Program and public policy

Developmental health and public policy

It is commonly acknowledged that the circumstances surrounding birth and the early years of life have an impact on the learning, behaviour and health of individuals throughout their lives. To help readers to learn more about interventions that support the healthy development of children from birth to five years old, we have compiled this bibliography.

This document aims to open pathways of study to public health actors interested in developmental health and the well-being of children. It is intended as a guide to research, but makes no claim to be exhaustive. The documents (books, journals, etc.) and websites listed (English and French) were selected based on criteria of accessibility, relevance and scientific rigour. Although there are many quality resources for parents or the general public, the resources listed here are more specifically intended for public health professionals and decision makers.

Those interested in developmental health will find references that…

Public Policies Guided by the Precautionary Principle

This paper is part of a series of essays developed for the National Collaborating Centre for Healthy Public Policy by researchers associated with the Centre de recherche en éthique de l'Université de Montréal (Université de Montréal Research Centre in Ethics). Developed by Valérie Beloin, it addresses the use of the precautionary principle in public health. The precautionary principle was most explicitly developed by and through the development of environmental risk management policies, and has been used for a number of years in this public policy domain. As its increasingly frequent use by public health actors shows, it can also be useful when public policy decisions need to be made in situations where, based on available scientific knowledge, the very existence of health risks to the population is uncertain. One reason that the use of the principle is the subject of vigorous ethical debate is because it is in tension with the ever-increasing call for emphasis on evidence-based pub…

Developmental Health Knowledge as a Catalyst for Healthy Family Policies in Canada

While Canadians have invested heavily in areas such as health care and education for years, the country has fallen behind in terms of providing resources for our children. Approximately 27% of kindergarten-aged children in Canada do not have all the developmental assets they need to thrive both upon entering school and into the future (Kershaw, Irwin, Trafford & Hertzman, 2005; Willms, 2002).

Public health actors are increasingly aware of the impact this situation can have on the health of Canadians, young and old, in the short and the long term. This briefing note presents a definition of developmental health, discusses the social determinants of developmental health, shows some key figures for Canada and suggests a healthy public family policy framework to support developmental health.

The Contribution of Political Science to the Study of Health Policies: State of Course Offerings and Research in Canadian Universities

This 2007 exploratory study was conducted to examine the contribution of political science departments to the study of health policy in Canada. The first phase of our project consisted of a systematic scan of political science departments at universities across Canada to identify currently offered courses that are principally or partially focused on health and identify the political science researchers who have studied health. By cross-referencing two lists accessed via the Canadian Political Science Association and the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, 56 political science departments were identified. Our repertoire was created by examining the official websites of all the political science departments.

The courses that addressed health policy fell into two categories. First, there are the specialized health courses, where health policy is the focus and where the word “health” is clearly stated in the title of the course. In total, 26 specialized health co…

Integrated Governance and Healthy Public Policy: Two Canadian Examples

Healthy public policy is by nature intersectoral because those in the health sector are seeking to affect policy in other sectors. Intersectoral work is required, in particular, to address the determinants of health and to reduce health inequalities. There is a growing body of study on multi-sectoral approaches, or integrated governance approaches, as we have named them. To contribute to this body of study, and within this context, we present two examples of initiatives with healthy public policy goals recently implemented in Canada. The initiatives are designed to better coordinate public policies in multiple sectors of government activity so as to improve health outcomes. In this paper, we explore the initiatives as examples of integrated governance, describing their conceptual frameworks and implementation strategies, and noting their potential and limitations as identified in our review of the literature on integrated governance initiatives.

The two examples referred to…

Deliberative Processes: Selected Resources

This inventory of resources was developed in response to interest in deliberative processes expressed by public health actors, many of whom are interested in the role deliberative processes can play in support of efforts to promote healthy public policy.

This inventory is intended to launch inquiry into the subject of deliberative processes as applied to public policy and thus does not claim to be exhaustive. It is based on a review of the literature on this subject carried out by the National Collaborating Centre for Healthy Public Policy (NCCHPP) during Summer 2009. An update of this document was conducted in August 2011. It reflects the information available at the time the review was carried out.

For those interested in deliberative processes, this inventory contains information aimed at:

  • Facilitating access to existing resources;
  • Describing the main deliberative trends;
  • Examining the deliberative mechanisms that seem…

The Use of Health Knowledge by Not-for-profit Organizations: Taking a Look at Their Policy-influencing Practices

Health professionals act on non-biomedical health determinants in various ways (Frankish et al., 2007). One course of action is working with not-for-profit organizations (NFP) to influence public policy. These partnerships are established mainly because the NFPs and the health professionals in question share common concerns in terms of determinants of health. Moreover, they have complementary resources (expertise, community networks, etc.) that can be put to use on both sides. For example, the Direction de la santé publique (DSP) of Montréal- Centre entered into a partnership with the Conseil régional de l’environnement de Montréal in the mid-2000s in order to reconcile the claims of resident groups requesting traffic-calming measures in their immediate surroundings with the reservations of several City of Montréal traffic engineers in this regard. The partnership was supposed to achieve its goals by way of knowledge exchange—by enabling the DSP to share the knowledge it had gained…

Food Policy Councils

Food policy councils are voluntary bodies made up of stakeholders from across the food system collaborating to find practical solutions to the challenges presented by the food systems on a local and national level. The National Collaborating Centre for Healthy Public Policy published this briefing note conceived by Wendy Mendes to familiarize public health actors with the food system concerns and the contribution of the food policy councils in the formulation of healthy food policies.

Traffic Calming: Political Dimensions

As we use it, the concept of traffic calming refers to engineering measures (speed humps, curb extensions, etc.) and implementation strategies (30-km/h zones, meeting zones, etc.) that reduce speeds and/or motorized traffic volumes on existing public roadways. The many intervention strategies used by public authorities can be classified into two categories. One can be designated the black-spots approach, and the other the area-wide approach. Following our definition, the strategies based on the black-spots approach are those in which measures are implemented at specific and isolated targeted spots within the road network (an intersection or on a street, for example). In strategies based on the area-wide approach, measures are deployed in an integrated manner in a zone made up of more than one street.

The purpose of this document is to provide public health authorities in Canada with a few political reference points on two approaches so that they may better assess, if they de…

Traffic Calming: An Equivocal Concept

The work on traffic calming that we are publishing includes two series of documents and an evolving index of traffic-calming measures and strategies, also to be posted on a section of our website. The first series of documents allows us to present the results of our review of the literature on the effects of traffic calming on certain population health determinants. The second series is intended to provide some conceptual background and policy references.

In this document, belonging to the second series, we introduce the concept of traffic calming by examining the various historical perspectives that have been proposed of interventions designated by this concept.

First, the expressions chosen for the translation into English and French of the concept originating from the German “verkehrsberuhigung” will be presented. Then, an overview of some of the ways it has evolved historically will allow for a description of the diverse goals, objectives and means associated wit…