Creating a national commUNITY online: Hip hop youth outreach at UNITY charityMichael ProssermanUNITY Charity is launching a new program in partnership with Blueprint for Life that will do both electronic, phone and physical exchanges with youth from urban hip hop clubs in Toronto and arctic hip hop clubs in Nunavut/Nunavik. I will touch on some ways that we plan to empower the youth we have engaged through our various programs to do an exchange that will help create a more sustainable program for both of our organizations while keeping youth continually involved in our programs from all across Canada. The program will involve a public blog of the youths' exchanges as well as a technology package given to youth in both urban and arctic communities to facilitate the exchange before the physical exchange takes place. Download notes from the session here. Behind the Scenes: Make your next public health project a movieEmily BradyThe workshop will involve three parts:
Community Based Social Marketing: A people-focused approach to designing behaviour-change initiativesKevin Black, Alison Crepinsek, and Lisa CrellinCommunity-Based Social Marketing (CBSM), as envisioned by its founder, Canadian environmental psychologist Doug McKenzie-Mohr, is the application of social psychological techniques to enhance social marketing efforts and thereby increase their likelihood of success. The six tools of CBSM are commitment, prompts, norms, communication, incentives and conveniences. In this workshop we:
Download the notes from the session here. Designing social media strategy for health promotion and public healthCameron NormanImplementing social media effectively to promote health and encourage public engagement requires the right tools and a strategy to deploy them effectively. Part of such a strategy is understanding the strengths and limitations of each social media technology platform and matching those with the project or program's goals and the resources - human and technical - available. This workshop will introduce participants to ways various social media tools can be used to support public health through demonstrations and both practice-based and empirical evidence drawing on the presentation team's experience working with the Youth Voices Research Group for more than 15 years. Download the notes from the session here. Web-based mobile disease surveillance and mapping project in BotswanaLesedi Belway and Katy DigovichPositive Innovation for the Next Generation (PING), a local Botswana NGO, is going to present on a mobile disease surveillance and mapping project that is running at sixteen health facilities in northern Botswana. PING has developed a web-based application that allows healthcare workers to submit their weekly disease indicator reports to the Ministry of Health using Palm Pre 2 smartphones and also report and map individual disease outbreaks. PING’s servers on the backend aggregate and analyze all the data as soon as it is submitted and allow government officials to view real-time data reports. This system has increased the speed and efficiency of communication by taking a data submission and analysis process that took 3-5 weeks and shortening it to a matter of hours. This model gives Botswana the potential to lead disease surveillance and mapping in Southern Africa. PING, in partnership with the Ministry of Health, and Hewlett-Packard (HP) wish to expand this concept to all outbreak-prone diseases in Botswana improving the efficiency of data collection and communication in general. Download notes from the session here. Connecting young adults, community agencies and researchers across time and space barriers using information technology toward improved mental healthChristine Garinger, Pauline Fogarty, and Tara SyedMobilizing Minds: Pathways to Young Adult Mental Health is a knowledge mobilization project led by young adults, health professionals, researchers and community partners, including our core community partner, mindyourmind. We define knowledge mobilization as the process of getting the right information to the right people in the right format and at the right time to inform decisions. Together, we are developing evidence-based information, resources and decision-making aids to assist young adults in making informed decisions about their mental health. At Public Health 2.0 we wish to present the model of our collaborative project Mobilizing Minds, an initiative funded by CIHR and the Mental Health Commission of Canada. Spanning 5 years and participation from over 40 people, including 11 young adult team members, 5 academic institutions across Ontario and Manitoba, and multiple community organizations, we use social media and information technology to meet project milestones that include recruitment, resource development, field testing and the ongoing evaluation of our processes. Through an interactive presentation, participants will visit virtual stations that demonstrate Mobilizing Minds’ participatory approaches. At a first station, conference participants will explore the virtual collaborative spaces that we use to actively engage our diverse team. At a second station, participants will view our social network sites including our You Tube and Twitter channels to discuss their