Program 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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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,…

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.

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 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…