October 2009 - Association Update

Board Meeting Highlights

Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Arlene King visits with OPHA Board

On October 1, 2009 the OPHA Board of Directors met Dr Arlene King, Ontario's Chief Medical Officer of Health. Dr. King eloquently described the challenges in the first three months as CMOH. Her appointment was announced in the legislature on the same day that the OAHPP launched its Dr. Sheela Basrur Centre in honour of her esteemed predecessor. Then, her first days on the job coincided with the declaration of the H1N1 pandemic by the World Health Organization. Since then, Dr. King has focused on H1N1. In spite of that she has also taken on her role on the Board of the Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion. As the Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. King has also begun to clearly define her role in shaping government policy towards health promotion, disease prevention and health protection.

OPHA Welcomes New Deputy Minister of Health Promotion

Deputy Minister of Health Promotion, Angela Longo, also presented her vision regarding the new directions for her Ministry to the Board. She outlined the priorities as Nutrition and Healthy Eating, Prevention of Injury and Disease, Valuing Sports and Partnering with others for Healthy Communities. She emphasized the importance of working with other partners beyond the health field in order to make healthy living everyone's business. In these economic times she emphasized that it is important to frame healthy communities as a cornerstone of sound economic development.

MOHLTC's Monika Turner introduces Initial Report on Public Health to OPHA

To highlight the Initial Report on Public Health as the first step in performance management of health units, Monika Turner, Director of Public Health Practice Branch, Public Health Division, MOHLTC gave a presentation to the Board on October 2, 2009. The report is being widely used by health units who are using the information in the report to support the work in their communities. Ms Turner reported that, except for the recommendation about health unit amalgamations, the Public Health Division had taken action on all recommendations in the Capacity Review Report. She commented that the media is really pushing public health towards compliance rather than to performance even though both are essential to good provincial oversight. Next year there will be a transition year towards health unit accountability agreements with full implementation expected by 2011. A funding review of health units has begun and will look at capital investments, information technology, revenue streams, cost reduction and bulk purchasing.

Managers Update the Board on Programs

The OPHA program managers gave the Board an overview and presented new developments within their programs. In addition, the Board entered into a good discussion about its public health policy priorities which it will be prioritizing in the next several months in collaboration with its workgroups.

 

Staff Updates

OPHA Welcomes Heather Harvey to the Nutrition Resource Centre

OPHA welcomes Heather Harvey to the Nutrition Resource Centre. Heather will take on the Eat Smart! program coordinator role vacated by Samara Foisy. Heather is a Registered Dietitian, with a Masters of Health Science (MHSc) in Community Nutrition from University of Toronto, and a Bachelors of Science Honours (BSc), Bio-Medical Science Specialization, University of Guelph.

Most recently Heather has been on maternity leave with her daughter, and was working as a Public Health Nutritionist at the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit, bringing with her strong public health experience.  Fortunately for NRC, Heather participated in the Eat Smart! recreation centre pilot project, and so will be a huge asset for Mary Ellen Prange as she plans to launch this component of the Eat Smart! program.