knowledge mobilization and community engagement uses for our project. At a third station, we’ll present the field testing edition of MindPack our new interactive online tool targeted at young adults dealing with depression, anxiety and stress that employs videos, personal stories, and more. Throughout, we will reflect on lessons learned and consider the challenges and opportunities in using information technology to collaboratively work across space and time. Download notes from the session here. Digital narratives as an educational tool in food and nutrition practiceEmily VetteseNarratives are a means for preparing food and nutrition students for the complexities of their future practice. It is also useful for conveying relevant information while fostering trust and empathy between health care providers and those seeking their services (McAllister et al, 2009). However, some have argued that dietetics’ positivist inclination negates the experiential and contextual aspects of eating and health, and limits the possibilities for empathy between practitioners and those for whom dietitians provide services (Aphramor, 2005; Buchanan, 2004; Gingras & Brady, 2009; Liquori, 2001). Storytelling is one means of bridging the empirical traditions of dietetic practice with the socio-cultural context in which practice occurs (Charon, 2006; Lordly, 2007). Given its potential to benefit practice, this study provided students the opportunity to create digital stories from the text-based narratives they already produced in class. Additionally, these students engaged in a partnership with practicing dietitians to co-create digital narratives that described the realities of dietetic practice. We assessed project outcomes during the creation of the digital stories, and through the dissemination process. Through collaboration students and professionals taught each other intergenerationally, thus expanding the community of practice and preparing students for the complex field they were planning to enter. Download notes from the session here. Participatory video: An empowering tool for program evaluation by indigenous Guatemalan girlsEmma Richardson and Angel del ValleCapturing the effects of a multi-sectorial, grassroots program that reaches marginalized adolescent girls from rural Guatemala in their communities is challenging. The Opening Opportunities Program, with technical support and capacity building from InsightShare, will incorporate participatory video with girls filming each other as the program rolls out. The hypothesis is that before and after videos will show girls’ increasing self-confidence, not easily measured in traditional monitoring and evaluation instruments. The presentation about this innovative approach to engaging girls in capturing each other’s evolution in the program will provide an opportunity to exchange ideas about using video to make evaluation more participatory, effective and possibly emancipatory, with implications for knowledge translation and advocacy. The Internet is the fastest growing, yet perhaps the least understood, context of learning and community development. Facebook, Twitter, Wikis, YouTube, Blogs, iPads, iPhones, iTunes, iEverything…we are swimming in information and ways to communicate with each other. But how do we know if the information that we receive is credible and that the people that we interact with are trustworthy. Trust may be defined as “the willingness of a party to be vulnerable to the actions of another party based on the expectation that the other will perform a particular action important to the trustor, irrespective of the ability to monitor or control that other party” (Mayer, Davis, & Schoorman, 1995 p. 712). Internet researchers acknowledge that there are distinct differences between offline and online interactions that affect the formation of trust. How do you decide to trust people you have never met, whose identities are difficult to verify, in an environment where there are few mechanisms to control behaviour? This workshop will explore the antecedents of trust formation on and off line and will suggest some ways to support trust development in online communities, with an emphasis on health support groups. Download notes from the session here. Green technologies in agro-food processing and water supply to safeguard health and improve livelihood in the developing worldErnest Yanfulhave shown that water-borne diseases, especially diarrhea and typhoid threaten the health and life of millions of people, especially children. In addition, most agro-food processing in Subsahran Africa still relies heavily on wood fuel. The heat and smoke from open wood fire pose significant health risk to workers many of whom are women. For example, during cassava processing in West and Central Africa, women operating wood-fire powered traditional swish or clay stoves have reported high incidences of headache, skin rashes, bronchitis and other respiratory illnesses. The first part of the lecture will discuss examples of opportunities for integrating green energy technologies in agro-food processing to enhance food security at the community level and improve the livelihood of small-holder enterprises and farmers. In the second part of the lecture, the role of safe water