St. Thomas, Ontario, April 4, 2011 - The Elgin St. Thomas Healthy Communities Partnership is a new community group working to identify and advocate for healthy public policies. This partnership, funded by the Government of Ontario, wants to ensure that the healthy choice is the easier choice for people living in our community. The Partnership has been meeting for several months to see what local data already exists, add community members’ ideas and review research about best practices that may help us create a “Community Picture”. These early results and findings are available at www.elginhealth.on.ca.
The Community Picture is a broad profile of our community that describes who lives where, how healthy our residents are, information offered by members of our community and recommendations that could improve the well-being of everyone living in Elgin County and St. Thomas. This Community Picture will guide the future work of the Healthy Community Partnership as well as assist the Ministry of Health Promotion and Sport with funding decisions for the Healthy Community Fund.
A community engagement strategy was adopted during this process to ensure that the Community Picture reflected Elgin County’s current situation and more than just statistics. These strategies included an Asset Mapping Workshop, a Community-Wide Survey, Key Informant Interviews with all Elgin municipalities as well as a scan of the policies that currently exist at both school boards and the St. Thomas Elgin Hospital. Once all of this data was collected, the Community Partnership began to develop a strategic policy with both options and recommendations regarding actions for programs in our community.
The following recommendations were made:
1. Injury Prevention
- Increase awareness and knowledge regarding the impact of distracted driving and strategies to reduce multi-tasking while driving.
- Implement an education and awareness strategy targeting drivers, cyclists and pedestrians addressing the need for drivers and cyclists to share the road
- Increase pedestrian safety and provide barrier –free access by encouraging municipalities to examine their sidewalk maintenance and availability policies.
2. Mental Health Promotion
- Increase awareness of existing mental health promotion resources for adults and youth in the community.
- Increase knowledge in people of all ages regarding the importance of a healthy body – healthy mind connection.
3. Tobacco Use/Exposure
- Increase the availability of peer coaches and mentors to support people attempting to quit smoking.
- Increase the availability of free or low cost nicotine replacement therapy, brief intervention and in-depth counseling services locally.
- Advocate for policies regarding smoke-free multi-unit dwellings and minimum set-backs for smoking outside municipal buildings.
4. Substance and Alcohol Misuse
- Engage youth aged 10-24 in adapting and implementing evidence-based programs that address resiliency.
- Address prescription drug misuse in youth and adults through a multi sector approach with workplaces, physicians, and pharmacies.
5. Healthy Eating
- Increase access, availability and awareness of where to find healthy foods in schools, workplaces, the community and public facilities (including community gardens) and limit food and beverages high in calories, fat, sugar or salt.
- Enhance food skills training opportunities throughout the County (including basic nutrition and food safety concepts; menu planning, food budgeting, grocery shopping and food preparation skills).
- Advocate for policies that improve access to and availability of healthy foods in schools, workplaces, and public facilities (including community gardens) and limit food and beverages high in calories, fat, sugar and salt.
6. Physical Activity, Sport and Recreation
- Increase the availability of free or low cost recreational activities for people of all ages with specific focus programming for school aged kids after school hours.
- Increase the awareness of cycling and walking by supporting community events that promote active transportation such as, a car-free day, commuter challenge, a walk and shop downtown event etc.
- Increase the opportunities for people of all ages to use active transportation by reviewing and implementing municipal Master Plan documents and other relevant policies. Active transportation is defined as any form of human-powered transportation, such as walking, cycling, using a wheelchair, in-line skating or skateboarding.
For a copy of the whole report click here. If you are interested in hearing more about the Healthy Communities Project or becoming involved please contact Erica Arnett, Health Promoter at 519-631-3159 ext 247 or at earnett@elginhealth.on.ca.