POVERTY AND HEALTH: CAN WE DO BETTER? Dr. Lisa Simon, Associate Medical Officer of Health Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit United Way of Greater Simcoe County AGM June 19, 2014 Francis Vachon / THE CANADIAN PRESS

OVERVIEW Poverty and its relationship to health SMDHU’s work on the Social Determinants of Health Future opportunities: reaching across sectors

POVERTY AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO HEALTH

WHAT DO WE MEAN BY POVERTY? No official ‘poverty line’ in Canada Common measures - Statistics Canada:  Low Income Cut Off (After Tax) Simcoe Muskoka: 6.5% low income ON: 11.1% low income  Low Income Measure (After Tax)

WHO LIVES IN POVERTY IN SIMCOE AND MUSKOKA? All sociodemographic groups affected, but higher rates in: Lone-Parent Families Children Recent Immigrant s Unattached Aboriginal

Deprivation Index Simcoe Muskoka

INCOME INEQUALITY IN ONTARIO “Despite the gains in decreasing poverty, the ratio of after-tax income of the top 20% of households to the bottom 20% of households rose 13.9% between 1994 and 2010 in Ontario…” “The top 20% of earners received the greatest benefit in rising incomes…the gap in real after-tax average income between the richest and the poorest grew by over 40% between 1994 and 2009.” Canadian Index of Wellbeing. (2014). How are Ontarians Really Doing? A Provincial Report on Ontario Wellbeing. Waterloo, ON: Canadian Index of Wellbeing and University of Waterloo.

SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH

SMDHU’S WORK ON THE SDOH

2012 – 2016 SMDHU STRATEGIC DIRECTIONS AND GOALS: THE DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH Address the factors that create inequities in overall health and improve the quality of life for populations at risk of poor health outcomes.

SMDHU HEALTH EQUITY FRAMEWORK

REACHING ACROSS SECTORS Future Opportunities:

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT Involving community members in planning and implementation of health initiatives can foster connectedness and trust, improve assessment efforts, and build capacity of individuals to positively affect their community

COLLECTIVE IMPACT Collective Impact: the commitment of a group of actors from different sectors to a common agenda for solving a specific social problem, using a structured form of collaboration Comprehensive Community Initiatives: place-based, comprehensive approaches to reducing poverty and other complex socio-political problems

County of Simcoe Poverty Reduction Strategy External: Community Internal: Within Organizations Lived Experience Advisory Council POVERTY REDUCTION TASK FORCE ACTIONCONSTELLATIONSACTIONCONSTELLATIONS Leadership Council Equity Impact Lens Evaluate Program Policies Procedures Design

ADVOCACY: THE CHALLENGE Inequality of power and socio-economic circumstance = root causes Considerable debate and resistance around reducing these inequalities Challenge: how to achieve progress?

ADVOCACY: OPPORTUNITIES? Creating public and political will for a more equal society The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone Wilkinson and Pickett, 2010 Anti-poverty policies: guaranteed annual income? An equal start: healthy early childhood development?

UNITED WAY OF GREATER SIMCOE COUNTY Community impact: from poverty to possibility Vital Signs report Simcoe County Poverty Reduction Strategy A key partner in action and advocacy for poverty reduction

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many from SMDHU Rosanna Pellizzari, MOH, Peterborough County-City Health Unit

THANK YOU