Canada - World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe
Canada - World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe
Canada - World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe
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<strong>Health</strong> systems in transition <strong>Canada</strong> 101<br />
In <strong>Canada</strong>, public health is generally identified with the following six<br />
discrete functions: population health assessment, health promotion, disease and<br />
injury control and prevention, health protection, surveillance and emergency<br />
preparedness and epidemic response. The F/P/T governments (and their<br />
delegated authorities including RHAs) per<strong>for</strong>m some or all of these functions.<br />
All governments appoint a chief public or medical health officer to lead their<br />
public health ef<strong>for</strong>ts in their respective jurisdictions. These individuals are<br />
generally physicians with specialized education and training in public health.<br />
By virtue of their extensive responsibilities <strong>for</strong> health and health care,<br />
provincial ministries of health all have public health branches (some even have<br />
a separate public health agency or department) with responsibility <strong>for</strong> the six<br />
discrete functions of public health. In addition, most ministries of health have<br />
launched major population health initiatives in recent years. In some provinces,<br />
RHAs have initiated their own public health promotion and illness prevention<br />
programmes in areas of greatest need <strong>for</strong> their respective populations.<br />
The federal government also provides a broad range of public health services<br />
principally through PHAC, which coordinates, at least in part, the six public<br />
health functions described above. PHAC is responsible <strong>for</strong> disease surveillance<br />
including reporting back to the WHO and other relevant international bodies.<br />
PHAC also administers a network of disease-control laboratory services<br />
such as the National Microbiology Laboratory. Like <strong>Health</strong> <strong>Canada</strong>, PHAC<br />
is responsible <strong>for</strong> funding and administering a number of public health<br />
programmes, some of which emphasize the social determinants of health,<br />
including the Aboriginal Head Start Program, the <strong>Canada</strong> Prenatal Nutrition<br />
Program and the <strong>Health</strong>y Living Strategy, and illness prevention programmes<br />
<strong>for</strong> AIDS and tobacco reduction.<br />
The CPHA is a voluntary organization dedicated to improving the state<br />
of public health in <strong>Canada</strong>. In conjunction with its provincial and territorial<br />
branches or associations, CPHA advocates <strong>for</strong> greater awareness of the impact<br />
of public health interventions and encourages public health research and<br />
education.<br />
The provinces are mainly responsible <strong>for</strong> the funding and administration<br />
of screening programmes <strong>for</strong> the early detection of cancer, and all provincial<br />
and territorial ministries of health have implemented one or more of these<br />
programmes. Although they vary considerably in approach, delivery and<br />
comprehensiveness, provincial governments do adopt screening programmes<br />
developed in other provinces once they have proven successful. For example,<br />
British Columbia was the first province to initiate a population-based breast