Saskatchewan Alliance for

Community Well-Being and

the Health of Youth

SSBA Spring Assembly

April 11, 2013

Dr. Jon Tonita, Vice President Population Health, Sask Cancer Agency

Rob Currie, Director of Education, Regina Catholic School Division

Health of Children

We are faced with the following:

For the first time in more than 100 years,

Canadian children may be less healthy and

have shorter lives than their parents

Unhealthy children lead to more unhealthy

adults

Ref: Curbing Childhood Obesity: A FPT framework for Action to

Promote Healthy Weights

Risk Factor/Outcomes

Risk Time Outcome

Smoking → Cancer, CVD, stroke

Overweight/Obesity →

CVD, stroke, diabetes,

cancer, mental illness

Alcohol abuse → CVD, cancer, mental illness,

injury

Where Does Information Come From?

Most used is the Canadian Community

Health Survey (CCHS)

Repeated every 5 years

Samples from Canadian population

In 2009-10, Saskatchewan total sample =

7,449 and 12-19 years of age = 903

Youth Smoking

Declining in Canada:

12% of 15-19 year olds are current

smokers (CCHS 2010)

In Saskatchewan:

20% of 15-19 year olds reported as current

smokers (CCHS 2010)

25% off-reserve aboriginal youth in Grades

9-12 reported as current smokers

Source: Canada Year Book 2012 – Catalogue # 11-402-X

Alcohol Consumption in Youth 12-19

(2010)

Males Females

Canada 16.3% 11.2%

Saskatchewan 29.1% 13.1%*

*unstable estimate (CCHS)

Source: Statistics Canada, Cansim table 105-0501

Overweight or Obese Youth 12-17 (2010)

Males Females

Canada 23.7% 16.1%

Saskatchewan 24.3% 21.5%*

*unstable estimate (CCHS)

Source: Statistics Canada, Cansim table 105-0501

Source: http://www.bdlc.umontreal.ca/chmd/prov/can/can.htm

Comments to consider

Saskatchewan Epidemiology Association (SEA) meeting on November 9, 2011: Dr. David Butler Jones, Chief Public Health Officer, Public Health Agency of Canada

We have to move upstream to make a difference in health

Need practical solutions and actions at the community level

Current approaches are siloed, we need an approach that is integrated and interdisciplinary

Re the social determinants of health he stated "just do something“

And finally "public health is local”

Communities are Key

In 1986, the World Health Organization (WHO) adopted a new approach to health promotion that stressed increasing peoples’ control over the determinants of health, high-level public participation and intersectoral cooperation

WHO: a healthy community is one that is continually creating and improving those physical and social environments and expanding those community resources which enable people to perform all functions of life and develop their maximum potential.

Source: Community Organizing & Community Building for Health – Meredith Minkler, editor

YOUTH HEALTH

SURVEY

STAKEHOLDERS

MEETING November 23, 2011

Why is the SCA leading a provincial

youth health survey meeting?

As per “The Cancer Agency Act”,

“…the agency shall:

d) evaluate the cancer care services that

are provided in Saskatchewan;

e) establish provincial protocols and

standards for cancer care services;

g) promote and encourage health

and wellness; …pg 7

Why do we care?

Cancer is mostly in people over 50

True, but it is not good enough to wait for

people to get cancer (or any other

disease) and then have to try to cure them.

Ongoing funding for cancer and all chronic

diseases combined will threaten

sustainability of the health system and all

other ministries.

Is the Cancer Agency leading this

effort?

The SCA decided to take the lead to bring

this group together, but we are one partner

among everyone who attended.

We are provincial in scope.

The SCA’s vision: a population-based,

coordinated, and collaborative approach,

integrated with health promotion and

chronic disease prevention.

Is the time right now?

What are we waiting for? When is it the

right time? Why wouldn't it be the right

time?

We have a system undergoing

transformational change right now;

prevention is a pillar.

Saskatchewan Population Health Council

alignment

Partners who want to work with us now

Is the time right now?

This has to be the next big Saskatchewan legacy - right up there with the first cobalt radiation therapy unit, provincial cancer care services coverage 20 years prior to Medicare, establishing the Canadian Cancer Society, and one of the worlds oldest cancer registries.

We can do this. We have the history of collaboration on our side to make great things happen.

Saskatchewan Alliance for Youth &

Community Well-Being (SAYCW)

Targets:

Establish a provincial Steering Committee to link health promotion and chronic disease prevention agencies, cancer agencies, regional health authorities, schools and education agencies, academic researchers, First Nations and Métis authorities, and governments to support and guide a youth health survey and eventual risk factor surveillance process/knowledge exchange system in Saskatchewan.

Saskatchewan Alliance for Youth &

Community Well-Being (SAYCW)

Targets:

Develop and implement a provincial Youth

Health Survey targeted to youth ages 11 to

19 with a focus on risk and protective

factors for chronic disease.

Develop and implement a knowledge

exchange strategy to support the

distribution, understanding and use of

survey results by stakeholders in multiple

settings (schools, communities, health

regions).

Saskatchewan Alliance for Youth &

Community Well-Being (SAYCW)

Targets: Disseminate survey reports to appropriate

provincial stakeholders (schools/school divisions, health regions, community-based organizations, government ministries).

Conduct an evaluation of the process utilized in implementing the provincial survey and the immediate outcomes associated with the survey results and knowledge of health issues at the local level.

Establish a sustainability strategy that includes plans to conduct future cycles of the Youth Health Survey and expansion to coordinated community-led risk and protective factor surveillance/ knowledge exchange system in Saskatchewan.

Saskatchewan Alliance for Youth &

Community Well-Being (SAYCW)

To Date:

Four working groups have been

established

Funding in place for two years

Adopting the Manitoba model

Manitoba Experience

Bumpy road at first

Almost all schools came on board and participated

Schools own their own data, community level, population-based

Central group (CancerCare Manitoba) are the stewards of data

Very successful: second round of survey is underway, Ministries bought in.

Has replaced other survey in system

Saskatchewan Plan for Growth:

Vision 2020 and Beyond

A couple of the key goals in The

Saskatchewan Plan for Growth include: Reduce the difference in graduation rates

between Aboriginal and non- Aboriginal students

by 50 per cent by 2020;

Lead the country in Grade 12 graduation rates by

2020;