Materials from February 24 & 25, 2003 Special Topics
Series
A
New Way of Thinking About Healthy Lifestyles - Health Communication
Applications
Description of workshop
As evidence mounts about how broad social conditions
affect the development of a wide variety of chronic diseases, the
pressure on practitioners to adjust their practice accordingly is
increasing. This workshop will address two important questions: How do
the determinants of health fit into the concept of healthy lifestyle?
and How should the answer to the previous question affect our use of
health communication as one part of a comprehensive health promotion
strategy? This highly interactive workshop will examine some
alternatives to our commonly accepted "wise choices"
definition of healthy lifestyle and consider some ways of applying
these alternatives to a variety of health communication scenarios.
Participants will be invited to discuss the proposed alternatives and
generate ideas about health communication applications. Some knowledge
and/or experience with health communication would be an asset for
participants.
Facilitators: Renee Lyons and Lynn Langille, The Atlantic Health
Promotion Research Centre
Dr. Renee Lyons is Director and Professor of the Atlantic
Health Promotion Research Centre (AHPRC) at Dalhousie University and
has appointments in the School of Health and Human Performance and the
Department of Psychology. She is also Special Advisor to the President
of the CIHR. She has been a faculty member at Dalhousie University for
the past 20 years, completing her university training at Dalhousie
University, Xavier University in Cincinnati, the University of Oregon
and UCLA,. Prior to 1981, she held several hospital and community
positions in Nova Scotia related to addressing health and social
issues of persons with chronic health problems and disabilities.
Besides her focus on health promotion research, with numerous reports,
papers and grants on this topic, Dr. Lyons' work has been on coping
with chronic illness and disability, and more recently, the interplay
of health and economic sustainability in rural communities. She is
particularly interested in how people come together to address
individual and collective life stressors and recently published a
paper and a book chapter on "coping as a communal process"
which include a theoretical framework that moves the field of stress
and coping research beyond individual analyses. She has published
widely, including a book on relationships and chronic illness that was
featured in the Journal of Contemporary Psychology as one of the
important psychology contributions of 1995. Many of her projects
examine how population health research can inform policy and practice.
For example, she was principal investigator for a stroke needs
analysis funded by the Heart and Stroke Foundation in 1995 and chaired
a national research and policy conference on social integration and
disability in Canada in 1999. As Director of the AHPRC she creates
multidisciplinary teams of researchers, NGO's and policy-makers to
develop and implement health research grants on population health
issues of particular concern to the four Atlantic Provinces. In
addition, she assists other Atlantic researchers in submitting
successful proposals, engages in knowledge dissemination and research
uptake, and maintains involvement in graduate research training.
Together with AHPRC staff and research associates, she has succeeded
in bringing in over $3.5 million in grants and awards to the Centre
over the past three years. Dr. Lyons has been a member of many
national research review panels -- including SSHRC and NCIC (cancer)
and the National Centres of Excellence and was recently the Scientific
Officer for CIHR's Interdisciplinary Health Research Teams
Competition. She is also a member of Industry Canada's University
Advisory Committee.
Lynn Langille is a Research Consultant at the Atlantic
Health Promotion Research Centre (AHPRC) at Dalhousie University,
Halifax, Nova Scotia. A cultural anthropologist at heart, Lynn is a
co-investigator on many of AHPRC's projects, including the
development of a qualitative method to help people with disabilities
explore the effects of chronic illness and disability on their
relationships, and two community/university research alliances
designed to improve the health and sustainability of rural
communities. In her work at AHPRC, Lynn contributes to health
promotion research through project development, proposal writing,
identification of funding sources, development of data collection
tools, facilitation of research partnerships, data analysis, and
dissemination of research findings for the purpose of policy and
social change. Lynn co-authored the paper "Healthy Lifestyle:
Strengthening the Effectiveness of Lifestyle Approaches to Improve
Health" with Renee Lyons in an effort to understand and act on the
interdependence between personal and social health beliefs,
structures, and practices.
Click here to download Powerpoint Slides.
Click
here to download Worksheets.
Developing
Exceptional Ads and Other Communication Materials
Description of workshop
Whether you are creating a single poster or a full
multi-media campaign, this workshop will provide practical tips and
techniques for producing powerful communication tools that will grab
the attention of your audience and affect their hearts, minds, and
behaviour. The emphasis will be on how you and your project team can
take control of the media development process and ensure that your
messages effectively reach out to your audience. The workshop will
examine what health communicators must bring to the process, and what
they should and should not expect their advertising agency or design
team to contribute. Answers will be provided for key questions: How
should we involve and learn from our audience? How can we pre-test our
ideas and materials cost effectively? Do we have to use an expensive
research firm? What can pre-testing and follow-up research really tell
us? What if we disagree with our ad agency's recommendations? Who can
tell us if our messages and the creative approach will actually work?
Some knowledge and/or experience with health communication would be an
asset for participants.
Facilitator: Ric Durrant, Partner, Chan Durrant Ltd., Social
Marketing & Communication Consultant
Ric Durrant entered the field of health communication by working in
school, workplace and community settings. He later became immersed in
the production of a wide range of print and electronic communication
materials in his role as Director of Provincial Programs for AADAC,
the Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission. During this time he
also managed a large social marketing program that made extensive use
of television, radio and print advertising and a specially developed
magazine for teens. After leaving AADAC, he managed communication and
advertising for a large western Canadian corporation, and then in 1986
established the Calgary based consulting firm of Chan Durrant Ltd.
