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What's New 2011 Locally Driven Collaborative Projects (LDCP)
PROJECT CO-LEADS Daphne Mayer Niagara Region Public Health York Region Community and Health Services Public Health Agency of Canada Overview
The understanding of the relationship between the built environment and health requires sufficient data that are both current and geographically commensurate. The purpose of this project is to support the identification of standardized walkability data and select environmental exposure data (specific air pollutants and heat exposure) that can be used in the assessment of the urban built environment in Ontario and to develop policy recommendations. An environmental scan will provide a systematic overview of walkability and environment exposure data needs in urban Ontario through:
Project outcomes include:
The project results will highlight and facilitate discussion about built environment data issues, and influence action to address these issues. For more information, contact ldcp@oahpp.ca.
PROJECT LEAD PARTNERS
Overview
Little research exists on parenting style — how parents interact with their children, the relationships they form with their children and how they communicate with one another. The Ontario Public Health Standards (OPHS) (2008) child health standard states that the goal of public health programming is to enable all children to attain and sustain optimal health and developmental potential. It highlights the need to assess positive parenting in terms of monitoring trends at the population level. Using a cross-sectional data collection method, this project will address that data gap by conducting a telephone survey with a sample of households across Ontario to collect information from parents with children under 18 on parenting style. This information will help health units tailor their existing programming for families, including:
For more information, contact ldcp@oahpp.ca.
PROJECT CO-LEADS Cathy Dykeman Hamilton PH Services Hastings & Prince Edward Counties Health Unit Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington Public Health Unit Middlesex-London Health Unit North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit York Region Community and Health Services Windsor-Essex County Health Unit McMaster University Ontario Neurotrauma Foundation Overview
Data will be collected from staff in senior-serving community organizations within three health unit regions in Ontario. In Stage One of the project, we will develop a questionnaire to assess knowledge and use of evidence-based fall prevention. In Stage Two, we will conduct qualitative interviews and focus groups with service providers and managers/directors from community organizations within each health unit region to examine their experiences implementing fall prevention evidence. Study findings will help health care decision-makers and public health leaders understand the factors influencing use of evidence-based fall prevention for older adults within and across diverse community settings. Such information can be used to identify how public health can best engage diverse community organizations in integrating injury prevention evidence and increase public awareness and adoption of fall-preventing behaviours. For more information, contact ldcp@oahpp.ca.
PROJECT LEAD PARTNERS Interest in strengths-based practice as a way to enhance the positive development of individuals has increased significantly as public health practitioners shift their attention from the prevention of specific problems to a more positive, holistic view on individual development. Interventions have moved increasingly toward creating a coordinated sequence of positive experiences and providing key developmental supports and opportunities. Rather than the traditional perspective of engaging a person with a problem orientation and risk focus, a strengths-based approach seeks to understand and develop the strengths and capabilities that can transform the lives of people in positive ways (Alvord & Grados, 2005; Barton, 2005; Benson, Leffert, Scales, & Blyth, 1998). Intuitively, the idea of focusing on the strengths of a person is considered to be a respectful and meaningful starting point in supporting positive change. While many health practitioners agree with the idea of working from a strengths-based perspective, few have been thoroughly trained or given the support to work from an underlying set of values, principles and philosophy of strengths-based practice (Rapp & Goscha, 2006). In response to this challenge, the current research project will explore:
For more information, contact ldcp@oahpp.ca. PROJECT LEAD PARTNERS
The Rapid Risk Factor Surveillance System (RRFSS) is an ongoing telephone survey used by many public health units to gather public health-related information from residents of their communities. In 2011, RRFSS began a pilot project to collect data from across Ontario and produce, for the first time, provincial estimates from RRFSS data. This project is an evaluation of that provincial sample pilot project (PSPP). The evaluation will summarize the implementation and results of the RRFSS PSPP, documenting:
Four sources of data will be used. The quality of the provincial RRFSS data will be assessed by comparing them with data from the Census, the Canadian Community Health Survey and pseudo provincial estimates from the 2010 and 2011 RRFSS. The perceived benefits and limitations of the provincial RRFSS sample will be assessed through an electronic survey of Ontario health units as well as telephone interviews with a sample of health units, including both health units that did and did not participate in RRFSS in 2011. Telephone interviews will also be conducted with provincial agencies and other health partners to determine levels of interest in RRFSS. Finally, the impact and value of a provincial RRFSS sample and assessment of sustainability will be assessed using a cost analysis. The information provided by the evaluation will be used to inform decisions related to future provincial sampling in RRFSS. For more information, contact ldcp@oahpp.ca.
PROJECT LEAD PROJECT PARTNERS OVERVIEW A team of public health experts and researchers will work together with community partners to identify these two specific groups of people. Next we will look at past research and other sources of information so we can describe concerns, needs, barriers and supports to obtaining food skills. The next step will be to use the information to help us develop questions and conduct interviews with members of the two different groups so we can learn directly from them what they think of when they hear the term food skills. Up to eight of the 36 health units in Ontario are participating in this research. We will look for common and unique themes or ideas from the interviews. Finally, we will share what we learned with health units across Ontario so they can use the findings when they plan and deliver food skills programs in their areas. For more information, contact ldcp@oahpp.ca. For more information about the locally driven collaborative projects and the new program, the paper A New Program Model for Supporting Applied Research and Program Evaluation, Education and Professional Development, and Knowledge Exchange in Public Health, is available online and questions can be sent to feedback@oahpp.ca |
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