Administrative Support Services
Goal: To provide effective and efficient support to all Durham Region Health Department (DRHD) divisions, programs and services that helps to enhance the delivery of the Ontario Public Health Standards and to meet all requirements of internal and external customers.
- Establish the Business Affairs Divisional Staff Engagement Committee.
- Develop strategic partnerships with DRHD divisions to support financial management, business operations, and implementation of corporate initiatives.
- Collaborate with all DRHD divisions to provide support for the implementation of myDurham 311.
Community & Resource Development (CARD)
Goal: To provide support to all DRHD divisions, programs, and services, helping to enhance compliance with the Ontario Public Health Standards.
- Expand monthly Medical Officer of Health blog messages to include a video component (i.e., vlogs).
- Relaunch the monthly video news program to promote program initiatives/activities as a supplement to program campaign messaging/public awareness campaigns (e.g., news releases, advertising campaigns, etc.).
- Restore CARD team capacity.
Goal: To ensure public health practice responds effectively to current and evolving conditions and contributes to the public’s health and well-being with programs and services that are informed by the population’s health status, including social determinants of health and health inequities.
- Develop sustainable data provision for Rapid Risk Factor Surveillance System, Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey & Canadian Community Health Survey population surveys, balancing long-term analytic efficiency with the current need for fast updates on priority topics.
- Launch an internal infectious diseases surveillance dashboard with weekly refreshes and aberration detection based on historical data.
- Release a series of Health Neighbourhoods data updates with accompanying reports and with automation of the accompanying refresh process.
Health Policy & Equity Team
Goal: Public health practice results in decreased health inequities so that everyone has equal opportunities for optimal health and can attain their full health potential without disadvantage due to social position or other socially determined circumstances.
- Conduct a staff learning needs assessment to inform a capacity building strategy to enhance a health equity approach to the planning, implementation and evaluation of public health services, programs, and policies.
- Collaborate with Durham Region Social Services Department on initiatives that build capacity and improve access for staff, community partners and clients to resources that address health equity and the social determinants of health.
- Identify current processes and staff learning needs to support collection and application of sociodemographic data in DRHD programs and policy work.
Privacy & Information Security
Goal: To provide effective and efficient privacy and information security support to all DRHD divisions, programs and services that helps to enhance compliance with applicable privacy and public health related legislation, information security standards and information management best practices.
- Collaborate with all divisions to create an asset inventory for all information systems and devices.
- Determine the feasibility of implementing Ocean eReferrals for both inbound and outbound referrals.
- Review feedback from the 2023 privacy staff learning sessions and determine divisional level privacy awareness and training needs.
Goal: To respond to inquiries and requests for service, including applications for new businesses and special event vendors from the community.
Goal: To enable consistent and effective management of emergency situations.
Goal: To prevent or reduce the burden of food-borne illness
Goal: To prevent or reduce the burden of illness from health hazards in the physical environment.
Goal: To prevent diseases in humans and contamination of the physical environment due to on-site private sewage systems.
Goal: To prevent or reduce the burden of water-borne illness related to drinking water and to prevent or reduce the burden of water-borne illness and injury related to recreational water use.
Goal: To achieve optimal preconception, pregnancy, newborn, child, youth, parental and family health.
Goal: To enhance the growth and development of children, including those with a developmental disability and/or risk of developmental delay by partnering with families to provide support, information, and early intervention services.
Goal: To reduce the burden of chronic diseases of public health importance* and improve well-being.
Goal: To enable all children in Durham Region to attain and sustain optimal oral health and development potential and to support adults who require assistance in accessing oral health information and services.
Goal: To reduce the burden of preventable injuries and substance use.
Goal: To achieve optimal health of children and youth in schools through partnership and collaboration with school boards and schools.
Goal: To ensure tobacco, e-cigarette vendors, and other organizations subject to the Smoke Free Ontario Act, 2017 (SFOA) comply with the Act and restrict youth access to tobacco products and e-cigarettes.
Goal: To reduce the burden of communicable diseases and other infectious diseases of public health importance.
Goal: To reduce the burden of communicable diseases and other infectious diseases of public health importance.
Goal: To deliver a quality Paramedic Services system that is responsive to client needs and reduce mortality and morbidity related to illness and injury through the provision of pre-hospital advanced life support procedures. Primary program delivery is through the Region of Durham Paramedic Services with assistance from the Central Ambulance Communications Centre and local fire department tiered response programs.