By Marlies Casteleijn MSc (candidate)

Engaging youth and fostering their participation is increasingly recognized as an important means in effectively improving their health and wellbeing. Empowerment of youth is crucial, especially for underserved youth. People working in health and social services are very important partners to support youth in gaining leadership and life skills contributing to their health and wellbeing, as well as the health of their families and communities.

Health literacy is found to be an important life skill as it is seen as a crucial aspect in determining and having control over one’s health. It is recognized as being critical to empowered, active and informed participation in health and healthcare. Even though health literacy is recognized as being important to empower people, research has largely focused on adults. There are many questions we still do not know about youth and health literacy. For instance, youth’s strengths and assets in addressing risks and protective factors have insufficiently been recognized, and youth’s perspectives on what constitutes health and what factors influence health are relatively unknown.

To date, health literacy has been largely viewed through an individual, healthcare lens, in which broader factors affecting health seem to be ignored. These social factors are important to consider if we view health in an inclusive, holistic way. Bridge for Health recognizes the importance of such a holistic approach to health and encourages upstream thinking.

Building on holistic health literacy and upstream thinking, in 2014 Bridge for Health developed Moving Upstream: Youth Engagement Photovoice Research Project. The project was a collaborative endeavour with community partners RedFox Healthy Living Society, Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver and United Way Lower Mainland to support youth in gaining leadership and life skills contributing to their health and wellbeing. The project was carried out through the existing Youth Warrior Program, aimed to enable youth (aged 15-18 years old) to have more control over their health and wellbeing, as well as that of their communities and families.

Through this Photovoice project, the youth were asked to capture elements/factors presenting their life which are affecting their health and wellbeing, and that of their families and communities. The photographs taken by the youth were presented on December 17th, 2014.

Bridge for Health Project investigated prevailing needs and concerns of youth, so that future initiatives can incorporate this knowledge in the future development of health literacy tools targeted at youth. These tools can support youth in understanding the broader factors in life influencing their health and wellbeing, and thus contribute to increased holistic health literacy levels.

The project aimed to foster holistic health literacy levels of youth by increasing their critical consciousness through participation in the program, as well as learning about the social factors affecting their health and wellbeing.

If you have any questions or comments, please send an email to marlies@bridgeforhealth.org

Marlies Casteleijn MSc

By Patsy Beattie-Huggan | President and Principal Consultant, The Quaich Inc.

The moment I met Paola Ardiles at a Networking Lunch in Vancouver on April 10, 2014 I had a sense of connection abounding with synergy. The Bridge for Health website outlined a philosophy and beliefs so congruent with my own that I thought “I could have written this”. This immediate connection set the stage for a desire to work together – and an invitation to write this blog. So here I am, realizing that this introduction was yet one more amazing chapter on the journey of developing and working with the Circle of Health.

The Circle of Health is a health promotion framework and values based planning tool that is hand-held, moveable, shaped by theory and context, and built through a consultative process incorporating principles of adult education, community development and qualitative research that drew on right and left brain thinking. Dr. Terry Mitchell has said that the theoretical strength of the Circle of Health is that the process of its development models the way in which it is applied. Launched in 1996, the Circle of Health still resonates with learners and practitioners today – and it is hard to imagine that a framework developed to meet local needs on Prince Edward Island, Canada is now translated into five languages and has travelled to countries all over the world, engaging academics, policy makers and community members!

The journey began in 1995, when I was in the role of Director Community Development for the Prince Edward Island (PEI) Health and Community Services Agency. At the time, I was working with regional health authorities and community groups to embrace a health promotion philosophy as the foundation for programs and system change – in a newly reformed health system that had embraced justice, housing, hospitals, social services and public health. During that same year, the Canadian Public Health Association (CPHA) was conducting consultations on the future of health promotion in Canada. Building on the results of that consultation, the PEI Health and Community Services System, Women’s Network, Canadian Health Promotion Network Atlantic, CPHA NB-PEI shared mailing lists, resources and time and initiated a two day process to adopt a health promotion framework for PEI. Since it was a follow-up to their consultation, CPHA national made a funding contribution to what was to be the first day of the development of the Circle of Health©. Irv Rootman and Larry Hershfield from the Centre for Health Promotion Research at the University of Toronto and Tariq Bhatti, Health Canada brought their expertise to this process. The consultation process was replicated and validated in Northern Ireland by an Irish colleague, Leslie Boydell who participated in the PEI process. All assisted with the validation, evaluation and dissemination that followed. In reflection, we were pioneers in the movement now called social innovation.

