At the NCCHPP, our goal is to support the efforts of the Canadian public health community in promoting healthy public policy through more informed strategies. Like the other NCCs, we want to increase the use of research knowledge.
Our focus is public policy with a potential impact on social, economic and environmental determinants of health. Examples include transportation, food policy, housing, or poverty. We explicitly exclude policies on health care services, such as Medicare or waiting lists. Focusing on healthy public policy is not a new idea -- it is one of the five action areas in the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion of 1986, for example. Nevertheless, a centre focused on healthy public policy is an innovative initiative in Canada.
The Quebec Context
It is not a coincidence that the NCCHPP is located in Quebec, at the Institut national de santé publique du Québec. Québec is a recognized leader in Canada in public health. Its approach, which integrates population and public health, permits a wider range of strategies and interventions. Public health capacity is also higher in Quebec. The public health network is integrated into the regional structures, and supported by a strong core of professionals and researchers in the INSPQ.
Content areas
NCCHPP has three main content areas. (1) One is healthy public policy itself, and what is known about the potential health impact of specific public policies, in particular those relevant to Canadians. This means synthesizing studies of health risks and other impacts of the determinants of health. (2) However, because promoting healthy public policy cannot be achieved through information alone, an equally important content area for the NCCHPP is the study of public policy. The public health community has expressed a need to understand public policy processes in a more substantive way. Although not part of the public health literature, the study of public policy has its own rich tradition. For the NCCHPP, the challenge is to link public policy knowledge with public health knowledge. (3) This speaks to a third content area for the NCCHPP, which is methodologies for knowledge synthesis and exchange that are appropriate to the field of healthy public policy.
Target clientele
The target clientele of the NCCHPP includes public health officers, population health planners and others in the health system at various levels who are concerned with healthy public policy. It also includes members of non-governmental organizations, think tanks and community groups whose concern with healthy public policy makes them partners in this effort. Our knowledge exchange efforts will be directed to these public health clients in the first instance. However, because public policy advocacy means these public health actors will themselves target those in policy positions at various levels of government, we consider these latter policy makers to be indirect clients of the NCCHPP.
The research community
NCCHPP collaborations with researchers are very important to our efforts. We are collaborating with researchers at Quebec universities, and are initiating other collaborations across Canada. We are interested in working with researchers in universities, governments, and organizations such as think tanks or community groups.
The advisory board
Certainly the NCCHPP’s advisory board provides us with a rich source of contacts and potential collaborations. The board’s president is Jean Rochon, a noted expert in Quebec in both public health and public policy. The board includes members from Quebec, Ontario, British Columbia and the United Kingdom.
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The production of the NCCHPP website has been made possible through a financial contribution from the Public Health Agency of Canada. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the views of the Public Health Agency of Canada.