This past week Wellesley Institute along with leading partner MASS LBP (thanks Peter MacLeod and staff), Metcalf Foundation (thanks Colette Murphy), and CCPA sponsored what became a cross-Canada lecture tour based on Richard Wilkinson’s bestseller, The Spirit Level, co-authored with Kate Pickett.
A Healthier Canada Comes From More Than Just Health Care
A new report released today by The Health Council of Canada calls on Canadian governments to broaden their approach to health beyond a single ministry, and instead work with all government departments to reduce health inequity. The report, entitled Stepping It Up: Moving the Focus from Health Care in Canada to a Healthier Canada, notes […]
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Local Action on Population Health
The Role of Local Government in Promoting Well-being is a very interesting British report written by the New Economics Foundation for Local Government Improvement and Development and the National Mental Health Development Unit. It highlights the levers local governments have, in collaboration with community organizations, that can enhance overall population health. They emphasize that “creating […]
Housing And Health: Research Issues, Policy Solutions Presentation To George Brown College Students
Canada is one of the richest countries in the world, yet millions of Canadians are precariously housed. The Wellesley Institute’s Michael Shapcott outlined a century of critical housing and health research and policy issues, and set out a practical and pragmatic agenda for action, in a presentation to George Brown students. His presentation builds on […]
Mental Well-Being and Equity – Moving Policy into Action
How do you drive equity into mental health? And mental health into equity? What tools can you use to make the process more comprehensible and user-friendly to overburdened policy-makers and practitioners? Bob Gardner and I facilitated a workshop with the Canadian Mental Health Association (Ontario) today to discuss “wicked” policy challenges in this area. The […]
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Sleepwalking To Segregation: How Housing, Income, Health Are Linked Presentation Notes
The growing body of evidence that shows Toronto is becoming a more divided city as people and populations, also suggests that the city is increasingly segregated by housing, income and health. The Wellesley Institute’s Michael Shapcott made a presentation to Ryerson University students today on the links between housing, income and health.
Policy Solutions for "Wicked" and Complex Social Problems
Social policy can’t just be about addressing the easy issues – there are very few – but has to tackle really deep-seated and complex problems such as poverty, health disparities or homelessness. I just published an article on promising community-driven directions for addressing such fundamental inequalities and the policy frameworks needed to address such “wicked” […]
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What Is Health Equity?
Health equity is deep in the DNA of the Wellesley Institute. Many health statistics report averages over a large population – the entire City of Toronto or even the whole country of Canada. But averages can obscure the reality that certain groups (such as poor people, or recent immigrants, or Aboriginal people) bear the heaviest […]
Health Equity Impact Assessment: A Primer
To drive health equity into action we need to understand the needs of health disadvantaged populations, identify barriers to equitable access to quality care, and build equity into priority setting, resource allocation and performance management. Health Equity Impact Assessment is a practical and effective planning tool that analyzes the potential impact of service, program or […]
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Health Promotion Through An Equity Lens
Health promotion is crucial to keeping people well and preventing illness. A major challenge is that many health promotion programs are focused on individual behaviour and do not take peoples’ unequal conditions and opportunities into account. As a result, they are not effective for vulnerable and marginalized communities, and can actually make disparities worse if […]
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