| Administration |
Administrative Services
 Goal: To provide effective and efficient support to all Durham Region Health Department divisions, programs and services that help to enhance the delivery of the Ontario Public Health Standards and to meet all requirements of internal and extensionernal customers.
- Implement a framework for guiding principles on civility and respect in the workplace for all Administration staff.
- Conduct a needs assessment to identify specialized skills training needs to support Administration staff.
Community & Resource Development (CARD)
 Goal: To provide support to all Durham Region Health Department divisions, programs and services, helping to enhance compliance with Ontario Public Health Standards.
- Work with Regional partners to redevelop the corporate intranet site and the Durham Region Health Department’s intranet site.
- Develop a series of vlogs about opioid and substance use disorders in collaboration with Healthy Living colleagues.
- Implement a Cold Warning and Information System in collaboration with Healthy Environments colleagues.
Privacy & Information Security
 Goal: To provide effective and efficient privacy and information security support to all Durham Region Health Department divisions, programs and services that help to enhance compliance with applicable privacy and public health related legislation, information security standards and information management best practices.
- Implement new reporting requirements as directed by the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario.
- Investigate the feasibility of a health care provider portal on durham.ca.
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| Health Analytics, Research & Policy |
Goals:
Population Health Assessment: Public health practice responds effectively to current and evolving conditions and contributes to the public’s health and well-being with programs and services that are informed by the population’s health status, including social determinants of health and health inequities.
Health Equity: Public health practice results in decreased health inequities such that everyone has equal opportunities for optimal health and can attain their full health potential without disadvantage due to social position or other socially determined circumstances.
Effective Public Health Practice: Public health practice is transparent, responsive to current and emerging evidence, and emphasizes continuous quality improvement.
- Finalize and disseminate the fourth release of Health Neighbourhoods.
- Develop and implement an Opioid Overdose Information System.
- Explore opportunities to develop a tool to view Rapid Risk Factor Surveillance System data on durham.ca.
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| Health Protection |
Emergency Management
 Goal: To enable consistent and effective management of emergency situations.
- Strengthen the network of community partners for coordination and collaboration in the event of an emergency.
- Distribute 260,000 potassium iodide (KI) tablets to first responders and institutions within the 10 km detailed planning zone of both Pickering and Darlington nuclear generating stations to replace tablets expiring in 2019.
- Increase public awareness regarding the availability and process for obtaining KI tablets.
Food Safety
 Goal: To prevent or reduce the burden of food-borne illness and support the implementation and enforcement of the Healthy Menu Choices Act, 2015.
- Conduct food premises compliance inspections, re-inspections and investigate complaints.
- Deliver food handler training across Durham Region that is accessible to various populations, addresses barriers and various learning needs, and is available in various languages.
- Increase public awareness of food safety topics by delivering learning sessions in collaboration with community partners, creating food safety vlogs, and providing information at public events.
Healthy Environments
 Goal: To prevent or reduce the burden of illness from health hazards in the physical environment.
- Reduce exposures to health hazards and collaborate with community partners to address local impacts of climate change.
- Pilot a Cold Warning and Information System (CWIS) with community partners and evaluate the pilot to inform implementation of a public CWIS.
Ontario Building Code - Part 8 (Sewage Systems)
 Goal: To prevent diseases in humans and contamination of the physical environment due to on-site private sewage systems.
- Ensure that private sewage disposal systems are properly designed and constructed in accordance with the Ontario Building Code.
- Ensure compliance with the Ontario Building Code – Part 8.
- Respond to all complaints regarding private sewage systems in accordance with applicable legislation, program policies and procedures.
Safe Water
 Goal: To prevent or reduce the burden of water-borne illness related to drinking water and to prevent or reduce the burden of water-borne illness and injury related to recreational water use.
- Ensure 24/7 availability to receive reports and respond to adverse events related to safe water.
- Conduct surveillance and inspections of regulated and non-regulated recreational water facilities in accordance with the Ontario Public Health Standards.
- Conduct surveillance and inspections of Small Drinking Water Systems in accordance with the Health Protection and Promotion Act and the Ontario Public Health Standards.
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| Healthy Families |
Durham Health Connection Line
 Goal: To ensure Durham Region residents have access to health information and counselling and referral to appropriate resources on health issues as outlined in the Ontario Public Health Standards.
- Provide health education, counselling and referrals in response to inquiries from the community.
- Complete the Healthy Babies Healthy Children screening tool for appropriate clients through the Durham Health Connection Line.
Child and Youth, Prenatal and Newborn, and Healthy Babies Healthy Children
 Goal: To achieve optimal preconception, pregnancy, newborn, child, youth, parental and family health.
- Offer breastfeeding support sessions throughout Durham Region to help clients meet their infant feeding goals.
- Increase public awareness of the health effects of cannabis use during pregnancy and breastfeeding.
- Develop health education sessions on healthy growth and development and school readiness for child care and social services providers to address early childhood vulnerabilities.
- Deliver a parenting program to vulnerable families that promotes healthy child growth and development to help reduce the risk of early childhood vulnerabilities.
- Develop a collaborative plan in partnership with urban Indigenous organizations to identify public health needs, existing assets and public health priorities specific to the urban Indigenous population.
- Screen prenatal and postpartum families for any risks to healthy child development using the Healthy Babies Healthy Children screening tool.
- Provide home visiting services to at-risk families to assist them in meeting their goals and improving caregiver/parent-child interactions.
Infant & Child Development
 Goal: To enhance the growth and development of children, including those with a developmental disability and/or risk of developmental delay by partnering with families to provide support, information and early intervention services.
- Provide home visiting service for children from birth to four-years old with a developmental disability or those at risk for developmental delay.
