Working together to create resilient communities

Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer

They say it takes a village. In this case, it takes a community. It takes a community of individuals, organizations, government institutions and partners all working together to build healthier and more resilient communities that are better equipped to prevent, withstand and recover from emergencies.

This past year has been  a salient reminder of how important this work has become. We are seeing an increase in extreme weather events both in Canada and internationally, with heat waves, floods and wildfires, as we continue to respond to COVID-19 and other public health crises, such as the toxic drug crisis. These events affect the mental and physical health of those impacted and their communities. In my 2023 annual report, Creating the Conditions for Resilient Communities: A Public Health Approach to Emergencies, I explored how we, as public health professionals, can work with communities and partners across sectors to increase the resiliency of our communities.

Health promotion has a key role to play in the emergency management cycle, from prevention to recovery, by supporting the conditions needed for community resilience. Health promotion provides ways to work with communities and partners to advance health equity, strengthen social supports, and build trusted relationships. This will help us look beyond the immediate response to an emergency and to focus our work on the foundational conditions that keep our communities healthy and strong.

There are specific areas of action where health promotion can contribute to community resilience. These include building healthy public policy, creating supportive environments and strengthening community action. This means shifting focus to improving conditions upstream so a community is healthier and stronger before an emergency occurs. It also means investing in communities and nurturing ongoing relationships that can be rapidly leveraged for more effective and tailored emergency responses. A good example of community mobilization is the rapid deployment of tests and vaccines to contain the 2022 mpox outbreak. The successful control of the outbreak was achieved because of the active participation of HIV and 2SLGBTQ+ community organizations in reaching out to their most at-risk members, and through years of relationship building between public health and these communities.

It must be kept in mind that some communities face barriers to resilience and are disproportionately affected by emergencies. Equity needs to be considered throughout emergency management. Information on inequities is essential to  inform decision-making, ensure greater understanding of how different groups are affected and support equitable resource allocation.

In my report, I outline tangible actions to incorporate health promotion into emergency management policies and practice. We know our communities will face increasing health threats from outbreaks to climate change, so we need to act now and act together to prepare for future emergencies.

To that end, I participated in a webinar last fall co-hosted by the Canadian Public Health Association and the Canadian Red Cross about how different communities and organizations are already using health promotion in their emergency management systems.

Webinar: 2023 Chief Public Health Officer of Canada's Annual Report Launch

On January 18, 2024, I will join Sir Michael Marmot and Dr. Ilona Kickbusch on a webinar panel hosted by the International Association of National Public Health Institutes to discuss how to create the conditions for community resilience and apply health promotion concepts across the emergency management continuum.  

Webinar registration (with simultaneous translation): Creating conditions for resilient communities; applying public health approaches to the emergency management continuum

I encourage you to consider how you can integrate health promotion into future planning processes and what actions you can take to help make your own community healthier and more resilient.