace) include:

• A video (with PowerPoint slides) of Graham Lowe’s key note presentation from our March 2006 Provincial Gathering. The presentation is entitled “The cultural foundations of health and performance” and includes a facilitated group discussion by Dr. Lowe.
• Our online Well-Regarded Intervention Catalogue, which will contain a variety of accessible, useable and well-regarded workplace interventions. This catalogue will be a companion piece to the existing Catalogue of Situational Assessment Tools.

Hardcopies of Comprehensive Workplace Health Promotion: Recommended and Promising Practices for Situational Assessment Tools are available for free from the Workplace Project (in limited numbers)!

If you have Workplace Project questions, comments and/or requests for materials, please contact Ali Kilbourn at workplace_admin@thcu.ca.

-- Cathy Duerden, Jodi Thesenvitz, Ali Kilbourn, Noelle Gadon

To Top

News from the International Health Promotion Unit

PAHO Participatory Evaluation Resource Manual
The Centre for Health Promotion has been a key partner with PAHO Office in Trinidad-Tobago in developing the English language version of the Participatory Evaluation Resource Manual. Based on the ground work done in 2005 to write a community-friendly version of the Manual in English, Trinidad-Tobago built in case illustrations that would resonate in the Caribbean and reworked some of the format of the document. We hope that PAHO will produce this document in early 2007.

WHO Policy Coherence
In follow-up to the Bangkok Conference, the Centre submitted a proposal to WHO-Geneva to pursue the policy coherence idea further. The first action area in the Bangkok Charter for Global Health Promotion is to put health on the global development agenda, and one strategy to do this is policy coherence. Carmen Connolly, Fran Perkins, and Suzanne Jackson worked with MHSc. student Giulia El Dardiry to prepare a literature review of the best practices in policy coherence process. We developed a conceptual framework to guide our thinking about the different kinds of policy coherence and we are developing a guide on how to do it.

IUHPE & PAHO Guide to Economic Evaluation in Health Promotion
This Guide is in its final stages of writing and will be available in early 2007. Suzanne Jackson has worked with Ligia de Salazar (Cali, Colombia) and Alan Shiell (health economist at University of Calgary) on this document. It will assist health promoters to work with health economists and identifies the key areas that require typical economic evaluation work and areas requiring more complex processes. The next steps will be to provide training connected to this guide, a way to collect case studies, and a research proposal.

“The Way Forward” IUHPE Conference
Health promoters in Canada are gearing up for a huge conference June 10-15, 2007 in Vancouver. Among other preparations, there will be several books and reports released at this event. One of them is a report of the health promotion contributions of 10 countries with a synthesis of the critical success factors. Suzanne Jackson is the lead author for the chapter on Canada’s contribution to health promotion since the Ottawa Charter. A cross-Canada Advisory Committee has been set up and MHSc. student Danielle Schirmer will be the research assistant. International Mental Health Promotion Symposium - On the Sunday that the IUHPE Conference starts (June 10, 2007), there will be a number of pre-conference workshops. The Centre is involved with organizations across Canada in planning a one-day symposium on mental health promotion. This will be a follow-up to the MHP Summer Institute that was held in summer 2005 and it will take advantage of the presence of speakers and participants coming to the IUHPE Conference. See our website www.utoronto.ca/chp for details.

Health Promotion in Europe
Youth for Health in Serbia and Bosnia - Centre for Health Promotion fellows such as Fran Perkins, Suzanne Jackson, Larry Hershfield, Harvey Skinner, Charlotte Lombardo, and Ken Hoffman are consultants to a project of the Canadian Society for International Health (funded by CIDA) to put a youth-friendly touch to primary health services in Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. This is a three-year project which started in the summer of 2006. Fran, Suzanne and Ken are all making visits to both countries in the fall of 2006 to begin the work. It will involve engaging youth organizations and NGOs, training for primary care practitioners, and setting up models or demonstration sites.

Canada-Europe Initiative in Health Promotion Advanced Learning (CEIHPAL) Exchange Program
The Centre for Health Promotion is one of three universities in Canada that is part of an exchange with three universities in Europe. We are working on a common curriculum in health promotion and exchanging students. Vanessa Yu from U of T was the first student to participate in the exchange. She worked on an evaluation project at the University of Brighton and attended the Annual European Health Promotion Summer School in Croatia. Anja Ziegenspeck from the University of Magdeburg and Nicole Vann from University of Brighton are in Toronto this fall.