- Develop transition plans for children with special needs transitioning out of service into child care and kindergarten.
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| Healthy Living |
Chronic Disease Prevention
 Goal: To reduce the burden of chronic diseases of public health importance* and improve well-being.
*Chronic diseases of public health importance include, but are not limited to, obesity, cardiovascular diseases, respiratory disease, cancer, diabetes, intermediate health states (such as metabolic syndrome and prediabetes), hypertension, dementia, mental illness and addictions.
- Collaborate with school communities to promote active and sustainable school travel initiatives.
- Collaborate with post-secondary institutions to communicate smoke-free policy on post-secondary campuses
- Support schools and school communities to address tobacco use and emerging issues (e.g. vaping) using a Healthy Schools Approach.
Prevention of Injury & Substance Misuse
 Goal: To reduce the burden of preventable injuries and substance use.
- Support municipalities to increase understanding of the impacts of cannabis and the importance of a public health approach to cannabis policy.
- Support school communities to promote mental health utilizing the Healthy Schools Approach.
- Re-orient harm reduction services to improve client access and address identified service gaps.
School Health
 Goal: To achieve optimal health of children and youth in schools through partnership and collaboration with school boards and schools.
- Provide vision screening services to senior kindergarten students in publicly funded schools.
- Deliver public health interventions to elementary, secondary and adult education school communities using a comprehensive health promotion approach to improve student health and well-being.
Oral Health
 Goal: To enable all children in Durham Region to attain and sustain optimal oral health and development potential, and to support adults who require assistance in accessing oral health information and services.
- Provide oral screening services for children to identify those in need of oral health services.
- Provide clinical preventive oral health services to children in need.
- Ensure pre-screening notification is provided to parents/guardians at least ten business days in advance of scheduled oral screening in schools.
- Calculate the screening intensity level of each school and offer oral screening to all students in JK, SK, and grade 2 and students in grades 4 and/or 7, as required, according to the screening intensity.
Smoke-Free Ontario Act, 2017
 Goal: To ensure that tobacco, e-cigarette vendors and other organizations that are subject to the Smoke Free Ontario Act, 2017 are in compliance with the Act and to restrict youth access to tobacco products and e-cigarettes.
- Conduct youth access inspections of all known tobacco retailers as required by the Ontario Public Health Standards.
- Conduct display and promotion compliance inspections of all known tobacco retailers as required by the Ontario Public Health Standards.
- Receive approval of a new Regional smoke-free by-law and implement a communication plan to increase public awareness of the new by-law.
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| Infectious Diseases |
Immunization
 Goal: To reduce or eliminate the burden of vaccine preventable diseases through immunization.
- Enforce compliance with the Immunization of School Pupils Act in all students 4 to 17-years old.
- Provide provincially funded immunizations to all eligible grade 7 students through school-based clinics.
- Increase immunization coverage in identified priority neighbourhoods with lower immunization rates than the regional average.
Infectious Diseases Prevention & Control - Health Protection
 Goal: To reduce the burden of communicable diseases and other infectious diseases of public health importance.
- Review reports of diseases of public health significance on an ongoing basis to assess trends and inform further investigational needs within Durham Region or the province.
- Distribute weekly outbreak summaries and FAX Abouts to community partners to communicate new and relevant information about diseases of public health significance or other emerging trends.
- Investigate and conduct appropriate follow-up of cases of diseases of public health significance including gastrointestinal and respiratory outbreaks in institutions and public hospitals.
- Plan and implement the annual Flu Event for health care facilities/providers and respond to all requests from community partners for presentations and displays related to infection prevention and control.
- Respond to all complaints regarding infection prevention and control practices in accordance with the Ontario Public Health Standards.
- Inspect personal services settings, licensed child care centres, funeral homes and homes for special care for compliance with applicable regulations, protocols and guidelines.
- Ensure 24/7 availability to receive and respond to potential exposures to diseases of public health significance in accordance with the Health Protection and Promotion Act and Ontario Public Health Standards.
- Increase the number of available low-cost rabies vaccination clinics for priority populations.
- Increase public awareness of West Nile virus.
Infectious Diseases Prevention & Control - Population Health
 Goal: To reduce the burden of communicable diseases and other infectious diseases of public health importance.
- Manage all sporadic infectious disease cases and contacts in accordance with the Ontario Public Health Standards.
- Manage all suspected and confirmed cases of tuberculosis in accordance with relevant protocols and guidelines.
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| Paramedic Services |
 Goal: To deliver a quality Paramedic Services system that is responsive to client needs and to reduce mortality and morbidity related to illness and injury through the provision of pre-hospital advanced life support procedures. (Primary program delivery is through the Region of Durham Paramedic Services with assistance from the Central Ambulance Communications Centre and local fire department tiered response programs).
- Respond to emergency requests for service as directed by the Central Ambulance Communications Centre.
- Monitor response time performance and adjust deployment plans and resource utilization as necessary.
- Continue the development work required to establish a new Seaton Paramedic Response Station.
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| Quality Assurance and Improvement |
 Goal: To ensure that programs and services meet requirements as articulated in policies, standards and legislation and to continuously improve the efficiency and effectiveness of services provided to Durham Region clients.
- Amalgamate and re-brand the Health Department’s two telephone information lines: Durham Health Connection Line and Environmental Help Line.
- Continue to explore opportunities to implement ENCOUNTER (the e-client record system) for relevant Health Protection programs, such as the Infectious Diseases Prevention & Control program.
- Verify publicly disclosed inspection summary signs on the Hedgehog 5 disclosure portal.
- Develop an additional process to document interactions in ENCOUNTER by community, to be used across the Health Department.
- Implement electronic documentation and reporting for the Infant & Child Development Program.
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