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Casebook Title Page & Front Matter

Western Public Health Casebooks

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Acknowledgements, Gerald Mckinley, Shannon Sibbald

Western Public Health Casebooks

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Table Of Contents

Western Public Health Casebooks

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Introduction : Essential Skills For Public Health, David Butler-Jones

Western Public Health Casebooks

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Preface, Amardeep Thind

Western Public Health Casebooks

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Case 1 : Mobilizing Knowledge Into Action: Best Practices In Responding To Urgent Refugee Health And Resettlement Service Needs, Meriem Benlamri, Yogendra Shakya, Shannon L. Sibbald

Western Public Health Casebooks

The Syrian Civil War has displaced 6.5 million people internally within Syria (UNHCR, 2016) and has led 5 million to flee the country and live as refugees in Turkey, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and other North African countries (UNHCR, 2017). In 2015, the Canadian government and Canadian citizens stepped in with a nationwide commitment to resettle 25,000 Syrian refugees. Due to community-based rallying, the commitment expanded to a total of 40,000 Syrian refugees by mid-2017 (Government of Canada, 2017). In response to this urgent and unprecedented arrival of refugees, hundreds of community agencies and many community groups across Canada banded …

Case 2 : Good Food Box: Generative Relationships And Scenario Planning In Public Health, Andrew Butti, Amy Campbell, Jessica Love, Amardeep Thind

Western Public Health Casebooks

The Good Food Box project in North Bay, Ontario is a bulk food-buying program with the purpose of supporting chronic disease prevention through the promotion of increased fruit and vegetable consumption. Good Food Box increases the accessibility of healthy, fresh fruits and vegetables for low-income individuals. Unfortunately, the Nipissing District Housing Commission, whose responsibility it was to procure funding for and employ the Good Food Box coordinator, was unsuccessful in renewing funding. Without funding, the Good Food Box program would cease at the end of June. Amy Campbell, North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit employee and member of the …

Case 3 : “School, Interrupted”, Elizabeth Dent, Shannon L. Sibbald

Western Public Health Casebooks

Due to the fact that there is currently no national youth mental health strategy, each jurisdiction is faced with managing and preventing mental health issues in their communities. Through school-based mental health interventions public health professionals have the potential to impact a large portion of youth in their community in a setting with which youth are already familiar. Susan Miller, a health promoter with the Great Lakes Public Health Unit, has been tasked with making recommendations about what type of mental health intervention should be implemented in the local elementary and high schools. The main objective of this mental health …

Case 6 : On The Road To Change: The Difficulties Of Evaluating Social Marketing Campaigns In Public Health, Patricia Johnpillai, Pamela Fuselli, Valerie Smith, Scott Watson, Mark Speechley

Western Public Health Casebooks

Parachute is an injury-prevention charity that has started the implementation of the Vision Zero Network to address road safety in Canada. Vision Zero aims to reduce fatalities or serious injuries on the road to zero through advocacy for policy change and road infrastructure. A large part of these goals will be accomplished through a social marketing campaign that provides resources (e.g. educational information) through a Vision Zero website and social media account (Twitter). As a registered charity, Parachute relies on funding from stakeholders to sustain its programs. Consequently, Parachute must prove to stakeholders that its initiatives have contributed to change …

Case 9 : Managing Expectations: Lyme Disease, Nitin Mohan, Michel Deilgat, Ava John-Baptiste

Western Public Health Casebooks

Increasing cases of Lyme disease are creating public outcry. The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) has been tasked with the surveillance and guidance for this tick-borne disease but has not seen additional funding. Evidence-based analysis has indicated the most impactful use of resources would be spent on prevention and awareness. Despite this information, the push for increasing the healthcare budget to allow for more Lyme disease funding is growing. A desire to increase resources for acute care in the hopes of better diagnostic testing, more freely prescribed antibiotics, and dedicated Lyme clinics is being put forward from advocacy groups. …

Case 8 : “I Know You Want It”: Preventing Sexual Aggression In Bars, Justin Lui, Samantha Wells, Mark Speechley

Western Public Health Casebooks

Brian Patterson is the owner of The Judge & Jester Tavern (JJ’s), a fictitious bar in London’s downtown entertainment district. JJ’s is popular with students from Western University, but a viral Facebook post describing an experience of assault at the bar has generated negative publicity. Coordinators at Western University, Christine Bellis and Maria Lopez, reached out to ask Patterson if he would be interested in partnering with them and the London Police Service to develop a strategy to prevent sexual violence in London’s bars and clubs.