Chan Durrant focuses exclusively on the planning and development of
social and health programs while specializing in social marketing and
communication. Ric's consulting work includes local, provincial,
national and international clients and issues as diverse as workplace
safety, tobacco reduction, youth resiliency, and literacy in Canada,
and children's health and workplace addictions in Asia.
Click here to download powerpoint slides
Click here to download "Tuning In" handout
Click here to download "Segmentation Exercise" handout
Click here to download "Reactions" handouts
Making
the Case: Economic Evaluations of Early Intervention and Prevention
Programs
Description of workshop
Across Canada, the number of nonprofit and public
sector program initiatives continues to grow. At the same time, donor
numbers are declining and governments at all levels are reexamining
their traditional support for a whole range of services and programs.
In this environment, it is imperative to find new and effective ways
to measure the impact of our interventions. The Prevention Dividend
Project is designed to provide some leadership in the critical, but
underdeveloped, application of economic evaluations. By providing
clear evidence of the relationship between costs and consequences,
economic evaluations can help demonstrate the return on investment we
actually realize. This workshop will highlight some case studies that
successfully demonstrate the return on investment that comes with
early intervention and prevention programs, describe some tools and
sources of information that are currently available to increase our
understanding of economic evaluations, and explain the long term
strategy to support further use of economic evaluations across
Canada's nonprofit and public sectors.
Facilitator: Graham Clyne, Prevention Dividend Project
Graham Clyne graduated from the University of Western Ontario in
1988 with a Masters degree in Political Science with a focus on
industrial tax policy and intergovernmental relations. Joining the
United Way of London and Middlesex as a Planning Associate, he became
the Director of Planning and Allocations in 1991. While there, Graham
led the research work of the organization and was the author of two
significant studies on demographic trends and the policy issues facing
organizations working in the public and not-for-profit sector.
In 1994, Graham led the development and implementation of KIDS
COUNT, a collaborative cross-sectoral partnership working to improve
the health and learning outcomes of children in low-income
neighbourhoods. His work on this project was recognized when KIDS
COUNT won the prestigious 1997 Peter F. Drucker Award for Innovation
in the Non-Profit Sector. In 1998, Graham organized and hosted the
first large conference on children's issues in the London area. As the
author of the conference's Report and Recommendations document, Graham
was instrumental in the development and launch of London's
"Investing in Children" strategy, currently underway.
As a private consultant, Graham has worked with a wide variety of
public and non-profit organizations on strategic planning, management
effectiveness, fundraising and customer service. An accomplished
presenter, Graham has spoken to groups across the country on a range
of issues, with a particular focus on innovation, organizational
change and excellence in the voluntary sector.
Employed by the Foundation for Learning and Social Enhancement,
Graham is currently leading the work of the Research Team engaged in
the "Prevention Dividend Project". A committed volunteer,
Graham has served on a number of significant local and provincial
boards including the Investment in Education Council, the Sparrow Lake
Alliance, the Peter F. Drucker Foundation, and the local Children's
Aid Society. He is currently serving as an advisor to the Early Years
Task Force appointed by the Province of Ontario.
Powerpoint Slides Coming Soon.
Policy
Development as a Foundation for Chronic Disease Prevention
Description of workshop
Policy development as a chronic disease prevention
strategy is not a new idea. Many organizations are currently working
on developing policies designed to help make 'the healthier choice,
the easier choice.' Examples typically include efforts to restrict
smoking in public places, build walking paths, and limit unhealthy
food choices in schools. There are other types of policies, however,
related to economic, environmental, and community conditions that can
also have an enormous impact on the development of chronic
diseases. These policies have not traditionally been addressed by
Ontario public health departments. This workshop will describe how and
why Waterloo Region Public Health is addressing policy development in
these areas, with a focus on where these types of initiatives fit into
the current Mandatory Program and Service Guidelines for Ontario
public health departments. Current activities and challenges and plans
for the future will be highlighted. Participants will work in groups
to brainstorm about how broad policy development could fit into their
current health promotion mandates. Some knowledge and/or
experience with the Mandatory Program and Service Guidelines would be
an asset for participants.
Facilitators: Theresa Schumilas and Katherine Pigott, Region of
Waterloo Public Health
Theresa Schumilas has worked in a management capacity in Region of
Waterloo Public Health 17 years. She has held responsibility for a
variety of program areas, including: family health, nutrition,
community development, tobacco, physical activity, substance abuse,
injury prevention, AIDS and dental health. A graduate of the the
University of Guelph and the University of Waterloo, her academic
training spans diverse areas of: nutrition, research methods,
cost/effectiveness analysis and sustainable agriculture. Currently,
Theresa directs a division of the Public Health Department which
focuses on research, planning and policy support related to underlying
social, economic and environmental factors which determine health. She
is a known advocate of effective and participatory health promotion
and works toward integrating the perspectives of active citizen,
disciplined researcher and accountable bureaucrat.
Katherine Pigott acts as Manager, Healthy
Communities and Policy for Waterloo Region Public Health. Katherine's
career spans environmental planning, health promotion and economic
development. She managed province and region-wide public
consultation processes and multi-stakeholder consultations related to
a range of environmental issues and acted as a consultant to numerous
community-based health promotion initiatives. Most recently,
Katherine directed the Riverdale Community Development Corporation and
oversaw the development of a community loan fund, small business
support services, and retail revitalization strategies. Katherine has
over eight years experience with the healthy communities movement in
Ontario. She was an animator for the Ontario Healthy Communities
Coalition for two and a half years and then joined the Board of
Directors. In this role she conceptualized and secured funding
for a province-wide "Healthy Communities, Healthy Economies"
project. Katherine is fluent in French and has a working
knowledge of Spanish.
Click
here to download pdf of Powerpoint slides.
