Building connections through community exchange: Reflections from the Community Fellows Fall Event
Roma Dhamanaskar, Joanna Massie & Moizza Zia Ul Haq
Over the last three years, the Public Engagement in Health Policy (PEHP) team has sought to understand and address current challenges in public engagement practice. As we reflected on the project, we wanted to find a way to amplify the incredible work currently being done in and for communities. We launched a Community Fellowship initiative to support organizations to carry out innovative engagement-related activities that would help advance the goals of more inclusive public engagement in the health and social care sector. In the fall of 2023, we brought together the Fellowship teams for a full-day event to share their progress, to exchange their learnings, and to support community building.
Public Engagement in Health Policy (PEHP) Project announces Community Fellowship recipients to build capacity for innovative engagement-related activities
The Public Engagement in Health Policy Project is pleased to announce its support for eleven Community Fellowships that will support organizations to carry out short-term engagement-related activities to advance the goals of more inclusive health system and policy decision making.
Call for Applications: Community Fellowship
THIS FUNDING OPPORTUNITY IS NOW CLOSED.
The Public Engagement in Health Policy (PEHP) project is now inviting applications for Community Fellowships to commence in Summer 2023. The purpose of these Fellowships is to support community leaders, organizations or other teams to carry out short-term engagement-related activities that advance the goals of more inclusive health system and policy decision making. Five to ten Fellowships will be awarded. The deadline to apply is July 31, 2023.
Digital mental healthcare in Canada: Progress and considerations
Ava Homiar & Adrienne Davidson
In Canada, during any given year, 1 in 5 people will experience some form of mental illness. COVID-19 has greatly contributed to the prevalence of mental health disorders among Canadians due to the compounding impacts of social isolation, fears of infection, and stresses surrounding work, family, and community engagement. At the same time, the spread of COVID-19 and measures to mitigate transmission meant that many healthcare providers were forced to move virtually, with more patients and professionals becoming familiar with digital mental health (DMH) services. In this first post, we will introduce DMH services and e-mental health tools that have been utilized since the beginning of the pandemic. Further, we consider public attitudes toward the shift to virtual mental healthcare and the quality of care patients receive.
Introducing ‘Digital mental healthcare in Canada: A blog series’
Ava Homiar & Adrienne Davidson
A major focus of the Public Engagement in Health Policy project is to look forward - to identify novel approaches for engaging people in designing and establishing new health care strategies that are suitable across diverse populations. New developments in digital mental healthcare offer the opportunity to enhance the accessibility to mental health services for a broader range of populations, and to ensure citizen involvement in the design and implementation of these solutions. This series explores the provision and use of digital mental health services in recent years in Canada, and specifically during the pandemic.
Reimagining Public Engagement: a reflection
Joanna Massie, Roma Dhamanskar & Rana Saleh
On September 22, 2022, the Public Engagement in Health Policy project team at McMaster University hosted a one-day conference, Reimagining public engagement in a changing world. Community members, engagement practitioners, researchers, and policymakers gathered virtually and in person to discuss the opportunities and pitfalls of public engagement and to envision a way forward. Attendees explored questions such as, what does it mean to engage with communities ethically? How can researchers use new approaches to engagement to tackle contemporary health policy issues with communities? And what are the roots of mistrust between communities and researchers/policymakers?
Engaging the public in pandemic policy response: Missed and future opportunities for Canada
Roma Dhamanaskar & Julia Abelson
The COVID-19 pandemic has had profound health and social impacts on a Canadian public that has been largely responsible for curbing the spread of the virus. Despite bearing this significant burden, citizens and communities have had little direct involvement in shaping the substance or implementation of any of these government-directed policies. Notably, communities with the worst health outcomes were also the communities least likely to be meaningfully engaged in the health policies that affected them. How can we address these deficiencies as Canada enters the next stages of the pandemic and its pandemic recovery period? We suggest some initial steps to move us from principles to practice when it comes to more inclusive, legitimate, transformative public engagement.
Recruiting for engagement in health policy
Joanna Massie & Katherine Boothe
We know that who participates in public and patient engagement processes, and in what capacity they participate, matters. Are participants contributing on the basis of their lived experience with the health system, or on the basis of broad “public values”? Are a diverse range of participants and perspectives given meaningful opportunities to participate? How does the process of recruiting participants for public engagement shape the outcomes of these processes, and their legitimacy?
Reflections from a summer research student: Researching the use of online deliberation in health policy
Grace Kuang
“Just keep experimenting”. From May 2021 to December 2021, this became my mantra for navigating my first self-directed research project, Assessing good practice in the online public sphere: a descriptive evaluation of virtual deliberation in the COVID-19 era. Supervised by Dr. Julia Abelson and supported by a Bachelor of Health Sciences summer research scholarship, I explored the question: How might COVID-19 and the shift to a digital space transform approaches to public deliberation in health policy?
Unpacking the ‘public’ in public engagement: In search of Black communities
Rhonda C. George & Alpha Abebe
Public engagement in health policy encompasses several visions, mandates, frameworks, and approaches, which are aimed at including the broader public in health policy decision-making processes. This includes models that offer tools and methods (e.g., hearings, focus groups, citizen panels, etc.) for consulting and partnering with communities to facilitate their participation in policy decision-making. This kind of public engagement is often described as integral to policy decision-making and the quality of health services (Gauvin & Abelson, 2006; Ham, 2001, 85; Health Canada, 2000; Polletta, 2016). These approaches signal an openness to hearing the diverse views of Canadians and suggests a shift away from the more top-down approaches to health policy decision-making that governments have traditionally employed. However, closer examination of these public engagement practices reveal gaps that call the true depth and breadth of these initiatives into question, therefore chipping away at their legitimacy and efficacy.