Patterson has a deep sense of ownership over JJ’s and is interested in making …

Case 7 : Local Climate Change Adaptation: Developing A Communication Strategy For Rural Populations, Jaelyn Kloepfer, Fatih Sekercioglu, Amardeep Thind

Western Public Health Casebooks

Climate change is expected to increase the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events and extreme temperatures (heat and cold) in Southern Ontario. Climate change-related impacts (i.e., flooding, heat, storms, tornados, etc.) may increase the risk of heat-related illness, respiratory disease, food-, water-, and vector-borne disease, and injuries in the Middlesex- London community. The Ontario Public Health Standards mandate local public health units to increase awareness of environmental health hazards, to prevent or reduce exposure to health hazards, and to work to create healthy environments. The Middlesex-London Health Unit (MLHU) conducts surveillance for vector-borne disease, disseminates heat warnings to community …

Case 5: Making Oral Health Care More Palatable, Mark Gera, Lindsey Farias, Edesiri Udoh, Gerald Mckinley

Western Public Health Casebooks

Oral health is a major indicator for overall health; however, it is not covered under the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP), making oral health care relatively inaccessible to a large population. A large and diverse municipality has recently conducted a needs assessment that shows that there is a need to improve accessibility to dental care for its citizens. A Community Health Centre (CHC) spearheaded the development of an oral health coalition to help unify and steer the direction of oral health care in the region. The goal of the coalition is to bring oral health to the forefront of healthcare. …

Case 10 : Middlesex-London’S Public Health Emergency: Hiv In People Who Inject Drugs, Daniel E. Murcia Monroy, Tamara Thompson, Amanda Terry

Western Public Health Casebooks

Middlesex-London is experiencing an alarming rise of new HIV cases in people who inject drugs (PWID). Despite a demonstrably successful harm reduction program and primary care effort, the rapid increase in HIV remains. To help reduce the incidence of HIV in PWID, in association with Regional HIV/AIDS Connection (RHAC), My Sister’s Place, and the Middlesex-London Health Unit (MLHU), the Counterpoint Needle and Syringe Program in Middlesex-London distributed over three million needles in 2016. Nevertheless, healthcare workers continue to diagnose PWID with HIV and other infections. Of those needles distributed, only 1,895,798 were recovered through these organizations and, thus, improperly discarded …

Case 11 : Improving Sexual And Reproductive Health Rights: A Key Step In Achieving Gender Equality In Pakistan, Shiza Sheikh, Fawad Akbari, Amardeep Thind

Western Public Health Casebooks

The Pakistani Maternal Newborn Health Initiative (PAMNHI) project needs to shift its focus from providing solely maternal, neonatal, and child (MNCH) services in Pakistan to incorporating sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services in order to be approved by Global Affairs Canada (GAC). Aamir Khan, senior program manager at Daud Foundation Canada (DFA), and his team must weave SRH services into this project, which is being implemented in Pakistan, where sexual and reproductive health rights are a very sensitive issue. Aamir knows that achieving gender equality in Pakistan is a very complex issue due to many competing factors, such as the …

Case 4 : Big Comfy Couch: The Implementation Of An Lgbtq2s+ Safe And Positive Space Within A Public Health Unit, Natalie Dupuis, Louise Gagné, Samara Lewis, Shannon L. Sibbald

Western Public Health Casebooks

Samara Lewis is a public health nurse specialist at the North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit (NBPSDHU). Samara has been tasked with creating a Safe and Positive Spaces workgroup that will aid in the implementation of an LGBTQ2S+ Safe and Positive Space at the health unit. Priority number one in the health unit’s 2014-2018 Strategic Plan aligns directly with the creation of said spaces, as the health unit is committed to provisioning healthy sexuality messaging and to ensuring safe, welcoming, and accessible health services to all sexual and gender diversities. Safe and Positive Spaces act as facilitators in achieving …

Case 14 : Rural Residence And Associated Health Disparities: The Case Of Chatham-Kent, Kate Turner, Stanley Ing, Laura Zettler, Gerald Mckinley

Western Public Health Casebooks

Rural populations face notably higher rates of chronic diseases than urban areas, specifically, cardiovascular diseases, chronic respiratory diseases, cancer, and diabetes. This case focuses on Chatham-Kent, a small, rural town in Southwestern Ontario, to illustrate this point. More specifically, the case focuses on an epidemiological approach to provide evidence of the health disparities due to an individual’s place of residence. Based on the comparison of agestandardized rates, does the rural community of Chatham-Kent experience greater health disparities?

