Barriers to Active Living and Mental Health Promotion Strategies

98 Pages·2006·0.25 MB·English

Community Health
Advisory Councils
Report

“Barriers to Active Living and
Mental Health Promotion Strategies”

March 2006
Preface

This report contains the issues and ideas generated by the Community
Health Advisory Councils over the course of 2 meetings held from October
to December 2005. The Councils were asked to consider what barriers
existed in their community areas that prohibited the development of
programs, initiatives, and strategies for active living and the promotion of
good mental health. They were also asked to identify the barriers that
existed for community members trying to access these programs. The
Councils were then asked to prioritize the barriers and make suggestions for
addressing them.

Section I: Report Summary, includes the common priority barriers identified
by the all of the Councils and rationale for why they considered them to be
most important. This section also includes common suggestions by the
Councils for addressing the priority barriers.

To obtain information specific to each of the Councils, the full individual
Council reports can be found in Section II. This section contains the
complete discussions and suggestions that were made at the meetings of
each of the Councils.

It is hoped that this will be useful to the WRHA Board, Program Teams,
funded agencies of the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, and by
community organizations and networks currently delivering programs to
address the physical and mental well-being of people across the Winnipeg
health region.

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Table of Contents
Page

I Report Summary
Introduction and Methodology 5
What is active living and mental health promotion? 7
Priority Barriers Identified by Each Council 8
Common Priority Barriers with Discussion Points 10
Common Suggestions for Addressing Barriers 14

II Reports by Council
Discussion Notes and Recommendation Notes 17
Downtown and Point Douglas 18
River East and Transcona 27
River Heights and Fort Garry 35
Seven Oaks and Inkster 44
St. Boniface and St. Vital 50
St. James-Assiniboia and Assiniboine South 56

Appendix
A Priority Barriers of Councils Table 65
Tables – Suggestions for Addressing Barriers
Downtown and Point Douglas 6
River East and Transcona 73
River Heights and Fort Garry 78
Seven Oaks and Inkster 82
St. Boniface and St. Vital 87
St. James-Assiniboia and Assiniboine South 90

B Members of Community Health Advisory Councils 96
WRHA Board Liaisons 98
Volunteer Assistants 98
Support Staff to Councils 98
Community Area Directors 98

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Section I

Report Summary

4
Introduction and Methodology

Priority issues and the Community Health Advisory Councils
This past fall, the Board of the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority asked
the Community Health Advisory Councils (CHAC’s) to identify and address
barriers to active living and mental health promotion strategies. The role of
the health advisory councils is to contribute community perspectives and
suggestions to those health issues that are a priority to the Winnipeg
Regional Health Authority. This particular issue is supported by the WRHA
Board’s strategic goal of disease prevention and health promotion – “the
implementation of strategies and initiatives that improve the health of the
population” – that include (but are not limited to) active living and mental
health promotion. (WRHA Strategic Plan, April 2005)

Population Health Framework
The Councils use a population health framework when exploring health issues
– taking into consideration the social, environmental, economic, and other
factors that impact on the health of a population. This framework was
helpful in identifying the complexity of the barriers faced by individuals in
accessing programs and by groups and others who develop and deliver active
living and mental health promotion programs.

In the exploration of barriers, the Councils considered the following: what
prohibits government departments, community organizations, and workplaces
from developing and delivering active living and mental health promotion
initiatives and what are the struggles that community members face in
taking part in these programs.

The Meetings
At the first set of meetings, program specialists in active living and mental
health promotion shared background information on WRHA active living and
mental health promotion initiatives – initiatives to strengthen individuals,
communities, and sectors and systems. The specialists provided a population
health/determinants of health framework, highlighting the close connection
between good mental health and being physically active or conversely, poor
physical health and poor mental health. Council members participated in a
brainstorming exercise to “define” active living and mental health promotion.
The task given to Council members was then to identify barriers to active
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living and mental health promotion, which was done in small discussion groups.
To help small group discussions, Council members were asked to consider if
specific neighbourhoods faced greater barriers, if certain populations faced
greater/lesser barriers, and to keep in mind the demographics (socio-
economic, cultural, etc. makeup) of their community areas.

At the second meeting of each Council, members participated in
prioritization exercises to rank the barriers to active living and mental
health promotion strategies brought forward at the previous meeting. Small
groups were again used, this time to generate ideas of how to address those
barriers that they felt were most significant in their community areas.
When sharing their ideas of how to address the barriers, Council members
were asked to consider: how the WRHA could address the barrier directly;
partnerships that the WRHA should enter or strengthen with community
groups, government departments, etc. to address the barrier; and, what
efforts or partnerships/advocacy work that the WRHA could carry out in
order to address a barrier.

