Creating Space: Enabling Organizational Capacity for Action on Health Equity

In September 2016, the National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health (NCCEH) and the National Collaborating Centre for Determinants of Health (NCCDH), in collaboration with the BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) hosted two sessions about health equity and environmental public health (EPH) practice at the Annual Educational Conference of the Canadian Institute of Public Health Inspectors (CIPHI) in Edmonton, Alberta. This was followed by a workshop at the New Brunswick Branch Education Conference in Fredericton and a presentation at the Nova Scotia Branch Education Conference in Fall River in October 2016. These sessions, including input from participants, are summarized here to provide guidance on priority action areas.

The objectives of these sessions were to:

1. Identify how health equity (HE) and social determinants of health (SDH) fit into a health protection mandate in environmental public health (EPH).
2. Highlight practical ways for EPH practitioners to take action on HE and SDH.
3. Discuss organizational capacity to incorporate HE into environmental public health programs.
4. Identify what is needed to operationalize an equity lens in environmental health practice.