-- Fran Perkins and Suzanne F. Jackson

To Top

Ontario Health Promotion Summer School 2006 (HPSS)

The 13th Ontario Health Promotion Summer School, organized by the Centre for Health Promotion, was held June 26-29th at the BMO Institute for Learning. More than 150 registrants, 40 volunteers and 80 presenters from all over Canada participated. We were also honoured by visits from international guests, including representatives from Brazil and Belgrade.

Four committees actively helped plan the event – the Aboriginal, Francophone and General Curriculum subcommittees, and Steering Committee. The theme highlighted in all three curriculum streams was Creating Supportive Physical and Social Environments.

Several special cultural and social events were held, including a Francophone multi-media presentation; a raucous laughter workshop; an Aboriginal Feast, with a special performance by “Come Dance with Me” a children’s dance troupe from Sarnia; and a culturally nourishing international Francophone banquet with local Francophone musical talent “Fajebo”.

HPSS 2006 was rated very positively by participants in the evaluations where they expressed their appreciation for the excellent curriculum, facilities and atmosphere. A special thank you to our funding partners Heritage Canada, Ministry of Health and Long Term Care and their Aboriginal Health Office, and Aboriginal Healing and Wellness Strategy for their support.

HPSS 2007 will take place in Toronto in June 2007, highlighting the theme ‘Mental Health’ in the General, Aboriginal and French-language curricula and activities. The Summer School will take place over three days, instead of the usual four days. Planning subcommittees are gearing up again, following debriefing from last year, in collaboration with the CHP’s Steering Committee. Publicity will be underway this fall. HPSS 2007 promises to be another rewarding educational and networking experience.

-- Lisa Weintraub

Update on Centre's Special Projects

Masters Students
In the summer, Giulia El Dardiry worked at the Centre for Health Promotion providing evaluation support to the Health Promotion Summer School and working on a WHO project on Policy Coherence: Putting Health on the Global Development Agenda.

This fall, Danielle Schirmer is the U of T Coordinator for the CEIHPAL exchange program between Canada and Europe, helping students with the logistics of the exchange on both sides. She is also working part-time on an assignment from IUHPE to write a book chapter on Canada’s Contribution to Health Promotion Since 1986.

Anja Ziegenspeck is visiting the Centre for Health Promotion from Magdeburg, Germany as part of the Canadian-European CEIHPAL exchange program. Besides attending classes offered in health promotion, she is working on a project to develop Best Practices Guidelines for Mental Health Promotion for people working with seniors 55+.

Juha Mikkonen is visiting from University of Helsinki in Finland. In addition to attending classes at U of T, he is evaluating a health communications campaign on alcohol abuse prevention with youth.

Nicole Vann is visiting from University of Brighton in the UK also as part of the Canadian-European CEIHPAL exchange program. She plans to meet with people connected to community based projects working with youth and alcohol intervention and is also interested in community development approaches to working with older people (50+) around health promotion.

Update on the Special Interest Groups

Cancer Prevention Interest Group

CRTK
The Occupational and Environmental Carcinogens Working Group of the Toronto Cancer Prevention Coalition (TCPC) is building capacity for Community Right-to-Know (CRTK) through partnerships, collaboration and education. The Working Group with membership from the hospital sector, occupational/public health organizations, environmental NGO’s, labour groups, and the public has been working towards developing a CRTK by-law in Toronto since the release of its 2001 report Preventing Occupational and Environmental Cancer: A Strategy for Toronto http://www.toronto.ca/health/resources/tcpc/pdf/tcpc_occupational_enviro_carcinogens.pdf .

The City of Toronto, largely through Toronto Public Health (TPH), has responded by taking steps toward CRTK initiatives, culminating in Toronto Public Health’s most recent 2006 report Access to Environmental Information: Preventing Pollution, Avoiding Risks, at http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/2006/agendas/committees/hl/hl060914/it016.pdf

This Working Group will hold a one day workshop December 5th, 2006 as a follow-up to the successful Building Bridges and Public Policy conference held May 30th 2006. The workshop will be at the Steelworkers Hall, Cecil Street, Toronto. The upcoming Building Bridges and Beyond project will capitalize on the May conference to enhance the scope and reach of CRTK initiatives within the Toronto GTA area.

