St. Francis Xavier University Receives $4 Million in Funding to Host Centre for Determinants of Health

August 18, 2006

Source: :
http://www.stfx.ca/media/2006-08.htm

St. Francis Xavier University Receives $4 Million in Funding to Host Centre for Determinants of Health

St. Francis Xavier University will receive over $4 million over the next three years from the Public Health Agency of Canada to host the National Collaborating Centre for Determinants of Health, the Honourable Tony Clement, Minister of Health, announced at a press conference in Antigonish on August 18.

The health of Canadians varies widely from region to region, and population to population, and is influenced by a number of factors. Determinants like mental health, income levels, employment rates, and risk behaviours such as smoking and lack of physical activity can all have negative effects on the health of Canadians.

"A healthier population lessens the demand on our health care system. Understanding what affects the health of Canadians helps us determine the actions needed to improve their health," said Minister Clement. "Through this Centre, public health experts across the Atlantic region, the country and the globe will provide information and develop tools that will help health practitioners and policy makers make better decisions."

The Centre will help address the root pressures on Canada's health care system. The information gathered and tools developed by the Centre will allow for better decision making when it comes to including the determinants of health in developing disease control strategies, and for developing successful health promotion programs.

The Centre will build partnerships with a variety of stakeholders - governments, academic institutions, international experts, non-government organizations, researchers, and health professionals. Working together, these partners will convert research into usable information, building Canada's knowledge capacity, and ensure we understand how factors like income, education levels and geographic location influence an individual's or community's health.

"This is a major step in building collaborative health research and knowledge translation in Atlantic Canada in a way that will benefit all Canadians," said Dr. Sean Riley, President of StFX. "Although the Centre will be housed at StFX, it is the result of a long process of collaboration and partnership with other academic and health institutions. The importance of the consortium in making this successful cannot be understated"

ed by Dr. Lars K. Hallstrom, StFX's Canada Research Chair in Public Policy and Governance, StFX is partnering with Guysborough Antigonish Strait Health Authority, Cape Breton University, Cape Breton District Health Authority, University of New Brunswick (Saint John campus), Atlantic Health Sciences Corporation, the PEI Health Research Institute, and the Government of Prince Edward Island (Population Health). Steps are being taken to expand the consortium to other applicants for the Centre. For example, negotiations are underway to include Memorial University of Newfoundland, including Grenfell College and the Nursing Department in Corner Brook.

"I am extremely proud of StFX for being selected to host the Centre," said Peter MacKay, Minister of Foreign Affairs and MP for Central Nova. "In hosting the Centre, StFX is representing all of Atlantic Canada. I know that StFX is committed to ensuring Atlantic links and working with the other centres that submitted proposals."

Canada is a world leader in identifying the underlying factors that determine health. To ensure that the country's research is shared with international partners, and in turn that Canada can access a global pool of knowledge, the Centre will participate in the Canadian Reference Group to the WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health.

The Centre is one of six National Collaborating Centres that are part of a federal public health renewal strategy. These Centres are catalysts for knowledge development, pulling together experts, public health practitioners and researchers from all parts of Canada, and internationally, to provide the necessary information for public health decision-makers.

The Public Health Agency of Canada is funding each of the six Centres over a three-year period. The Atlantic Centre will have access to $1.5 million per year, totaling up to $4.5 million from 2006 to 2009.

An Atlantic Working Group, which included senior officials from each Atlantic province, managed the Request for Proposals to determine a host agency for the Centre. To ensure that the process was fair, open and transparent, an external review team comprised of experts from academia, government and non-governmental organizations was established. It was this external review team that selected StFX to host the Centre.