This resource explores the role of the social determinants of health public health nurse in Ontario since 2015. The findings of this study describe a compelling opportunity for public health units across Canada to enable public health nurses to meaningfully address the structural and social determinants of health and advance health equity.
As the spread and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated in Canada and the world, we find ourselves in a cycle of planning, response and recovery. The National Collaborating Centres for Infectious Diseases and Determinants of Health (NCCID and NCCDH, respectively) have responded by reviewing lessons learned and recommendations on health equity from past pandemics in Canada.
This resource, based on interviews with practitioners from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer, captures practice-based learning that public health can use when co-creating and implementing health equity frameworks and taking other actions to advance health equity.
This study finds that workers with disabilities in Canada are roughly twice as likely to be in low-quality employment compared to workers without disabilities. The study contributes to our understanding of inequities in the Canadian labour market and can inform public health action to support decent work for all workers — an important social determinant of health.
This commentary draws attention to long-standing inequities experienced by people with disabilities in Canada and calls for overhauling how the public health and health care fields define and advance health equity for people with disabilities.