in human development will be highlighted. The possible role of green and appropriate energy technologies to enhance safe water supply and promote micro-enterprises will be discussed. Download notes from the session here. Round TablesTopic 1: Child Mental HealthSupporting Practice Change with Wiki: Ontario Children's Mental Health Outcome InitiativeRhonda CouchSocial media tools have great potential for knowledge translation. CAFASinOntario, a technical assistance centre based at SickKids, has supported the implementation and use of a province-wide outcome measurement tool for child and youth mental health since 2000. We have employed several strategies to support this work, most recently a wiki platform to link and share knowledge related to the outcome tool and its use across Ontario. This presentation will provide a demonstration of the wiki, and review how it has been implemented to facilitate knowledge exchange among children's mental health providers, CAFASinOntario staff, and Ministry policy leads. Challenges to the use of wiki to support knowledge translation and practice change will be highlighted. Storytelling MedicineAli Shahzada and Luis MichelangeliA hospital visit can be quite traumatic for a child. Much research has been done to sooth a child during a procedure; using various methods. The issue is that these solutions only help for a fraction of the entire procedure, creating peaks and valleys of anxiety. Research has shown that anxiety may have detrimental effects on all stakeholders. The child’s health, parental stress, and healthcare institutions bottom line are just some ways anxiety effects everyone involved. Based on our research we propose to use storytelling in conjunction modern computing technology to create a system of tools to distract, educate, and empower a child during a hospital procedure. Download notes from this round table here. Topic 2: Breastfeeding and Maternal HealthSocial Systems Design in Healthcare: Facilitating, rather than providing, breast-feeding supportMartin RyanThe winner of the 2011 Rotman Design Challenge, this public health intervention illustrates the power of social systems design in health prevention, this case study highlights the development of a systems intervention focusing on the experience of breastfeeding. It demonstrates how simple design methods, well executed, can inspire the development of critical social system changes that improve health: in this case, the creation of an intervention that addresses the emotional needs of first-time mothers when initiating breastfeeding. By taking a systems view of the breastfeeding experience, it was possible to look outside the traditional boundaries of the healthcare system to design an intervention that could improve a first-time mother’s experience, when it matters most to them. Helping to shift the perceived problem around breastfeeding from one of education and access, to one of social and cultural breakdown, the designers ultimately reframed the role of the targeted service provider, the Mayo Clinic, to that of a facilitator of healthcare, rather than a provider. From Voicemail to Email: Halton Region’s effort to make breastfeeding the normLisa KulyThe Halton Breastfeeding Connection (Halton BFC) is a group of volunteer women who provide telephone support to new mothers. The group formed in 1992 in response to the Halton Breastfeeding Study of the same year. The study revealed that although 80% of new mothers initiated breastfeeding, only 35% were still breastfeeding at six months. A major challenge for new mothers concerned the lack of public health resources to provide breastfeeding support. In 2007, the Halton Breastfeeding Connection received 432 referrals. This year, however, mothers requesting support will be offered the opportunity to provide their email addresses to Halton BFC and volunteers will initiate client contact through email. This presentation will discuss how and why this shift in participatory technology took place and briefly analyze the beginnings of this new approach to providing breastfeeding peer support. Topic 3: Health CareCOIL - Collaborative Online Interprofessional LearningDennis CheungCOIL, which stands for Collaborative Online Interprofessional Learning, is a new innovative research project being carried out at Bridgepoint Health, Toronto. COIL utilizes the most up-to-date synchronous technologies and Web 2.0 tools to provide clinicians a dynamic and interactive way in learning and sharing knowledge about chronic complex illnesses with other clinicians. The intent of presenting on COIL is to create awareness among clinicians and researchers on some of the new tools available in which education and knowledge exchange can be shared among healthcare providers in the delivery of care to patients. Please see http://www.bridgepointhealth.ca/coil for a three-minute video on the project. Social gaming and motivation in health careEric (Kun) Huh and Dan ShilenskyWe will be presenting our concept of using a social gaming platform in health care to engage patients undergoing treatments and to encourage proactive health management in the general population. Drawing on current research in gaming and behavior, we will be looking at social competitiveness and point-based