1. Housing and Health Advocacy: The role of Health Professionals Pediatric Advocacy Grand Rounds Dr. Lindy Samson – Paediatric Infectious Diseases Specialist

2. What is Health Advocacy? As Health advocates, physicians must responsibly use their expertise and influence to advance the health and well-being of individual patients, communities, and populations. Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, CANMEDS 2000

3. Social Paediatrics European Society for Social Paediatrics Health professionals thinking and acting locally and globally to improve the health and well being of children and young people Working with national social/community paediatric organisations, NGOs, child advocacy groups, child health professionals, governments, economists, sociologists, lawyers and others

4. Social Paediatrics improve communication between all those involved in child and adolescent health and well being integrate relevant research to develop tools for advocacy and teaching provide information about effectiveness and efficacy of interventions to maximize effectiveness

5. Community Paediatrics Adapted from the AAP Recognizes the importance of the community dimension in paediatric and adolescent practice. A perspective that enlarges the practitioners focus from one child to all children/youth in the community A recognition that family, educational, social, cultural, spiritual, economic, environmental, and political forces significantly impact on the health and functioning of children A synthesis of clinical practice and public health principles directed toward providing health care to a given child and promoting the health of all children within the context of the family, school, and community

6. Community Paediatrics A commitment to use a communitys resources in collaboration with other professionals, agencies, and parents to achieve optimal accessibility, appropriateness, and quality of services for all children to advocate especially for those who lack access to care because of social, cultural, geographic, or economic conditions or special health care needs An integral part of ones professional role and duty

7. Health Advocacy: the continuum To an individual To a patient and his/her family To a group capable of influencing change To government – local, provincial, territorial and/or federal Each piece is equally important

8. Who Values and Practices Health Advocacy? Individual health care professionals Hospitals: CHEO Board Advocacy Committee Training/Certifying Bodies: RCPSC National Professional Societies: CPS Non-Health sectors and NGOs

9. RCPSC CanMEDS Advocacy Role Duty/ability to improve health of patients and society Advocacy activities important for individual patient, for populations of patients and for communities Individual patients need physicians to navigate healthcare system and access health resources Communities/society need physicians to ID and address broad health issues/determinants of health

10. CanMEDS Description Health advocacy involves efforts to change practices/policies Health advocacy is essential/fundamental to health promotion Health advocacy requires individual and collective actions of physicians to influence public policy

11. Health Professionals are able to … 1. Respond to individual patient health needs and issues as part of patient care 2. Respond to the health needs of the communities that they serve 3. Identify the determinants of health of the populations that they serve 4. Promote the health of individual patients, communities and populations

12. Next Steps Health professionals need to partner with others to share expertise while learning and developing the skills and tools needed to practice health advocacy