Sector News

The Public Health Division, in partnership with the Ministry of Health Promotion (MHP) and the Ministry of Children and Youth Services (MCYS), has made significant strides to renew public health in Ontario and build a public health sector with a greater focus on performance, accountability and sustainability. Some of our recent achievements towards this goal include delivering the new Ontario Public Health Standards, producing the Ontario Health Plan for an Influenza Pandemic, and now, releasing a public report that reflects the state of public health in Ontario. This report demonstrates our commitment to a public health sector that is accountable to the people of Ontario. VIEW REPORT

Young people are often the most marginalized and hardest to reach populations among substance users. The Kingston Community Health Centres (KCHC) recently began a new project on youth engagement and hepatitis C prevention. The overall goal is to increase the level of hepatitis C prevention awareness among youth at risk for transmission of the disease, and to enhance the ability of local youth to lessen risk behaviours. view report

Available evidence and best practice recommendations encourage needle and syringe programs to distribute a wide variety of types of needles and syringes preferred by clients to increase the likelihood that the program will be well utilized (Strike et al., 2006). view report

Canadian AIDS Treatment Information Exchange (CATIE) released the following report.

CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS

This report assesses the extent to which the Best Practice Recommendations (2006) have been implemented, identifies implementation barriers and advances our knowledge transfer skills to improve uptake.

Click Here to view report - in English

Click Here to view report - in French

CLICK HERE TO READ REPORT

Canadian AIDS Treatment Information Exchange’s ( CATIE) new plain-language website contains up-to-date information on hepatitis C. CATIE has also produced a comprehensive toolkit of print resources for different audiences available in different formats. You can either view and download them as online PDFs, or you can order free hard copies through CATIE’s online Ordering Centre.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW

At least 10 people on Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland became seriously ill after using contaminated cocaine, health officials said Thursday. click here to read more

The Ontario Public Health Standards (OPHS) and Protocols establish the minimum requirements for fundamental public health programs and services, which include assessment and surveillance, health promotion and policy development, disease and injury prevention, and health protection. The OPHS and Protocols are for boards of health and are published by the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care, pursuant to Section 7 of the Health Protection and Promotion Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. H.7.

The Protocols that accompany the OPHS are program and topic specific documents which provide direction on how boards of health must operationalize specific requirement(s) identified within the OPHS.

The review of the MHPSG and development of the OPHS mark a critical achievement in the overall strategy to renew public health within Ontario. As of January 1, 2009, the OPHS will replace the Mandatory Health Programs and Services Guidelines, 1997. The Safe Water Program of the OPHS will come into effect on December 1, 2008.

To access the OPHS and Protocols please visit the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care website at www.health.gov.on.ca/publichealthstandards. The OPHS and all 26 Protocols may be printed in full from the website.

CATIE (Canadian AIDS Treatment Information Exchange) has developed a fact sheet on Invasive Group A Strep (GAS) in Ontario. This information sheet, found on the CATIE website under News: Bite-sized HIV/AIDS treatment news bulletins, discusses what GAS is and the various range of scenarios of illness caused by GAS; how it spreads, who is at risk and provides a brief update on the situation in Thunder Bay. Please click this link to find out more