5. Community and social accountability
- Date: Thursday, September 19, 2019
- Concurrent Session A & B
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Time: 2:30pm-4:15pm
- Room: TBA
- Style: Presentation (information provided to audience, with opportunity for audience to ask question)
- Focus: Balance between both (e.g. Presentation of a best-practice guideline that combines research evidence, policy issues and practical steps for implementation)
- Target Audience: Leadership (ED, clinical lead, board chair, board member, etc.), Clinical providers, Representatives of stakeholder/partner organizations
Learning Objectives
1. To share the story of the development of the Advocacy and Program Development subcommittees of the St. Michael’s Academic Family Health Team’s Social Determinants of Health Committee
2. To Increase knowledge and awareness of Health Equity Assessment tools such as the HEIA, and how they can be used to embed health equity into program and service development and evaluation
3. To explore the importance of health equity data and how to use it to support program changes and improvements to service delivery
4. To list the three main initiatives that the SMH AFHT implemented to improve departmental capacity in social justice advocacy
5. To explain the conditions that allowed the SMH AFHT to adopt an Advocacy Framework
6. To share how a focus on health equity and the social determinants of health has been integrated into a large academic family health team"
Summary/Abstract
"Building on a long history of commitment to community and social accountability in the St. Michael’s Hospital family health team, the SDOH Committee was created in 2013 by the SMH AFHT with a vision “to ensure the SMH AFHT is invested with the knowledge, skills, tools, and programs to advance health equity.”
This presentation will highlight the achievements and successes of two sub-committees of the SDOH Committee; the Programs and Services subcommittee, and the Advocacy Sub-Committee, sharing our learnings to empower other primary care teams to embed an equity-focused approach in their work.
The Programs and Services portion of the presentation will highlight the work done to embed health equity into program design and delivery. This includes staff education on the importance of health equity and building skills in the use of tools, such as the health equity impact assessment tool (HEIA) which can identify gaps in care for particular high risk groups. An educational retreat on health equity was a focal point for knowledge and skills development, as well as for the development of health equity-focused teams throughout our FHT. Additionally, we will reflect on our journey, and key learnings, and offer strategies to organizations looking to advance their health equity goals.
The Advocacy portion of the presentation will outline the rationale behind the department’s investment in social justice advocacy, the steps taken to operationalize it within a complex and large department, as well as the preliminary results and challenges of the work with the goal of assisting other Family Health Teams pursue similar initiatives in their contexts. It will also highlight some of the work done including; the Advocacy Tool Kit and Advocacy Framework that was created to support and adopt a department wide advocacy campaign. Discussion will include the overlap between clinical work and advocacy, as identified during our Health Equity Retreat, that led to the development of the successful submission for a department-wide advocacy project focused on Reconciliation."
Presenter
- Jacqueline Chen, Clinical Leader Manager, St. Michael’s Academic Family Health Team
- Sarah Nestico, Clinical Nurse Specialist, St. St Michael’s Academic Family Health Team
- Alyssa Swartz, Social Worker (MSW), St. Michael’s Academic Family Health Team
Authors/Contributors
- Jacqueline Chen, Clinical Leader Manager, St. Michael’s Academic Family Health Team
- Sarah Nestico, Clinical Nurse Specialist, St. St Michael’s Academic Family Health Team
- Sue Hranilovic, Nurse Practitioner, St. Michael’s Academic Family Health Team
- Mo AlHaj, Quality Improvement Decision Support Specialist, St. Michael’s Academic Family Health Team
- Alyssa Swartz, Social Worker
- Gary Bloch, MD, Co-Chair of the Social Determinants of Health Committee
- Rami Shoucri, MD, Advocacy Committee Chair
- Suzanne Shoush, MD, Lead of Inaugural Departmental Advocacy Program
- Jennifer Stone, JD, On-site Lawyer of Health Justice Program, Advocacy Committee Member
- Katie Dorman, MD
- Samantha Green, MD
- Linda Jackson, Program Director