Today the Commission for the Review of Social Assistance in Ontario released its much anticipated options paper. The paper sets out some interesting ideas and poses some challenging questions that will help to shape the debate around social assistance in the coming months. In our submission to the Commission, we started by arguing that the […]
Building Equity Into Ontario’s New Health Care Action Plan
The Minister of Health and Long-Term Care today launched an ambitious plan to transform Ontario’s health care system. It identifies key drivers of change to improve access, quality and value; all underlain by improved system coordination and coherence, and by service and quality innovation. These are positive directions, but the opportunity must not be lost […]
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Emerging Health Professionals and Driving Health Equity From Within
The Wellesley Institute researches and analyzes the policy changes needed to address the social determinants of health that underlie pervasive and damaging health inequities. These changes will need to be driven by broad community-based innovation, social movements and political pressure. But acting to ensure equitable access to high-quality health care for all and improving resources […]
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Drawing Out Links: Health Equity, Social Determinants of Health, and Social Policy
The Wellesley Institute engages in policy development and advocacy to advance population health. Our work also sees us working with researchers and community groups to help develop policy capacity, and we often speak on how to maximize the policy influence of research and knowledge exchange. Earlier this week, we spoke to a graduate-level social work […]
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Should social assistance ensure access to health care services, or keep people from getting sick? Both, actually.
The social assistance system causes poor health. The low levels of income supports combined with inadequate supplementary supports like affordable child care and transportation mean that people on social assistance do not have a fair chance at good health. I’ve blogged about this, and have set out some solutions such as building a basket of […]
Lessons from New Zealand: It’s not all about the money
One of the challenges of policy making is understanding the likely impact of following a particular course of action. Policy makers analyze policy proposals and do their best to project who might be affected, how they might be affected, and what this means in terms of the policy’s intent. Unfortunately, it is famously difficult to […]
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If you had a disability, would you be able to work?
If you had a disability, would you be able to work? It’s a tough question, and you might say that it depends on the severity of the disability. That’s certainly a factor, but what about if you were well enough to work – part time, full time or something in-between – but only if you […]
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Building Health Equity In: Drawing on Community Innovation
One of the critical problems facing the health system is inequitable access to health promotion, treatment and other services; especially for those facing language and other systemic barriers. A very promising innovation developed in recent years by Community Health Centres, public health and other community-based providers is the idea of peer health ambassadors. These are people […]
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Should social assistance help you to scrape by, or to get a good job?
Social assistance is about more than just providing enough money for people to survive. Social assistance should also work to ensure wider opportunities for people to find employment or pursue further training or education. Investing in individuals – from early childhood through high school, to college or university, and work training and experience – creates […]
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Building Health Equity: Saskatoon’s Dr. Cory Neudorf Shares Lessons Learned
Diane Dyson is Director of Research & Public Policy, Strategic Initiatives Unit at WoodGreen Community Services, and is guest blogging for us today. You can read her blog at http://belongingcommunity.wordpress.com. A few days ago, the Saskatoon Poverty Reduction Partnership, an intersectoral approach to poverty spearheaded by the Saskatoon Health Region, released an update of its […]
Continue ReadingBuilding Health Equity: Saskatoon’s Dr. Cory Neudorf Shares Lessons Learned