feedback as highly effective tools of motivation. In doing so, we will educate conferences attendees as to the opportunities present within social gaming, and the possible use of such platforms in research and enhanced patient-physician interactions. Download notes from the round table here. Topic 4: Youth HealthEngaging youth in the design of web-based mental health promotion toolsAndrea YipYouth4Health, a community-based research project led by the Youth Voices Research Group, engaged young newcomers to Ontario, Canada in the design of web-based mental health promotion tools. Thirteen youth ages 15-29 participated in a 4-day design charrette that involved mental health training, collaborative design development, and the use of social media to capture participant reflections. The intense and participatory charrette process led to the development of a mental health trivia game and interactive art piece (available at TakingItGlobal: navigatethis.org). This project illustrates how the charrette process can facilitate health promotion program development. Let's Talk About Sex: Exploring young racialized women's agency in the context of riskCiann WilsonWith over 3000 Black (of African or Caribbean ancestry) residents, the low-income neighbourhood of Jane and Finch is considered one of Toronto’s key Black communities. Social inequality and poor policy decisions impose negative, oppressive conditions on the inhabitants of Jane and Finch, which inhibit the opportunities available to youth to achieve educational, social and economic success. This context of inequality manifests in poor sexual health outcomes for the young Black women who reside in this community. In keeping with the conference mandate of employing participatory technologies to address public health issues, this presentation will display the products created from a nine-week photovoice workshop where 15 young Black women ages 14 – 18 from the Jane and Finch community used photography and creative writing to express their opinions on the barriers and facilitators to making healthy sexual decisions. This photovoice project is a part of a community based research project done in partnership with Northwood Community Centre and Black Creek Community Health Centre. The group photovoice exhibit depicts the great degree of thought and agency these young women have when making sexual decisions, as well as the barriers to making healthy decisions such as: parental control; the lack of intergenerational communication and support; and the fear of being labelled or gossiped about if accessing sexual health resources and information; limited access to financial resources and the existence of transactional sexual relations within youth culture. This presentation will explore:
Download notes from the round table here. Topic 5: ResearchRe:searching for LGBTQ Health: Examples of community-based researchLesley TarasoffThis session will present the work of the Re:searching for LGBTQ Health team at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. The Re:searching for LGBTQ Health team is a team of researchers who focus on understanding how lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, Two-Spirit, and queer (LGBTQ) people experience physical and mental health, and how they access health services in Ontario. The Re:searching for LGBTQ Health team practices community-based research (CBR), working in partnership with LGBTQ communities to answer questions that are important to them, and are increasingly using social media and other technologies to recruit study participants, as methodological tools to conduct and analyze research, to disseminate research findings, and to share resources beyond the traditional academic avenues. This poster presentation comes just a few months after the launch of our website. Using (online) technologies is something new for the Re:searching for LGBTQ Health team and we look forward to learning more about how to do our work more effectively with LGBTQ comminities via technologies throughout the entire research process - from study design to knowledge dissemination. Applicable Objectives and Themes: 2, 3, 4, 6, and Engage, Empower, Exchange, Enable. Vaccination sentiment during the H1N1 pandemic: Qualitative and quantitative analysis of 480,915 TweetsLatifa MnyusiwallaThis mini-presentation will discuss findings of research conducted by Eysenbach, G., Chew, C., Mnyusiwalla, L. (paper submitted for publication) exploring the feasibility of infoveillance methods by mining and analyzing Tweets sent during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, and analyzing them for changes in vaccination-related content, including identifying media stories and other events that were widely shared and potentially lead to changes in vaccination opinion/behaviour. Analysis of social media during a public health emergency may provide novel tools for public health practitioners and researchers to study health communication issues and to monitor the pulse of public attention and opinion. Topic 6: Global Health EquityTowards increased social relevance: Engaging participation and enabling collaborative organization of scientific conferences |
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Session Abstracts and Summary Notes |