CCPIP North Bay I Shaken Baby Syndrome Prevention I Stay On Your Feet I Timiskaming Best Start I Vitanova
Connecting Community Partners in Injury Prevention: Developing a High Intensity Injury Prevention Centre in North Bay, Ontario
The goal of this ONF-funded project was to develop a high intensity injury prevention centre within the City of North Bay, increasing collaboration among community partners and injury prevention practitioners to address neurotrauma incidences. By embedding existing best practices in the community, new partnerships could be established, and existing partnerships could be strengthened, creating synergy and cohesion. It was determined that effective knowledge transfer would reduce duplication of efforts, build capacity, enhance existing community resources, and foster flexibility in the developmental framework of best practice implementation.
Shaken Baby Syndrome Prevention Project
Poster presented at the Ontario Ministry of Health Showcase, Toronto, Oct 2010
The inflicted infant head trauma prevention initiative funded by ONF was a province-wide adaptation and extension of the Upstate New York Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) Education Program. Although many SBS information programs exist, this was the only one that was able to demonstrate an almost 45% reduction of incidence in a large population study. This slow scale up implementation involved six Ontario sites that included participating hospitals, public health units, and midwife practice groups. The core of the evaluation research was the provision of the standardized health education program. Projects were implemented in the communities of Sudbury, North Bay, Mississauga, Kingston, Hamilton, and Oshawa, Ontario. Data was gathered on the effectiveness of the program and how evidence-informed practices can be disseminated (social network analysis) and implemented (mixed method process evaluation). The intervention aims of the projects were to:
- Provide a consistent educational message to all parents of newborns in selected catchment areas.
- Track the dissemination of information via signed consent forms.
- Assess parents’ SBS knowledge and program opinions.
- Assess the impact of the education at 5 to 7-month follow-up.
- Determine the viability and sustainability of site implementations at the close of the first and second phases of the program.
Although the SBS Prevention Project initiative has since wound-up, information on its history and links to implementation resources and materials are still available at the project’s website.
Stay On Your Feet
The Stay On Your Feet program is a multi-strategic, community intervention that targets the recognized risk for increased falls among older adults. Originally developed in Australia and highlighted as a Best Practice Program in Volpe et al.’s 2004 Preventing Neurotrauma: A Casebook of Evidence-Based Practices, the program’s success sparked interest from the Ontario Neurotrauma Foundation to determine if its success could be duplicated in a Canadian setting. Three demonstration sites were selected in Ontario: the city of Kingston (urban setting); Elliot Lake (geographically isolated and confined area); and the counties of Grey and Bruce (rural and geographically dispersed areas). The program’s implementation involved a two-year intervention period, with strategies that included awareness raising; community education; policy development; home hazard reduction; media campaigns, and working with health professionals—all aimed at using local knowledge, leadership and expertise, fostering community ownership and input into solutions, and sustainability. A formal program evaluation was also conducted to assess the issues and challenges of implementation in a variety of environments.
Timiskaming Best Start Appreciative Inquiry
Children are part of a complex system. They have a range of needs that involve the care and attention of other members of this system. The cognitive-affective, socio-cultural, physical, and interpersonal dimensions of this system facilitate or impede healthy human development. The human connections associated with this complex system have repeatedly shown themselves to be the sources of necessary care in the development of competence. Moreover, these connections are also key features of successful intervention and even physical cure. The services that support development work best when they cover the whole range of developmental needs and when they are organized with the child at the centre of their delivery. That is, human services work best when they are comprehensive, integrated and accessible to children and their families. The Timiskaming Best Start project builds upon these assertions and outlines an appreciative inquiry into a model for delivering service to this community’s children and families.
Vitanova Foundation’s Addiction Recovery Management Program: A Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis
This project involved a descriptive evaluation of the Vitanova Foundation treatment and recovery program for substance abuse, gambling addictions and anger management. Operating in the Greater Toronto Area of Ontario Canada, Vitanova Foundation has developed and refined their program over the past twenty-five years since the Foundation was established in 1987. The overall aim of the program is to “restore the individual’s potential as a valued member of a fully functioning family and a contributor to the community at large.”
“The Vitanova Foundation…helping put lives back together again” is the Foundation’s mission, envisioning that a person in recovery should be allowed to define what recovery and “living well” signifies to him or her. Here, the vision goes beyond recovery from addictions to supporting people in achieving lives that are reflective of and fulfilling for the entire wellbeing of their body, mind, and spirit. Vitanova positions the Foundation and their clients to be positive influences and resources in the community in general.