CARACTERISTICAS DE DRENAJE

3. Partnerships and Community Engagement

1. Surveillance, Evaluation and

Research

PHUs strive to continuously develop and

enhance public health practice using data from population health assessments, surveillance, research and program evaluations (Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, 2008). Babor et al. highlights the important role statistics and survey data play to assess the need for and decisions about alcohol policy in particular (2010). The authors go on to say that without statistical and survey data about

alcohol consumption and related harms, “public interest groups will challenge the idea that alcohol should not be treated as an ordinary commodity” (Babor et al., 2010).

“I think we don't do a good job of tracking the harms especially on an ongoing basis, like an informed policy and decisions around access and pricing and that kind of stuff. The best numbers we have are from 2002 which gives us a comprehensive look at harms across all jurisdictions including Ontario.”

Key Informant

“A lot of the time, for the things that drive change in these areas, there is no evidence to suggest it works in that specic domain. We want evidence-based strategies that work from other domains that we can test, evaluate, and generate new evidence from. That is what happened in tobacco and I think in alcohol the same thing will need to happen – testing innovative things and robustly evaluating them to see if they work to add to the evidence base. However, provinces generally aren't innovative in terms of implementing policies. They want evidence to implement policies. So if there are innovative things people want to try, it needs to happen at the regional or municipal level and that's where boards of health are important.”

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Addressing Alcohol Consumption and Alcohol-Related Harms at the Local Level

# of references

Built environment 4

Alcohol/Drug strategy 5

Other 6

BOH report/Alcohol report 6

Treatment, counselling and referral 6

Advocacy 8

Screening, brief interven on and referral 15

Research and surveillance 17

Cross program integra on and partnership 23

LRADG 25

Policy development 28

FASD 35

Capacity building 54

Partnership 66

Awareness and educa on 156

Response rate (32/32) 100%

What programs and ac vi es related to alcohol/reducing alcohol related harms does your health unit/department deliver?

4 5 6 6 6 8 15 17 23 25 28 35 54 66 156 0 50 100 150 200 Built environment Alcohol/Drug strategy Other BOH report/Alcohol report Treatment, counselling and referral

Advocacy Screening, brief interven on and referral

Research and surveillance Cross program integra on and…

LRADG Policy development

FASD Capacity building Partnership Awareness and educa on

# of references

# of references

Other 1

Industry and business agenda 2

Lack of public support 3

Lack of awareness around alcohol 6

Lack of work at the provincial level 7

Communica on challenges 8

Compe ng priori es 9

Lack of evidence and surveillance data 10

Lack of poli cal support 10

Lack of other agency and organiza on

support 12

Lack of organiza onal support and

infrastructure 13

Culture of alcohol 14

Demographics and geography 18

Lack of resources 27

Response rate (32/32) 100%

What barriers exist for you/or your public health unit/department in addressing alcohol/reducing alcohol-related harms in your community? 1 2 3 6 7 8 9 10 10 12 13 14 18 27 0 10 20 30 Other Industry and business agenda

Lack of public support Lack of awareness around alcohol Lack of work at the provincial level Communica on challenges Compe ng priori es Lack of evidence and surveillance data Lack of poli cal support Lack of other agency and organiza on support Lack of organiza onal support and infrastructure Culture of alcohol Demographics and geography

Lack of resources

# of references FIGURE 4.0 PHU Survey

What can we learn from the tobacco approach to evidence?

The Ontario Tobacco Research Unit (OTRU) provides tobacco-related surveillance, evaluation and research support to PHUs and monitors provincial trends as part of the Smoke-Free Ontario

Strategy. The Ontario Tobacco Research Unit has been producing annual monitoring reports for 15 years on:

Ÿ Tobacco Taxes

Ÿ Protection from Secondhand Smoke

Ÿ Prohibition of Tobacco Sales in Specic Places (The Ontario Tobacco Research Unit, 2013) Most of the PHUs that were surveyed

recognize the importance of alcohol-related surveillance and evaluation data. While some PHUs report they are making progress in these areas (Figure 4.0), some respondents felt that health assessment, surveillance, research and program evaluation are not given priority. Furthermore, PHUs cited a lack of evidence and surveillance data as a barrier to addressing alcohol-related harms at the local level (Figure 4.1).

Surveillance, evaluation and research are applicable to all seven strategies for

evidence-based action as it is needed to monitor and evaluate actions in all of these areas. Surveillance is a critical aspect,

however, of several recommendations which focus on the role of a community report on alcohol in framing alcohol consumption and related harms as a community issue. Local surveillance data on alcohol consumption, availability and rates of alcohol-related harms, featured in a community report, may elicit both public and political support for evidence-based alcohol policies.

Ÿ Retail Display of Tobacco Products Ÿ Youth Access to Tobacco Products Ÿ Tobacco Control Funding Commitments

2. A Comprehensive Approach