Information Leads to Action!
An important TCPC cancer prevention action is on ionizing radiation and public health in the Toronto GTA area with relation to the refurbishment/expansion of nuclear power facilities on Lake Ontario. The working group, with Ruth Grier as Chair, facilitated resolutions on tightening radioactive tritium standards in city drinking water. Toronto Public Health, the Board of Health and Toronto City Council approved these resolutions and agreed to test and report on results with
an added agreement to request the Ontario Government to consider more health protective standards.

The working group is contacting other organizations in municipalities along Lake Ontario to enact similar resolutions at their Boards of Health and city councils. To review the rationale on why standards related to tritium discharges from nuclear facilities into drinking water are in the interest of public health/health promotion, contact dgoldinrosenberg@oise.utoronto.ca.

Cancer 20/20: Environmental Use Reduction Forum - February 2007
Keep an eye out for the date of the forthcoming Cancer 20/20: Environmental Use Reduction Forum, an all day Cancer Prevention Conference to be held by the Canadian Cancer Society (Ontario) and Cancer Care Ontario in February 2007 in Toronto. At it, participants will:
• develop a common understanding of issues and current contexts within Ontario;
• learn about successful cancer/toxics use reduction experiences in the United States and Europe;
• discuss and provide input on recommendations for a toxics use reduction strategy for Ontario.

Several members of the TCPC working group are on the planning committee. Contact ppayne@ccsont.org.

Cancer: It’s About Prevention, It’s About Time! May 24-27, 2007
This first-of-a-kind national cancer conference will be held in Ottawa May 24-27, 2007, drawing concerned citizens and leading experts from Canada and the United States to take action to stop cancer before it starts. A significant part of the agenda will focus on detoxifying our homes, schools, workplaces and the environment-at-large. The conference is being organized by the new national coalition called Prevent Cancer Now. For more information contact:

Angela Rickman, Executive Director, Prevent Cancer Now
613-482-8124
angedave@istar.ca

Liz Armstrong, Conference Organizer
519-833-7202
liz@ican.net

Film Update: Toxic Trespass: Children's Health and the Environment, a co production with the National Film Board of Canada will be released in late fall/early winter.

-- Dorothy Goldin Rosenberg

Ontario Healthy Schools Coalition
The committee has been actively meeting and working. Unfortunately no one was able to submit a report for this newsletter. You can look forward to an update in the Annual Report which will be available at the Annual General Meeting.

Healthy U of T Working Group
This group did not meet over the summer but their work in 2005 to present a “Charter for a Healthy UofT” did go forward to the Council of Health Sciences Deans in September 2006.

The Healthy U of T Awards continues to be a key fall activity of the Centre, linked to the work of this group. The Individual Award and the Group Award were both established as a way of recognizing individuals, groups, departments or organizations within the University of Toronto (student, staff or faculty) that have made a healthy difference through a substantial and lasting contribution to the health and well-being of campus life and/or the broader community.

Recognize your peers! Send your nominations in now!

The deadline for nominations is Friday November 10, 2006. Awards will be presented at the Centre’s Annual General Meeting on November 30, 2006.

Please go to www.utoronto.ca/chp/healthyawards.htm for more information and application forms.

Sustainable Food Launch
On September 13th in Hart House Circle, the University officially became the first Canadian university to make a commitment to bring local sustainable food to campus. Local Flavour Plus (LFP) is a non-profit organization that brings farmers and consumers to the table to share in the benefits of environmentally and socially responsible food production. LFP is committed to building and fostering local sustainable food systems by certifying farmers and processors and linking them with local purchasers.
After more than a year of planning, LFP’s network of Ontario-based farmers and processors has begun supplying local sustainable food to cafeterias and residences on the St. George Campus at U of T. To be LFP certified, these producers underwent independent third-party inspection for environmental and social sustainability with a focus on production methods, labour standards, habitat preservation, and energy use. The food venues on campus will have a list each day of the LFP certified ingredients that have been used in the food items served. This is an exciting university-wide health promoting initiative indeed!

-- Suzanne F. Jackson

To Top

Centre E-info Update
Centre for Health Promotion
University of Toronto
155 College St., Suite 400
Toronto, ON M5T 3M7
http://www.utoronto.ca/chp

This site is optimized for Netscape