Program and public policy

The NCCHPP produced a Scan of Mental Health Strategies1 to show what is being developed in the field of population mental health across Canada. This Scan provides an overview of mental health and wellness and related strategies through comparative tables and summaries, with a particular emphasis on work related to the promotion of mental health and the prevention of mental illnesses.

This document presents the information contained in the online comparative table that lists the most recent strategies related to suicide prevention in Canada. In developing this section of the Scan, a search of the grey literature was carried out, and completed by reaching out to key informants in certain provinces/territories. Briefly, we searched for suicide prevention strategies in each province and territory, as well as pan-Canadian strategies. The same procedure was used for identifying Indigenous-specific strategies. Despite this, the content is not necessarily a comprehensive review of a…

• The policy brief is a knowledge transfer tool that has increasingly been used in recent years as a way to inform or influence public policy decisions.
• Because policy briefs are designated by a variety of terms (e.g.: policy note, research snapshot, etc.) and prepared in various formats, it can be difficult to determine how to go about writing one. What exactly is it? What criteria should be met to produce a high quality document? Which writing guides are of interest?
• This document is intended to assist knowledge producers in writing a policy brief based on research evidence.
• The first two sections describe the characteristics of a policy brief, its components and the elements that should be considered to maximize its potential. The final section presents a selection of resources to guide readers who wish to pursue further knowledge.
• The information presented is based on the recommendations included in the guides reviewed (2008-2018), as…

What is an effective way to share public health knowledge with the municipal sector? In this document, we present the views expressed by civil servants in Canadian municipalities.

When public health actors wish to share knowledge in order to influence municipal policies that have an impact on health, they may wonder how to do this. Here are several questions that they might ask:

• If I wish to share knowledge with a municipality, whom should I approach?
• What action is the municipality already taking in my field of work?
• How should I initiate contact?
• What types of knowledge do municipal civil servants find useful?
• How does one foster positive interactions?
• What time frame should be expected?
• Why formalize a collaboration with a municipality and what form should this take?

We conducted interviews with civil servants in Canadian municipalities. In this document, we present their views on th…

This document is part of a series of documents, webinars, and workshops on wicked problems developed by the National Collaborating Centre for Healthy Public Policy (NCCHPP). It is meant to highlight key factors and resources for dealing with wicked problems and to offer readers some practical examples for how these may be addressed. Our hope is that it will be useful to public health actors by helping to focus their approach to the specific problems their organizations are faced with and by suggesting resources that might be helpful.

To learn more, visit the website of the National Collaborating Centre for Healthy Public Policy - NCCHPP (http://www.ncchpp.ca/en/)

This briefing note, by Paul Cairney of the University of Stirling, presents the importance of distinguishing between uncertainty and ambiguity in the strategies aimed to develop evidence-informed policy making.

Policy studies often distinguish between uncertainty, defined as a lack of knowledge about a policy problem or its solution, and ambiguity, defined as the potential to produce more than one interpretation of a problem. With this in mind, reducing uncertainty can be thought of as a technical process for addressing an already well-defined policy problem: supplying the best evidence and delivering it to the right people at the right time. Reducing ambiguity can be thought of as a political process: exercising power to define a policy problem and prompting a demand for evidence.

The distinction has major implications for anyone seeking to influence policy makers and form coalitions with influential actors. In this paper, we highlight some of these implications for…

The purpose of this document is to equip public health actors to conduct a critical and nuanced ethical analysis of public health policies or population-based interventions accused or suspected of being paternalistic.

To deepen understanding of paternalism and help public health actors conduct this type of ethical analysis, this document has been structured around five main questions: 

• What is paternalism?
• What are some healthy public policies that have been called paternalistic?
• Why might we be attracted to policies or interventions that have been called paternalistic in public health?
• Why might (or should) we be reluctant to accept public policies that are called paternalistic?
• How might we conduct an ethical analysis of policies that are called paternalistic?

In the final, more practical, section, we offer a three-step approach to conducting a more nuanced ethica…

Acute alcohol poisoning occurs frequently in Québec. Between January 1 and November 26, 2017, provincial emergency rooms admitted 2,332 young people age 12–24 for acute alcohol poisoning. That is equivalent to 214 cases per month, 49 cases per week, or 7 cases per day.

These cases are serious. One quarter of young people age 12–24 admitted to the emergency room at the Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Sherbrooke for alcohol-related problems had a priority level indicating that their lives were at risk.

The available data do not conclusively demonstrate that products with high alcohol and sugar content were the main cause of acute alcohol poisoning cases treated in Québec emergency rooms in 2017. Nonetheless, analysis of the data underscores a serious problem that justifies stronger preventive action.

Sales of sweetened alcoholic beverages are up in grocery and convenience stores in Québec. Products with the highest alcohol content show the highe…

This report is the result of a mandate from the Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux (MSSS) [Québec’s ministry of health and social services] to produce a knowledge synthesis focused on nine courses of action which pertain to “illicit” psychoactive substances and which have not been implemented, or have been implemented only on a limited scale or as a pilot project in Québec.

The nine courses of action are:

• Education programs for overdose prevention and management with naloxone;
• Supervised consumption services;
• Prison syringe exchange programs;
• Low-threshold housing programs;
• Crack smoking equipment distribution programs;
• Programs for prevention and substance analysis in festive environments;
…

The issues related to access to firearms go well beyond the use of these weapons in criminal activities. Access to firearms is an important risk factor for suicide, homicide, particularly spousal homicide, and accidental death.

Most firearm-related deaths are not linked to criminal activities and involve long guns

• Between 2009 and 2013, an average of 127 people died in Québec annually due to firearm-related suicide. This is 5 times the number of victims of firearm-related homicide.
• Suicide is the leading cause of firearm-related deaths in Québec. In most cases, the suicides are committed in the victim’s home using a long gun.
• Most victims of firearm-related deaths are male, except in intrafamilial homicides.
• Firearm-related deaths occur throughout Québec, but the risk of firearm-related suicide is higher in rural areas than in urban or peri-urban ones.

The scientific literature shows that th…