This list is an evolving scan of public health and health organizations that are taking action on the social determinants of health and advancing health equity.

Health Equity Clicks: Organizations will be of interest to public health practitioners and researchers across the country, and is designed to:

• Enhance knowledge about key players that support action on the determinants of health
• Increase connections among public health professionals who address health equity

This list of organizations builds on the 2010 NCCDH Environmental Scan Integrating Social Determinants of Health and Health Equity into Canadian Public Health Practice. In 2012, the Canadian Institute for Health Information - Canadian Population Health Initiative (CIHI-CPHI) shared an internal catalogue describing organizations that generate population health-related knowledge with NCCDH. This catalogue, created in January 2011 and updated in January 2012, has been used to support this online resource by identifying new Canadian and international organizations. 

Organizations were identified from:

• The 2010 NCCDH Environmental Scan
• Online searches using key words relevant to the social determinants of health and health equity
• The CIHI-CPHI database profiling organizations that generate population health-related knowledge
• Consultations and feedback received from public health practitioners

The list of organizations is non-comprehensive as Canadian contributions to the social determinants of health and health equity are continuously evolving and progressing. We welcome your input, comments, corrections, updates, and additions. We encourage you to help us strengthen this resource by emailing us your suggestions.  We will update this list on a bi-annual basis based on feedback received with the goal of making it as useful as possible to practitioners and researchers in the field.

English Content

Are you part of working group, network, or committee related to the social determinants of health and health equity?

We are pleased to offer members of the Health Equity Clicks community a space for group collaboration. You can use group space to share resources, meeting minutes, and have ongoing conversations relevant to your members.

Groups are designed to be self-organizing. If you create a new group, you will be responsible for inviting other community members to join your group, and for maintaining the discussion threads. We will monitor groups periodically and inactive groups may be archived. Please note that the title of the group will appear in the primary language of the group members.

If you need help getting started or have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact Pemma Muzumdar, Knowledge Broker.

Click the link below to start the sign up process!

We will be in touch soon to address you suggestions, concerns and questions. Thanks for your time.

Click the link below to create an account.

What is the National Collaborating Centre for Determinants of Health?

We are one of six National Collaborating Centres for Public Health in Canada. Our focus is on the social and economic factors that influence the health of Canadians. We translate and share evidence with public health organizations and practitioners to influence interrelated determinants and advance health equity.

The National Collaborating Centre for Determinants of Health (NCCDH) is based in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, and is hosted by St. Francis Xavier University.

Who is the National Collaborating Centre for Determinants of Health for?

Our products and services are available and relevant to all organizations that make up the public health sector in Canada, including

• Health authorities/health units
• Ministries of health and public health agencies (provincial and federal)
• Public health associations
• The practitioners, decision makers and researchers that work within public health

What is our role?

The purposes of all National Collaborating Centres for Public Health are knowledge translation, network development, and knowledge gap identification.

Our centre is unique, because all of our activity is related to the social determinants of health and/or health equity, and we focus specifically on public health organizations and practitioners. Through various products and services, we work to advance knowledge, foster knowledge use, and accelerate network development.

Find out more about what we do.

Public health organizations and practitioners address determinants of health through multiple means. Based on the findings of our 2010 environmental scan, the NCCDH decided on a focused knowledge translation analysis of current interventions that have a basis of success, starting  with ten practices identified as ‘promising’ by the Sudbury and District Health Unit.

To find out more about these promising practices we conducted an expedited systematic review about intersectoral action as a public health strategy to address the social determinants of health.

We are currently

• Synthesizing evidence about community engagement as a public health method to influence knowledge and action related to the social determinants of health
• Developing a process to assess evidence on the use of core competencies and organizational standards by public health as techniques to advance organizational commitment to reducing health inequities

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We advance knowledge by

• Producing knowledge/evidence summaries and reviews, interpretative papers and reports, and videos
• Leading collaborative learning projects

We foster knowledge use by

• Organizing and leading workshops, webinars, forums, and presentations (in-person and online)

We accelerate network development by

• Hosting Health Equity Clicks: Community, an online community of practice for public health practitioners working to advance health equity & Health Equity Clicks: Organizations, a list of organizations taking action on the social determinants of health.
• Holding networking events

Visit 'Our Work' to find out about our initiatives related to the promising practices to advance health equity, public health leadership and population health status reporting.

