November 2011 – Message from OPHA’s President and Executive Director

October was a banner month for us. Within the space of just one week all the fruits of our labour were realized. Between October 5-6, 2011 OPHA held its second annual OPHA/HPO Fall Forum focused on engaging priority populations, launched its much anticipated Annual Report which detailed our excellent work in advocacy, capacity building and knowledge exchange and transfer, undertook a series of advocacy work during Election 2011 and held our 2011 October Annual General Meeting.

By all accounts, the Forum was extremely well received by the delegates. Just over 220 delegates attended from across the province to hear from our exiting line-up of speakers on a variety of topics on priority population engagement as a key towards health equity. “Amazing” and “inspiring” are some of the words used by the delegates. This event could not have been made possible without the volunteers and staff of OPHA and HPO. Please accept our thanks!

The October AGM proved to be somewhat successful. One of the most important by-law changes introduced is the creation of a new membership class – Organizational Member. This new class will allow for a number of organizational stakeholders to become a part of our membership and to contribute a broader lens to the work we do in advancing public health. Unfortunately, despite the introduction of these changes, other critical changes were not discussed. As a result, OPHA is organizing another Annual General Meeting on November 15, 2011. This meeting will require members to vote on a number of financial related decisions which are intended to support the financial sustainability of the organization. To learn more, please go to our website at www.opha.on.ca.

OPHA was also active in trying to engage the three political parties during the Election 2011 cycle and was successful in responses from all three parties in joint letters with alPHa. Moreover, we were able to meet with the health critic, France Galinas , NDP. Given the new government, the agenda priorities on childhood obesity, chronic disease prevention and food and nutrition, we are confident that we can influence these areas. OPHA will be equally busy engaging with the new government in all related areas to advance public health issues.

Our landscape has changed again in such a short time, and will no doubt continue to change. This new government has identified a period of financial austerity that will impact and determine our collective futures. Hon. Duncan recently announced that Ontario will face a long “period of restraint” because economic growth in the province is lower than anticipated. At the 2011 Ontario Hospital Association conference, Hon. Mathews announced that the provincial health system could expect to see much lower growth rates compared to previous years, and that there would be a greater emphasis on ensuring ‘value-for-money’. She affirmed the role that prevention and promotion will have in slowing the growth of health care spending and expressed her pleasure in having the health promotion portfolio as part of the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care. She reiterated the government’s commitment towards tackling childhood obesity and continued efforts in tobacco control. She also noted the value of food and nutrition in empowering individuals in chronic disease prevention including diabetes (the focus of this month’s “Hot Topic”). What does this mean for those of us concerned about public health? It means that the time to demonstrate the public health system’s “value-for-money” has never been greater! We need to continue to strengthen and optimize our efforts in prevention and promotion. The time to focus on greater coordination across the health continuum has never been greater in order to realize greater efficiencies and effectiveness of the public health system. OPHA was fortunate enough to have been given an opportunity to speak to Commissioner Don Drummond (of the TD Report). He is heading a highly anticipated commission on behalf of the government to identify opportunities to increase government efficiency and effectiveness. OPHA was able to present a number of key recommendations that would speak to furthering the value that public health can bring to the rest of the health system A key item of interest to Commissioner Drummond was the relationship between the LHINs and the public health units. This may suggest the need to re-examine the provincial public health system’s views on this issue.

Other changes, specific to the public health system world have also taken place. The Chief Medical Officer of Health announced the establishment of a Provincial Health Leaders’ Council comprised of the CMOH, the medical officers of health, Public Health Ontario and the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care. OPHA has made recommendations on the value that it could bring in furthering the Council’s leadership in the province by bringing a broader lens to the table. Further, a number of OPHA board members are currently participating at the Tobacco Control System Committee. Lastly, a Chronic Disease Prevention Blueprint is being developed by Cancer Care Ontario and Public Health Ontario and through a number of stakeholder tables, OPHA will be providing input.

Against this backdrop of significant change, OPHA continues to drive the public health agenda especially with a focus on chronic disease prevention and health equity; this is especially true of our work groups. A number of key advocacy efforts and initiatives are underway including influencing the Chief Medical Officer of Health and Public Health Ontario in advancing health equity, contributing towards the Ontario Coroner’s review on pedestrian and cycling deaths, engaging in land use planning capacity building collaborative with the Ontario Provincial Planners Institute and Public Health Agency Canada and a number of public health units, developing a provincial food and nutrition strategy, and addressing the Healthy Babies Healthy Children program, to name a few.

Lastly, OPHA would like to announce that it has increased its membership by 30% within just 6 months, and we expect this number to increase in the months ahead – clearly health professionals are seeing a benefit to joining OPHA. We are currently lining up our list of monthly webinars for our members (free) and non-members (at a nominal cost). The line-up includes results-based planning, evaluation of the OPHA’s youth engagement initiative, alcohol prevention policy, electronic health record innovation in public health (featured at this year’s TOPHC 2011), land use planning and public health. In addition, we are laying the ground work for our mentorship program – a surprising number of members have already expressed interest in becoming mentors and mentees. This program will feature group mentoring sessions from some of OPHA’s top public health leaders. They will share their stories, dispense advice and inspire – stay tuned for this exciting line-up. Much is happening and the time to be a part of this change has never been greater. If you are not an OPHA member yet, please go to our website for more details (www.opha.on.ca).

We hope you enjoy this month’s newsletter and we look forward to connecting with you next month.

Sincerely,

Liz Haugh, President, OPHA &
Siu Mee Cheng, Executive Director, OPHA.