Toward health equity: Practical actions for Public Health Inspectors

NCCEH, the NCC for Determinants of Health, and the BC Centre for Disease Control have collaborated to produce a Framework and accompanying User Guide to help environmental public health practitioners identify potential actions on the social determinants of health and health equity.

Environmental health practitioners can play a role to address the social determinants of health (SDH) and work toward health equity, but that role is not always clear. Practitioners can use these two tools to reflect on their current practice and identify practical actions for use in their day-to-day work or for broader program planning.

• The Framework outlines 10 considerations to help practitioners identify how equity work relates to their role and how they can begin to take action. It can be used by staff with any degree of knowledge or experience related to health equity.
• The User Guide highlights potential points of influence for frontline staff, managers, and educators. Together, these tools support reflective practice, collaboration, and action toward equity-integrated environmental public health.

Use this resource to:

• Start a conversation about the role of environmental public health practitioners in building organizational capacity to address the SDH and health equity
• Identify skills and knowledge necessary for PHIs and EHOs to support action on SDH and health equity
• Consider points of influence to shift practice beyond day-to-day activities
• Set tangible goals for short- and long-term action on health equity