The indicator familiarity with public health unit programs and services is defined as whether a board of health has assessed local community members' familiarity with any of the public health unit's programs and services.

Although it is an important component of public health practice, indicators that measure community engagement and awareness of public health are not yet well developed or validated. For this report, data were collected from boards of health on whether they had assessed local community members' familiarity with their programs and services. Of the 36 boards of health, 26 reported that they had most recently conducted an assessment on this issue between 2005 and 2008, and a further 6 had last conducted an assessment between 1998 and 2004.

In other jurisdictions, the leading edge practice is to collect information on community partners' awareness of a public health organization directly from the partner organizations and stakeholders. Survey tools are used to question staff in settings such as other health care services, schools, housing organizations and outreach programs about their knowledge and opinions of the availability and delivery of public health services in their community.

Building community awareness is a necessary first step towards building community engagement. But this is a challenge for public health because interventions are often invisible to the community. Public health does not usually receive credit for news stories that do not happen, such as preventing disease outbreaks or long term health outcomes that are improved for a whole population over a generation.

Because of this paradox, members of the general public are often unaware of the role and mandate of public health. Community organizations that public health works with every day may also under estimate the role that public health plays in influencing public policy and contributing to new knowledge about what works to create and sustain change in communities.

The foundational principles guiding public health service delivery in Ontario speak directly to the issue of partnership and collaboration. The OPHS describe partnership and collaboration as involving partnerships within the health sector (e.g., Local Health Integration Networks and primary health care) and other sectors (e.g., education, social services, housing, workplace health and safety system, and environment).

Community collaborations and citizen engagement can occur in the areas of assessment, planning, delivery, management, and evaluation of programs and services. Boards of health need to use their influence to achieve and maintain the leadership role required to create the conditions necessary for effective program outcomes.

Definition:

Indicates whether a board of health has assessed local community members' familiarity with any of the public health unit's programs and services.

Data Source(s):

Survey of boards of health, 2008

Formula:

Yes, with year and method of most recent assessment; no

Notes:

• Original intent was to report on degree of community members' familiarity with public health unit programs and services based on local surveys
  • Although data was collected by most health units (through Rapid Risk Factor Surveillance System (RRFSS) or local survey), consent to share this data was not included in the instructions of the original surveys, and therefore local results are not available
  • RRFSS module includes seeking information on community members' basic familiarity with the existence of public health services, use of health unit service, how respondent has heard about health unit program and service, and satisfaction with use of health unit program and service
• Lack of a consistent definition of “assessing community members' familiarity with public health unit programs and services” may contribute to inconsistency in reporting