Using the Councils’ work to increase success of active living and mental
health promotion strategies
Each Council’s exploration of barriers to active living and mental health
promotion was unique, but most of the barriers identified and many of the
ideas generated to address them were similar. Through the identification of
these barriers, the WRHA, Winnipeg In motion (of which the WRHA is a
partner), community networks and organizations, and many others, will be
able to more successfully develop and deliver programs that encourage
people to be more physically active and programs that provide opportunities
to maintain good mental health and address mental health issues.

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What is active living and mental health promotion?

All of the Community Health Advisory Councils spent the first part of their
initial meeting, sharing their thoughts about what active living and mental
health promotion means to them, what concepts/outcomes/goals they felt
were important to include, and the underlying values of active living and
mental health promotion. These discussions also highlighted the inter-
connectedness of active living and the promotion of good mental health.

Key points noted were:

Active Living
o Active living defines independence and mobility
o It is the balance of physical, social, emotional, and spiritual health
o Taking responsibility for your health, looking after yourself, self care
o Engages your mind, promotes well-being
o Social interaction, social contact, participating in your community – total
living
o Happiness, fun, doing things that you like, being outdoors

Mental health promotion
o Balance of mental and emotional state
o Coping with life’s stresses, being able to accept/cope with life’s ups and
downs
o Becoming who you want to be
o Independence, happiness, getting along with others, being aware of what
mental health resources are available
o Removing the stigma associated with having a mental illness
o Social support, relationships, inter-generational support groups
o Educating the public about how you can improve your own health,
understanding different mental health conditions
o Active living – good mental health
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Priority Barriers Identified by Each Council

Prioritizing the barriers occurred at the second meeting of the Councils. The
top barriers are listed by Council below. For complete discussion notes of
each Council, refer to section II.

Downtown/Point Douglas Council
1. Financial barriers – poverty and lack of program funding
2. Lack of safety – fear of violence
3. Transportation and access issues
4. Education – health literacy and public education, including awareness
of programs
5. Social isolation, racial inequities, and stigmatization

River East/Transcona Council
1. Poverty and inaccessibility
2. Lack of safety – fear
3. Lack of facilities and programs that meet the needs of the population
4. Lifestyle – technology, lack of time, etc.

River Heights/Fort Garry Council
1. Accessibility
2. Perspectives, cultural beliefs and traditions, and emotional well-being
3. Political and policy issues and competition for resources

Seven Oaks/Inkster Council
1. Access
2. Promotion of programs and activities – barriers – literacy, cultural and
language
3. Technology and the ability to participate
4. Time scarcity – too busy to take care of physical and mental health

St. Boniface/St. Vital Council
1. Access, safety, and financial barriers
2. Organizational culture – culture of workplaces and personal life
3. Lack of sense of community

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St. James-Assiniboia/Assiniboine South Council
1. Socio-economic barriers
2. Accessing resources and infrastructure
3. Lifestyle and inactivity

(See Appendix A for the Table Format of this information)
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Common Priority Barriers with Discussion Points

1. Financial, socio-economic barriers
o People struggling financially are not accessing programs because they are
unaffordable – registration, equipment costs
o Many people experience stigma of asking for reduced or waived fees, and
choose to not pursue an activity because of this
o Difficulties faced by organizations, etc. in obtaining funding to develop
programs -- competition for few resources for groups trying to set up
programs
o Lack of government funding to develop new or maintain/repair existing
recreational facilities, programs, etc.
o Costs are too high for counseling programs that some people need to
improve their mental well-being

2. Transportation barriers
o Difficulty getting to and from programs, buses too expensive, might not
have easy bus route to where programs are held, lengthy waits between
connections during off peak times, taking whole family on bus is difficult
and too expensive – added difficulty in the winter months
o Poor public transportation – little awareness of how to use public transit
to get to recreational facilities
o Handi Transit is limited
o Services/programs are provided in locations that are difficult to access
o Lots of neighbourhoods are designed for driving, not for walking or biking
- no sidewalks, no malls for walking, grocery stores are too far to walk to.
o Climate (especially extreme cold) makes it difficult for people to access
programs – sidewalks icy, not cleared
o Seniors especially face transportation barriers – many unable to drive
o Children unable to use public transportation by themselves and/or
parents unable or unavailable to drive them to activities

3. Safety barrier
o Perception held by many people that it is not safe to get to and from
programs – especially in the evenings and in winter when it gets dark early
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