RESEARCH
Research goals
The research goals of the unit are to develop new knowledge in the areas of:
- strengthening self-care capacity and action;
- fostering collective capacity and action;
- building supportive environments; and,
- the interaction of the above.
In addition, our research goals include:
- stimulating the diffusion and adoption of evidence-based practice strategies in public health;
- fostering trans-disciplinary inquiry; and,
- building strong and reciprocal linkages between practitioners and researchers within the health promotion and public health communities.
Research Areas
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Research projects and programs have been based on annually established research goals, objectives, strategies and frameworks, and awareness of public health policy directions, as well as investigator interests including but not limited to: the transtheoretical model, multiple intervention programs, aging, tobacco, falls, community capacity building, access and equity, heart health, computer modeling and costing of public health.
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One-third of the funding received from the Ministry has been focused on ongoing research with the Ministry’s public health branch on projects such as Costing and Review of Mandatory Core Program Guidelines, research transfer and research transfer partnerships, Asthma Report for the Chief Medical Officer of Health; the Pre and Post Natal Nurse Practitioner Program Evaluation and other evaluations of Ministry programs.
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Program related projects depend on the needs of the health department (e.g. tobacco and youth needs assessment and interventions; elderly in need programming; community capacity building, infant care and breast feeding research, multicultural access issues etc.)
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Funding for research projects was originally provided in five year increments and an annual research retreat was held to plan programs of research, dissemination strategies, etc in light of the five year objectives. Annual retreats still occur, with a view to developing the best approach possible to meet CHRU goals with year to year funding, that can still fit into long term strategies and directions.
We are pleased to share with you information about our projects and research initiatives.
New Research
• Dr. Nancy Edwards and a 20-person international
team of researchers have applied for funding to the Teasdale-Corti
Team Grants Program through the International Development Research
Centre. Their Letter of Intent for a four-year program of research
entitled ‘Strengthening
Nurses’ Capacity in HIV Policy Development in Sub-Saharan Africa
and the Caribbean’, was one of 32 invited to develop
a full grant, out of 259 LOIs submitted. Four projects based
on participatory action research as well as capacity building
activities would take place in five countries: Uganda, Kenya,
South Africa, Jamaica, and Barbados. Team members come from
all participating countries, six Canadian universities, and
the Canadian Nurses Association, with some already in a mentoring
relationship with Dr Edwards: one PhD student, two current
and one former Post-Doctoral Fellows and six former interns.
• ‘Patterns of Knowledge Exchange in the Public Health
Community’. Principal Investigator: Anita Kothari, Co-Principal
Investigator: Nancy Edwards, Investigators: Maureen Dobbins
and Matthew Stern. Funded by Community Health Research Unit.
• ‘Investigating HIV/AIDS among Jamaicans Using the Critical
Theory Perspective and Ecological Conceptual Framework’.
Canadian Researchers: Co-Principal Investigator: Donnelly, T. Co-Investigators:
Edwards, N., Este, D., Burns, K.
Jamaican Researchers: Co-Principal Investigator: Kahwa, E. Co-Investigators:
Stewart, H., Hewitt, H.
Ongoing and Completed Research
Funding
Funding for the Community Health Research Unit provides vital infrastructure for conducting our research work; translating our research findings into action; and building community health research capacity amongst a talented group of postdoctoral fellows, research interns, and graduate students. There is no doubt that the profile of the Community Health Research Unit allows us to attract a very capable group of researchers and trainees. In addition to providing support for our Ministry-directed research projects, CHRU funding allows us to conduct feasibility and pilot projects, which yield a high degree of success in our applications for external research funding.
Capacity-building
Postdoctoral Fellows – Five postdoctoral fellows worked closely with the Community Health Research Unit for the 2005-6 fiscal year. All had external postdoctoral funding. There is no doubt that the stimulating research environment we are able to offer the postdoctoral fellows through the Community Health Research Unit is a critical reason our postdoctoral fellows have been so successful in applying for external research funds. The research focus of our postdoctoral fellows and examples of CHRU-related projects they joined for the 2005-6 fiscal year are summarized in Table 1. Two additional postdoctoral fellows (Phyllis Montgomery – Laurentian University, Josephine Etowa – Dalhousie University) successfully applied for postdoctoral funding from CHSRF. They will commence their postdoctoral awards in July, 2006.
Knowledge Translation:
The knowledge translation activities of CHRU staff, investigators and associates included both more traditional KT strategies (15 publications, 44 presentations including 2 keynote presentations, 5 workshops), and several targeted strategies (10 CHRU monographs and working papers, 2 CHRU newsletters, our Community Health Research Unit and Multiple Intervention web site). In addition we continued to strengthen the platform for innovative KT including development of the CHNet-works! tools (3 debates and 16 fireside chats were held), and a regularly updated bibliography on multiple intervention programs that is posted on our web site.
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Framework for public health programs
Multiple Intervention Framework
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