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Hot Topic |
Examining Risk
This year the theme of OPHA's annual conference is Public Health: Who's at Risk? What's at Stake? This theme is particularly relevant given the current climate of reform and change in public health and the broader health care system. While clearly there are risks to the public, the conference will go beyond that and examine the risks to the Public Health system and the people working within it.
When we think about health risks to the public, the first thing that comes to mind these days is pandemic influenza. A pandemic would be particularly disastrous if the public health workforce and the public themselves have not adequately prepared for it, if we do not communicate the risk accurately, and if Public Health and its partners are not equipped to handle an outbreak properly.
Beyond risks of pandemic proportions, every program area is aware of risks to the public if adequate Public Health action is not taken. For example, if vaccination rates keep dropping, diseases like German measles — which was all but eradicated — will reappear in communities that are not protected.
Increasing rates of sexually transmitted infections are prompting us to examine our methods of sex education and how we communicate risk with diverse communities.
Our health is also at risk from environmental factors, the risks often being greater in disadvantaged population groups who suffer to a greater degree from negative environmental factors than the general population because of where they live.
The increasing burden of illness from chronic diseases looms over us and puts our entire health system at risk. The number of people accessing our treatment system will be increasing at an accelerated rate due to our aging population. As well, there is an increased threat of a greater burden due to obesity in our children and youth, who will require more treatment earlier in life than the previous generation.
This increased burden of chronic diseases is a major impetus to the present changes in our health care system: the formation of the LHINS, the movement towards primary health care reform where interdisciplinary practice is the norm, the increased focus on chronic disease prevention and management and the creation of the Ministry of Health Promotion. We must revamp our health system in order to face this looming crisis.
At a system level, we await further decisions about Public Health to help understand where we fit among all these changes. The new Public Health Standards are now awaiting approval by the Ministries of Health and Long-Term Care, Health Promotion, and Children and Youth Services. Once the Public Health Standards are adopted, the form of Public Health service delivery can and will be determined.
One of the present challenges is the potential overlap between the population health mandate of LHINs and that of Public Health. Ideally, Public Health and the local LHINs can work together to create a seamless delivery of health services from health promotion to tertiary care. If we do not work together we will contribute to the present gap in services, and our health care partners will move into the community without a complete understanding of the principles and best practices in population and public health and the core competencies required for public health work.
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