For background on the social determinants of health, and to learn more about other topics, visit our resource library.

We want to make it easier for public health practitioners, researchers, and leaders to share what works to advance health equity.

Leave us your email, and we will invite you to become a founding member of Health Equity Clicks: Community.

Why become a member?

•     To collaborate with like-minded colleagues working across Canada
•     To ask questions in a safe space
•     To share your work and experiences
•     To participate in networking events

To find out more, contact our knowledge broker. 

The National Collaborating Centre for Determinants of Health is one of six National Collaborating Centres (NCC) for Public Health in Canada. Established in 2005 and funded through the Public Health Agency of Canada, the NCCs produce information to help public health professionals improve their response to public health threats, chronic disease and injury, infectious diseases and health inequities. The NCCs that are located across Canada, each focus on a different public health priority. The National Collaborating Centre for Determinants of Health is proud to work closely with other National Collaborating Centres for Public Health on several joint projects and initiatives.

Sign up for the National Collaborating Centre for Public Health e-bulletin, and learn more about each NCC by visiting the following websites: 

• National Collaborating Centre for Aboriginal Health (NCCAH)
• National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health (NCCEH)
• National Collaborating Centre for Infectious Disease (NCCID)
• National Collaborating Centre for Healthy Public Policy (NCCHPP)
• National Collaborating Centre for Methods and Tools (NCCMT)

Population health status reporting is a vital tool for addressing the social determinants of health and advancing health equity. The way that health data is collected and shared shapes our perceptions of population health and influences our ability to support action. Public health practitioners and organizations from across Canada have identified the need for resources, tools, and collaborative learning on this topic.

The National Collaborating Centre for Determinants of Health is working to enhance reporting by supporting an initiative that engages in collaborating learning, synthesis and reflection. Through a series of discussions, demonstrations, and presentations the NCCDH is hosting a learning circle. Our learning circle includes managers, directors, researchers, epidemiologists, and medical officers of health from across Canada. The learning circle provides advice and new skills to support Capital Health in Halifax as they work to integrate a health equity lens into their first population health status report for 2013.

To learn more...

-Download syntheses of key topics from the The Learning Together Series, available in our Resource Library

-Visit our new YouTube channel, to watch four new videos on population health status reporting

-Read related blog posts

• Integrating Health Equity into Population Health Status Reporting
• What is the Purpose of Population Health Status Reporting in Canada?
• Selecting population health status indicators to advance health equity
• Ethics & best practices for the access and use of external data

-Start a discussion about population health status reporting in Health Equity Clicks, our online community. You can also read through a past discussion called "What are the best indicators for assessing and supporting health equity in the delivery of public health programs and services?"

One of four videos available on our YouTube Channel: Integrating health equity into population health status reporting - The role of public health 

Our health is determined to a large extent by the conditions of everyday life, and by the systems put in place to promote health, prevent disease, and support us when we get sick. The ‘social determinants of health’ (SDH) is a name given to the many social conditions that interact to influence our health and well-being, the circumstances in which people are born, grow up, live, work and age. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) Commission on the Social Determinants of Health wrote in their final report that the “unequal distribution of health-damaging experiences is not in any sense a ‘natural phenomenon but is the result of a toxic combination of poor social policies and programs, unfair economic arrangements, and bad politics.” 

The WHO Commission proposes three overarching recommendations for action to improve the SDH, including:

• Improve daily living conditions;
• Tackle the inequitable distribution of power, money, and resources;
• Measure and understand the problem and assess the impact of action.
   

Explore key historical documents and resources to learn more about the social determinants of health.

