Implementor Meeting – September 21, 2022
PURPOSE & APPROACH:
- In follow-up to the June 3, 2022, event on data for health equity, community partners who had expressed interest in implementing data collection strategies were invited to a further conversation.
- The online session began with a presentation from Alison Locker, MLHU Epidemiologist, on the work conducted by MLHU since June to identify potential data elements and indicators that could form part of a community-relevant and equity-promoting comprehensive data set.
- Small groups then discussed the prioritization and/or subcategorization of the variables regarding potential utility, red flags or concerns, etc.; opportunities for collaboration and mutual support and how this could work, in an equitable way (i.e., given different organizational capacities); and next steps.
SUMMARY OF DISCUSSION:
Regarding the MLHU comprehensive data set, the following domains are noted as potential gaps or with particular associated sensitivities:
- Sense of belonging (or isolation)
- Household composition
- Impact of racism on mental health and wellbeing
- Immigrant status—note that fear of increased risk of deportation will be a barrier for some
- Food security offered as a domain gap
- Clarification requested about “official language” versus childhood language. might be confusing for people to understand its meaning. A: this domain is from the Ministry of Health
- Age could be an important domain, grouped as youth for example and adding youth specific services or changing messages about what services are available knowing who is seeking services.
- Born in Canada – City of London has a policy (the free of fear policy), prohibits asking this question.
- Education, Religion/Spiritually – be very cautious in asking for this information
In terms of next steps, there was interest in CRHESI selecting this as a topic to re-initiate its Community Conversation series at Innovation Works. A plan will be developed for a potential date in December.
