August 2009 - Constituent Society Corner

Health Promotion Ontario: Steady Growth, Strategic Planning

by Inge Roosendaal, Supervisor, Chronic Disease & Injury Prevention Division, Peel Health

Health Promotion Ontario (HPO) has been engaged in a number of activities over the past year to build capacity within the field and support integration of comprehensive health promotion strategies.

Health Promotion Core Competencies

Work on the development of discipline-specific core competencies for Health Promoters continues. This is a long-range process in collaboration with the Public Health Agency of Canada. Extensive literature reviews of networks, trends and existing competencies for health promoters laid the foundation for a discussion paper and a draft set of discipline-specific competencies. The proposed competencies were then used as a starting point for an extended consultation process with health promotion stakeholders across Canada. We presented our work at the June CPHA conference in Halifax as well as consulted various stakeholders across Canada, including Winnipeg and Vancouver. We also contributed an article in an August Health Promotion E-Bulletin, outlining the process and successes to date.

In an extension of this work, HPO was pleased to support the health promoters of Manitoba as they hosted a full-day provincial consultation on the "discussion draft" of competencies last December. Association member Gayle Bursey (Peel) attended as a representative from HPO, and was able to share her perspective as one of the Ontario leaders of the developmental HP competency work. It is anticipated that a report from this consultation session will be used to help guide further work in other provinces.

Currently we have secured short-term funds from PHAC to help us to develop a strategic plan and database of national and provincial contacts to continue the health promotion competency work at the national level. Marco Ghassemi has been seconded to lead this work.

Strategic Plan Working Group

A strategic plan working group was formed following a motion at our May 2008 Annual General Meeting. The Executive Committee approved the motion for this group to engage the services of a writer to continue to develop a brief “position” or discussion paper that complements our “Fulfilling the Promise” paper of 2005. Potential audiences for this submission include the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care, The Ministry of Health Promotion, the Ontario Agency for Health Promotion and Protection, and other provincial organizations.

Conferences

HPO continues to provide its members with a yearly conference as an opportunity to build skills, learn about innovations in the field, and network with colleagues across the province. 2008's conference, “ Poverty, Politics and Public Health” was well attended and enthusiastically received. The agenda was packed with sessions and speakers based around health promotion and the role of health promoters in developing health public policy.

This year's conference is focused on diversity and health promotion, providing attendees with an opportunity to hear from experts in the field.

Lori Chow Award

Picture of Lori Chow.

In 2008, we marked the first year of the creation of the HPO Lori Chow Memorial Award for Excellence in Health Promotion. This award was presented in May to recipient Gayle Bursey. The Lori Chow Award will presented annually with call for nominations preceding the yearly conference.

Active since 1987, HPO is a network of Health Promotion practitioners throughout Ontario. Our members are employed in Public Health Units, Health Promotion Resource Centres and Community Health Centres. Our membership has continued to grow to over 160 practitioners in the field.

HPO's goals include:

  • To advocate for and promote recognition of the human and financial resources required to ensure effective health promotion programming to help the residents of Ontario achieve their optimum level of health.
  • To foster a commitment to high standards in the development and implementation of health promotion strategies.
  • To support continuing education and research in the field of health promotion.
  • To facilitate the exchange and sharing of resources and strategies that promote the implementation of public health initiatives.
  • To provide input that is consistent with the views of the Association to task forces, advisory bodies, professional organizations, the community and other relevant bodies.
  • To foster interdisciplinary and intersectoral participation in population-based health promotion strategies.