As I began to observe the process of discovery and engagement that took place each time people used the Circle of Health, the value of the tool became more evident. Increasingly, it became clear to me that there was a need for similar tools that could be used by the system and community together to achieve social good. In 1998, I founded The Quaich Inc., a health company focused on consulting and marketing of health innovations. Through gathering the stories of how the Circle of Health has been applied in engaging communities to take action on social and health issues, colleagues and I have developed a growing body of knowledge which we share through our website at www.circleofhealth.net , development of educational products, and through our online and in person workshops.

This year, the Circle of Health Online Workshop Series will run throughout November and we hope you will join us. The workshops are a great way to refresh your knowledge about health promotion, and an opportunity to develop skills in partnership development, planning, education and facilitation. As an affiliate to Bridge for Health, you are eligible for a 15% discount. There are group rates for others in your organization who may want to join you.

For more information, visit www.thequaich.pe.ca/workshops.asp or contact me directly by email at patsy@thequaich.pe.ca or phone at 1-800-898-1066. If possible, please circulate information about the online workshops to others in your networks.

If you are already using the Circle of Health, I would really like to hear from you to learn how you are using the Circle of Health – the successes and the challenges. If you would like to receive our regular newsletters, please click here: http://fluidsurveys.com/s/request-for-consent/

I look forward to continuing our work with Bridge for Health. Working together for social good, we can do great things!

Patsy Beattie-Huggan | President and Principal Consultant, The Quaich Inc.

902-894-3399 | 902-626-3221 (Fax)

By: Vancouver Coastal Health, Community Engagement

The “tiny but mighty” Community Engagement team at Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) works to enhance patient and public participation in health service planning and decision-making, so that members of the public have a ‘voice’ in the services and policies that affect their lives, and the lives of their loved ones.

One of the main ways that we do this is by supporting a group of dedicated volunteers known as the Community Engagement Advisory Network. We fondly call them the “CEAN” (pronounced KEEN).

The CEAN was established in July of 2009 and provides VCH departments and senior leadership with a network of public members who possess diverse skills, have been oriented to VCH, and represents a cross section of ages, genders, ethnicities, cultures and socio-political backgrounds. This level of readiness allows CEAN members to effectively collaborate with VCH staff in planning together for improvements to the quality and delivery of health care services. CEAN members provide a unique opportunity for VCH to build relationships with members of the public who are interested and motivated to engage for the purpose of improving healthcare. They have a vested interest in improving the system and in establishing mechanisms for continual, sustainable improvement.

We engage with CEAN in a variety of ways, which can range from reviewing a patient brochure and testing its user-friendliness, to sitting on Regional Advisory Committees with the health authority’s senior leadership. CEAN members are communicated with on a weekly basis, and brought together at various times throughout the year to provide them with the opportunity to learn, network, connect with members of VCH Leadership and to provide their feedback on initiatives and projects being implemented within VCH. The input that CEAN provides is incredibly valuable, and many project leads have shared how valuable it is to tap into the patient/family/public perspective in their planning in order to establish priorities and set the direction for their work.

“One of the key contributions is that they readily provide their input from a ‘consumer’ or patient perspective – and it is this feedback that often helps direct the conversation i.e. moving from focusing on what matters to a clinician to what matters to a patient and family/caregiver.” 

 -JoAnne Douglas, Project Manager Integrated Primary & Community Care, Vancouver Coastal Health

CEAN is working hard to add the voice of the patient/family/public member into our health care system. And more and more staff within the health authority are seeking out that voice.

The “tiny but mighty” Community Engagement team has noticed a welcome increase in requests for public participation! We are working hand in hand with CEAN to meet all the requests There are now approx. 30 members of CEAN sitting on various Advisory Committees within VCH. Whatever type and level of involvement CEAN members engage in, their ultimate goal is to improve healthcare and make services more accessible in their communities.

Next month, CEAN will celebrate its 5 year anniversary and the number of CEAN members has recently grown to 100! The Community Engagement Team is enjoying all the different ways that patient engagement is growing at Vancouver Coastal Health.

If you’d like to share your voice at VCH and become a CEAN member, click here to apply, or contact us at ce@vch.ca