Canadian Public Health Association Conference 2014

Canadian Public Health Association Conference 2014

Corrine Lowen and Kathleen Perkin presented on ELPH findings at the May 2014 CPHA conference.

Study 1: Equity Lens in Public Health: Health Equity as a Priority for BC Health Systems? Presented by Corrine Lowen

This presentation gives preliminary findings from an analysis of documents, interviews and focus groups with over one hundred senior public health directors, managers and MHOs from BC's health authorities and Ministry of Health. The analysis focuses on the themes, Health Equity as a Priority and Health Equity Talk. The main conclusions are that consistent language is needed around health equity, attention should be paid to potential implications of blame in individualistic language, there is a need to incorporate health equity goals across the health system, and intersectoral work enhances capacity to meet health equity goals.

Study 3:Enhancing Capacity in the Assessment and Application of Health Equity Tools. Presented by Kathleen Perkin.

This presentation gives preliminary findings from a Concept Mapping project conducted as part of Study 3. The focus is on what makes a health equity tool practical to use. Participants made suggestions, which were then rated and analyzed. The analysis produced six main themes that touched on reflexivity, user friendly features of a tool, theoretical content, and evaluation. The next step will be to use this analysis to develop a set of criteria to evaluate the practical utility of health equity tools.