1. Healthier Communities
presented by
A doctor specialized in public health – Healthier community partnerships and Chronic disease prevention across Fraser Health region
Purpose: I’m here to remind us all of the importance for the health of this community in all of us being here today. I will be giving an overview of the HCPs, how far have we come and lay some groundwork for our discussions on where to next.
Dr. Helena Swinkels Medical Health Officer, Fraser Health March 10, 2016

2. We all know what the problem is: These matter because they impact the health care system and increase health care costs. Our pragmatic selves know that money spent on health care make less money available for other important things like education, infrastructure and social and economic programs. Or idealistic selves, care because it impacts people.

3. If we look at what is actually making us sick in the first place, we know we can achieve better outcomes for individuals, families, their communities and the HC system by working together.
So, often when we think about health in our society, we are actually thinking about illness or about health care. Here we can see health care is only about 25% of our health. Except for about 15% of health, that part attached to our biology and genetics, which we can’t change, the rest of health happens in the community through public transportation, cycling and pedestrian infrastructure, early childhood development, no smoking policies, addressing inequalities, ensuring access to nutritious, affordable food, housing and adding that secret sauce of life: social connectedness. These are what we call the determinants of health – and closely align with the determinants in other aspects of our lives as well, such as educational success, criminality and even happiness.

4. Making the healthy choice the easy choice:
Health Promotion
In health, we use this framework, called the Ottawa charter for health promotion, to help us articulate all of those pieces that we need to influence the determinants that create health.

5. In health, we use this framework, called the Ottawa charter for health promotion, to help us articulate all of those pieces that we need to influence the determinants that create health.
A lot of people think health promotion is the same as health education – which is a very important part of building health. But it IS only a part. We need to ensure that people not only know what the healthy choices are, but they are supported to carry out those choices.
And what are those supports?
Strengthen community action – empowering communities to act on issues they care about
Create supportive environments – bike paths or improving access to health food
Build healthy public policy – smoke free policies
Reorient health services more towards prevention and promotion – for example, by investing in partnerships like the Healthier Community Partnerships

6. The Healthier Community Partnerships were first introduced in 2008 in order to facilitate cross sectoral action to three communities: Mission, Langley and the TriCities. The HCPs represent an innovative way we work together, they build on existing work and focus on priorities identified by the communities themselves.

7. In 2010, these were expanded to include all 20 Fraser Health communities in 13 partnership tables.

8. NO ONE SECTOR CAN DO THIS ALONE. Many sectors have a role to play
Each of our partnership tables have different composition

9. We’ve already achieved so much together …
A lot of great collaborative work has been done.

10. Promoting and supporting active healthy lifetsyles in kids and their adults.
FH supports this by integrating the messaging and promoting policy change into some of our own programming.

11. Many FH communities have or are working on by-laws – and many are thinking of the next steps to take when the new provincial regulations come out.

12. Expand/promote trails/ bike paths
Surrey

13. Explicitly addressed health in community plans
active transportation promotion and infrastructure improvements

14. This is not exhaustive – we know we have missed many accomplishments in the list above – communities that have undertaken similar activities to the above and also important collaborative work in other areas including:

15. The most important accomplishment …
The most important accomplishment to date is the relationships we have developed.

16. At Fraser Health we strive to do better…
HBE team
Health Equity
Community mental health promotion
Created a HBE team to work with municipal planners
Received training in Health Equity
Developed training and tools for community mental health promotion

17. and resource kit

18. At Fraser Health we strive to do better…
Innovation and knowledge exchange
Evaluation to improve quality of our services
We watch for innovation in promoting healthy communities - and often receive articles and other knowledge translation tools back from community partners.
We conducted an evaluation to determine ‘how our HCPs were working’ so that we can improve our services to you and our capacity for partnership.

19. We heard from you… What we could do better
A desire for a shared vision
That strong relationship and networks are necessary
The need for diversity
and equity
The HCP Evaluation completed in 2014 provided us with a number of recommendations, for example:
1) Solidify a shared vision, and clear roles and responsibilities
Collaboratively identifying where their priorities overlap, and clearly defining roles and responsibilities of all HCP members helps partners understand the scope of, and feel invested in, the work.
2) Build strong relationships and networks for collaborative work
Strong relationships within and across communities contribute to HCP success. Sharing organizational skills and interests to identify overlapping priorities within each community, and sharing best practices, priorities and challenges across communities facilitate relationship building.
5) Incorporate diversity and equity
Incorporating the community’s diversity within the HCP can support the inclusion of a broad spectrum of community stakeholders. Seeking contributions from across this spectrum, addressing barriers to participation in the HCP and its initiatives, and ensuring inclusive goals and actions will improve diversity. To support the health of all residents, it is also important to consider how policies and initiatives promote the health of vulnerable populations.
We realize that some of our partnerships are not working as well as others, but we remain committed to the HCP initiative and the desire to make them all successful.
What we could do better

20. In response we have…
Increased collaboration within & across partnerships
An increased focus on ensuring everyone has an equal chance for health
Increased our capacity to continuously self-improve

21. Where can we go together?
To finish, I want to emphasize the importance not only of each one of you being here, but also the importance of ALL of you being here together. When we start focusing on collective goals, coordinating our efforts and moving upstream, we have an incredible capacity to impact those goals.
Where would you like to go?
How do we move upstream for collective impact?
aging, schools, business, Mental Health and Wellness