This case provides the reader with practice in calculating and interpreting crude and agestandardized rates and the ability to disseminate findings about the …

Case 12 : Housing And Health: A Human Rights Approach To Wellbeing, Amanda Steger, Johanna Macdonald, Amardeep Thind

Western Public Health Casebooks

The Health Justice Initiative medical-legal partnership serves clients experiencing human rights violations, especially related to housing. Through the provision of legal services, education, and systemic advocacy, it aims to improve clients’ care, health, and wellbeing. The current case revolves around a client and her many health struggles, amplified by her unliveable Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) unit. Like many TCHC units, it is in extreme disrepair and unlikely to change due to TCHC’s funding shortage. The client is physically unable to take the stairs to her apartment due to a heart condition and mentally unable to take the elevator due …

Case 16 : Don’T Miss The Bus, Ava John-Baptiste

Western Public Health Casebooks

Dr. Philip Singe is the Chief Medical Officer of Health in the fictional Region of King in Ontario, Canada. Upon learning that Ottawa Public Health is offering a walking school bus program, Dr. Singe asks Vincent Randall to investigate the evidence. In charge of the health promotion portfolio at King Region Public Health (KRPH), Vincent Randall has been asked to apply the principles of evidence-based public health to identify and appraise the evidence on walking school buses. KRPH may suggest a similar initiative to the King Region School Board during an upcoming meeting. Given the short timeframe of one week, …

Case 13 : The Abokobi Open Dump, Matthew Tersigni, Reginald Quansah, Amardeep Thind

Western Public Health Casebooks

Treesus, an environmental advocacy group in Accra, Ghana, recently hired Luca Parente. Like many West African countries, Ghana has a linear economy, meaning that it dumps rather than recycles most of its municipal solid waste. Luca explores the Abokobi open dump site, a large open dump in the middle of the Abokobi community. Luca recognizes the hazards of living beside an open dump and learns that it may increase the rate of communicable diseases and the exposure to toxic heavy metals. The Abokobi community is divided on their perceptions of the dump. Some see scavenging at the dump as an …

Case 15 : Going Beyond The Wheel Chair Ramp: Public Health Sudbury & Districts’ Plan To Become Accessible To All, Akshay Varghese, Laurel O’Gorman, Joelle Martel, David Groulx, Mark Speechley

Western Public Health Casebooks

Following years of advocacy work, Christina Peterson, foundational standards specialist at Public Health Sudbury & Districts (PHSD) and co-chair of the Evidence-Informed Practice Working Group (EIPWG), facilitated the formation of the People with Disabilities Working Group in early 2015. People with disabilities (PWD) faced significant health inequities compared to people without disabilities. The People with Disabilities Working Group had established three long-term outcomes from their logic model:

1. Programs and services at PHSD are fully accessible and inclusive, particularly for people with disabilities (especially for unseen disabilities).
2. Staff at PHSD have the ability to recognize, understand, and apply attitudes and practices …

Case 17 : Can Hospitals Do Health Promotion? Making Hospitals A Place For Both Care And Health Through Health Promotion, Shannon L. Sibbald, J. Ross Graham

Western Public Health Casebooks

Lauren Kitsman trained as a health promoter and is now working for a hospital. She has been tasked with implementing a health promotion approach in her hospital and has tried to understand the health issues at the hospital and identified potential areas to inform health promotion action. She turned to the ‘health promoting hospitals (HPH) approach’ in order to bridge the gap between acute care and health promotion in the hospital setting. As she looked deeper into HPHs in Ontario, she discovered an advocacy network, the Ontario Health Promoting Hospitals Network (OHPHN). While the initiative had largely been unsuccessful in …

Integrated Workshops

Western Public Health Casebooks

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Complete 2018 Casebook

Western Public Health Casebooks

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