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The Public Health Agency of Canada cites on their web site that
they’ve learned a lot in the past several decades about what
determines health and where they should be concentrating their
efforts. Much of the research is telling them that they need to
look at the big picture to examine factors both inside and outside
the health care system that affect everyone’s health. At every
stage of life, health is determined by complex interactions
between social and economic factors, the physical environment, and
individual behaviour. These factors are referred to as
“determinants of health”. They do not exist in isolation from each
other. It is the combined influence of the determinants of health
that determines health status. Key determinants of health are
listed as:
- Income and Social Status
- Social Support Networks
- Education and Literacy
- Employment/Working Conditions
- Social Environments
- Physical Environments
- Personal Health Practices and Coping Skills
- Healthy Child Development
- Biology and Genetic Endowment
- Health Services
- Gender
- Culture
The challenge the Public Health Agency of Canada faces is how
to use what’s known about the determinants of health to:
- focus the research agenda so they can increase their
understanding of how the basic determinants of health influence
collective and personal well-being
- adopt strategies that improve health for Canadians
The above text is from
www.phac-aspc.gc.ca, the Public Health Agency of Canada’s
web site.
Determinants of health have equal importance to all Canadians.
The impact of a serious mental illness complicates health status
well beyond the symptoms and treatment of the illness, and it does
so for both the person directly afflicted by a serious mental
illness and his or her natural sources of support. The inability
to recognize the signs of an illness, late intervention, lost
opportunity, and discrimination are barriers to optimizing some of
the other determinants of health.
The Canadian Mental Health Association/Peel Branch focuses on
some of these determinants with clients by offering support in the
areas of employment, housing, income, education, personal health
practices, social support, and access to services. Each element is
recognized in the Framework for Support, the context for CMHA/Peel’s
approach to helping clients achieve recovery.
For further information about determinants of health and
population health, please visit the site listed above.
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