Our resource library contains evidence-based resources for public health practitioners working to advance health equity. Similar to Health Equity Clicks: Organizations, the library is not yet comprehensive, and will evolve over time. We will continue to ensure that additions to our resource library are relevant and evidence-informed, and your feedback is welcome. To suggest a new resource, or to learn more about our resource selection process, please contact us.

We are dedicated to facilitating knowledge exchange between and among public health practitioners, researchers, and decision makers working to advance health equity. To help keep track of exchange opportunities related to public health, the social determinants of health, and health equity, we have created an Workshops & Events section. As in the Resource Library, we have categorized each event so that they are easy to browse by topic or by type.

Ongoing exchange opportunities also exist within our online network. To learn more, and to become a founding member, visit Health Equity Clicks: Community.

In 2010, we conducted an environmental scan to learn more about the needs of public health professionals in their efforts to integrate knowledge on the social determinants of health into their work. Respondents from across Canada agreed that public health leaders and organizations play a vital role in advancing health equity.

In his first Report on the State of Public Health in Canada, David Butler-Jones, Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, said

“high-level leadership in all sectors – health and otherwise – is crucial to reducing health inequalities.”

But what factors enable public health leadership? And how are these factors different across Canada? Our aim is to analyze and translate knowledge about public health leadership to help leaders improve and mitigate the effects of social determinants of health and advance health equity. Our intent is to identify effective practices, describe enablers and barriers that influence leadership, and identify tools and strategies to support leaders.

We will do this by means of:

• A rapid systematic review of literature;
• Appreciative inquiry with leaders and case learning

Health Equity Clicks: Organizations builds upon Integrating Social Determinants of Health and Health Equity into Canadian Public Health Practice, the Environmental Scan conducted by the National Collaborating Centre for the Determinants of Health in 2010 by identifying public health organizations that are addressing the determinants of health to improve health equity in Canada.

This resource will be of interest to public health practitioners and researchers across the country, and is designed to:

-Enhance knowledge about key players that support action on the determinants of health

-Increase connections among public health professionals who address health equity. This list is a preliminary scan of public health and health organizations that are taking action on the social determinants of health and advancing health equity.

Organizations were identified by:

-Reviewing organizations included in the Environmental Scan undertaken in 2010

-Conducting online searches using key words relevant to the social determinants of health and health equity. Criteria included: Organizations with a public health focus (e.g. public health units, public/population health research and policy organizations); Explicit online mention of the social determinants of health and/or health equity

-Searching for organizations across the country to ensure Pan-Canadian coverage

-Consultations with public health practitioners

The list is non-comprehensive as Canadian contributions to determinants of health and health equity are continuously evolving and progressing. The numerous partnerships and networks involved in advancing health equity make describing and categorizing the contributions difficult. Furthermore, it focuses on public health and closely-related health organizations and does not include the myriad of organizations outside of health that are instrumental and important for action on the social determinants of health.

This is a work in progress, and we welcome your input, comments, corrections, updates and additions. We would like to encourage you to help us strengthen this resource by emailing us your suggestions. We will update this list on a quarterly basis based on feedback received with the goal of making it as useful as possible to practitioners and researchers in the field.

Our work is related to the social determinants of health and/or health equity, and we focus specifically on public health organizations and practitioners.

Each of our current initiatives is informed by the results of a pan-Canadian environmental scan, Integrating Social Determinants of Health and Health Equity into Canadian Public Health Practice.

Visit the following pages for more information:

• The Promising Practices for Health Equity
• Public Health Leadership
• Population Health Status Reporting

To learn more about our new strategic direction and current activities, read this message from our Scientific Director, Connie Clement. 

In this section you will find background information on the social determinants of health, a listing of resources produced by the NCCDH, as well as a collection of resources we are calling our Resource Library. Similar to Health Equity Clicks: Organizations, the resource library is not comprehensive, and will evolve over time.

We will continue to ensure that additions to our resource library are relevant and evidence-informed, and your feedback is welcome.To suggest a new resource, or to learn more about our resource selection process, please contact us.