The role of public health working with shelters serving people experiencing houselessness

NOTE: Due to a technical issue, audio for the first ~10 mins of this webinar was not recorded.

This session provides an overview of a rapid scoping review on the role of public health working with shelters serving people experiencing houselessness completed in 2022 by the National Collaborating Centre for Methods and Tools (NCCMT) in collaboration with the National Collaborating Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCCID). The review identified examples of public health collaborating with shelters to deliver public health programs and services, or to support shelter staff on public health topics. NCCID used the review in an Institute that explored opportunities to improve communications and programming that work for shelter clients and shelter staff. Join us to learn more about the results of this rapid scoping review, and to discuss possibilities for increased collaboration among public health and shelters.

Presenters:

Susan Snelling is a Senior Knowledge Translation Specialist with the National Collaborating Centre for Methods and Tools (NCCMT). Susan has held various roles in public health at the local and provincial level in Ontario, and has a strong interest in health equity. Her work with NCCMT focuses on rapid evidence reviews and on building capacity for evidence-informed decision-making in public health organizations and among public health practitioners. Susan holds a Ph.D. in Psychology and has the Credentialed Evaluator designation from the Canadian Evaluation Society.

Margaret Haworth-Brockman is the Senior Program Manager at the National Collaborating Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCCID). Margaret has more than 30 years’ experience in population and public health. Her interests include gender and HIV, maternal health and gender and health statistics. Margaret has a nil-appointment to the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba and she is an adjunct in Sociology at the University of Winnipeg.

Adina Lakser is the Project Coordinator for the shelters and public health project at the National Collaborating Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCCID). She joined NCCID in the summer of 2022, bringing over two decades of experience managing projects in the community and with the University of Manitoba to address health inequities in areas such as women and HIV, sexual and reproductive health, harm reduction and cultural safety. As well, Adina has worked with individuals and communities to provide mental and spiritual health care.