January 2009 - Program Updates

Making Evidence Work for You: Tools to Strengthen Health Promotion Programs

Meet Josh Daley and Bernie McCall. Read the discussion of these two health promoters about their experiences at a recent Towards Evidence-Informed Practice (TEIP) Workshop presented by OPHA’s Heart Health Resource Centre…

Participants and Presenters at TEIP Workshop.

Josh Daley stepped into the position of Heart Health Coordinator (Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit) at the end of summer 2008 knowing that he had a few short weeks to get his feet wet before he needed to submit program plans for 2009 to the Ministry of Health Promotion. As he compared the previous years’ submissions Josh had questions. How did his local best efforts compare to documented best practices and best efforts by promoters elsewhere in the province? How would the new Ontario Public Health Standards affect his work in health promotion?

Josh saw an opportunity to find answers at the TEIP Workshop in November 2008 by OPHA’s Heart Health Resource Centre. The point of the workshop was to provide tools to help participants plan, assess and enhance initiatives as well as search for, evaluate and apply relevant evidence to their specific situations.

"I was hoping to gain some tools, ideas and experiential lessons from others,” he said. “Entering the workshop, I was curious to find out how other rural Heart Health Coalitions have used available evidence to assess their programs. I have found that the literature does not reflect or translate well to rural programs, so I was anxious to hear of new places to look for best practices or recommended programs that can be implemented in my community."

Fortunately the workshop was designed to fulfill a wide variety of needs – including Josh’s. TEIP Manager Dayna Albert, who led the presentation team1, says the workshop was designed to build capacity in the application and generation of evidence in order to strengthen health promotion programs and support decision making. While the learning objectives for the workshop were admittedly ambitious for a one-day session, a great general introduction from which practitioners could identify their strengths and build their individual skills independently.

Review of the day

Kerry Robinson, Senior Policy Analyst, Evidence and Risk Assessment Division, Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention, Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) gave an opening address. Kerry set the context for the day’s activities by discussing the role of evidence in strengthening public health practice. She also gave a quick overview of PHAC’s strategic direction and initiatives to provide national support for “information to knowledge to action”. Kerry concluded her presentation with a guided tour of the recently enhanced Canadian Best Practices Portal for Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention.

Joanne Thanos, Senior Epidemiologist in the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care presented on the New Ontario Public Health Standards: Making Connections to Evidence.

Josh says he found the workshop "intensive". He said here was a "substantial amount of work involved" but when he returned to the office he was able to apply his newly-acquired skills to plan a presentation on the built environment and mental health. He also recognized the strategic importance of evidence and concluded that the work was worth the effort.

"Hearing from other Heart Health Coordinators, and walking through the case study made the many steps and tools seem more surmountable... I realized how beneficial the TEIP process would be in the policy change process where we need to convince decision-makers."

Public Health Nurse Bernie McCall, from the Middlesex London Health Unit, tells a different story. Equipped with 18 years of broad experience in public health nursing and population-based health promotion — chronic diseases, injury prevention, heart health, tobacco, and workplace health — Bernie attended the workshop because it offered timely information about the new Ontario Public Health Standards and its emphasis on surveillance and evaluation. Throughout her career Bernie had been immersed in various types of research, evaluation, and data gathering techniques. The agenda was just as she had anticipated.

"Before the workshop I was interested in learning about techniques that would enhance the quality of the research. I was well aware that the practical application of the research techniques and evaluation does not occur due to time and fiscal or human resource constraints might not allow for the application of research and evidence-based approaches. As the workshop unfolded, I was surprised to learn that TEIP was such a well-developed system on how to do health promotion research."

Now that the workshop is over Bernie says she is looking forward to using the information skills and ideas in TEIP to enhance at least some of her programs going forward. She is actively involved in co-ordinating the OHPP in Middlesex-London and plans to introduce TEIP to her colleagues in the near future.

"I have begun to think about TEIP and will set aside time to process the information and see how it can be applied to current and future programming...I will definitely try to build more evaluation into my health promotion programming."

If you are interested in becoming a TEIP Master Trainer and bringing TEIP’s evidence-informed tools to your organization, contact Dayna Albert, TEIP Manager for further information.

 

 

1 Pam Kinzie, Acting Manager (2008), Heart Health Resource Centre; Christine Herrera, TEIP Program Co-ordinator; Rebecca Byers, HHRC Training and Development Program Co-ordinator.