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.
- Review current administrative practices to identify efficiencies and modernize processes.
- Enhance governance and accountability by planning for the 2026 accreditation cycle, overseeing and monitoring DRHD’s Enterprise Risk Management program, managing all audit related matters, and reviewing DRHD’s policies and procedures.
- Provide financial training to DRHD’s management team to support improved financial management, budgeting, and reporting processes.
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.
- Participate in the corporate website audit project to improve the usability, accessibility, and overall quality of DRHD’s webpages and Regional website.
- Develop and implement a DRHD media relations training program to provide divisions with access to in-house opportunities for interview training and skills development.
- Enhance capacity of the CARD team for developing online learning modules and producing public awareness videos.
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 plans for using population health survey data from the Rapid Risk Factor Surveillance System, Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey, and the Canadian Community Health Survey.
- Publish at least three data summaries per quarter to DRHD’s Health Stats web page, replacing the pre-COVID data summaries with updated data and interpretation.
- Update Health Neighbourhoods data.
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.
- Implement a focus group plan to understand staff’s health equity learning needs and inform a health equity capacity building strategy.
- 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.
- Pilot sociodemographic data collection with one DRHD program, and work collaboratively with staff to create processes, tools, and capacity building activities to support implementation.
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.
- Review and update DRHD policies to demonstrate compliance with applicable legislation, standards, and best practices.
- Review and update DRHD’s Privacy Impact Assessment template taking into consideration a review of the federal government’s Algorithmic Assessment Tool for artificial intelligence systems.
- Update the application inventory for the Community Paramedicine program and identify which applications require a privacy impact assessment.
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 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 achieve optimal preconception, pregnancy, newborn, child, youth, parental and family health.
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.