Heather Castleden1, Jia Lin2, Madilyn Darrach2. 1. Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada. Heather.castleden@queensu.ca. 2. Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently issued a statement that the fate of human society and human health is at serious risk of catastrophic impacts unless we take bold action to keep global warming under 1.5 °C. In 2015, the Canadian Public Health Association noted emerging efforts to embrace intersectoral approaches to global change in public health research and practice. In this study, we question the extent to which Canadian Graduate Public Health Sciences Programs have kept pace with these efforts to see climate change surface as a new frontier for training the next generation of researchers and practitioners. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews (19) were conducted with Department Heads (or equivalents) of graduate-level Public Health Sciences Programs at 15 Canadian universities concerning the place of climate change in their respective curricula. Interviews were designed to elicit participants' institutional perspectives on the importance of climate change in the Public Health Sciences and identify perceived challenges and opportunities. RESULTS: Despite wide recognition among participants that climate change is a public health "crisis", very few reported having substantive curricular engagement on the topic. Key challenges identified were lack of resources, organizational issues, and political barriers. Key opportunities to adapt curricula to address this new frontier in Public Health were faculty interest and expertise, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and pressure from the institution. CONCLUSION: Our findings provide evidence for post-secondary Public Health Sciences Programs to understand the need to address their own sluggishness when what is needed are bold, even radical, shifts to existing curricula.
OBJECTIVE: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently issued a statement that the fate of human society and human health is at serious risk of catastrophic impacts unless we take bold action to keep global warming under 1.5 °C. In 2015, the Canadian Public Health Association noted emerging efforts to embrace intersectoral approaches to global change in public health research and practice. In this study, we question the extent to which Canadian Graduate Public Health Sciences Programs have kept pace with these efforts to see climate change surface as a new frontier for training the next generation of researchers and practitioners. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews (19) were conducted with Department Heads (or equivalents) of graduate-level Public Health Sciences Programs at 15 Canadian universities concerning the place of climate change in their respective curricula. Interviews were designed to elicit participants' institutional perspectives on the importance of climate change in the Public Health Sciences and identify perceived challenges and opportunities. RESULTS: Despite wide recognition among participants that climate change is a public health "crisis", very few reported having substantive curricular engagement on the topic. Key challenges identified were lack of resources, organizational issues, and political barriers. Key opportunities to adapt curricula to address this new frontier in Public Health were faculty interest and expertise, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and pressure from the institution. CONCLUSION: Our findings provide evidence for post-secondary Public Health Sciences Programs to understand the need to address their own sluggishness when what is needed are bold, even radical, shifts to existing curricula.
Entities:
Keywords:
Climate change; Curriculum; Post-secondary institutions; Public health; Qualitative inquiry
Authors: Chris G Buse; Jordan Sky Oestreicher; Neville R Ellis; Rebecca Patrick; Ben Brisbois; Aaron P Jenkins; Kaileah McKellar; Jonathan Kingsley; Maya Gislason; Lindsay Galway; Ro A McFarlane; Joanne Walker; Howard Frumkin; Margot Parkes Journal: J Epidemiol Community Health Date: 2018-01-12 Impact factor: 3.710
Authors: Nick Watts; Markus Amann; Sonja Ayeb-Karlsson; Kristine Belesova; Timothy Bouley; Maxwell Boykoff; Peter Byass; Wenjia Cai; Diarmid Campbell-Lendrum; Jonathan Chambers; Peter M Cox; Meaghan Daly; Niheer Dasandi; Michael Davies; Michael Depledge; Anneliese Depoux; Paula Dominguez-Salas; Paul Drummond; Paul Ekins; Antoine Flahault; Howard Frumkin; Lucien Georgeson; Mostafa Ghanei; Delia Grace; Hilary Graham; Rébecca Grojsman; Andy Haines; Ian Hamilton; Stella Hartinger; Anne Johnson; Ilan Kelman; Gregor Kiesewetter; Dominic Kniveton; Lu Liang; Melissa Lott; Robert Lowe; Georgina Mace; Maquins Odhiambo Sewe; Mark Maslin; Slava Mikhaylov; James Milner; Ali Mohammad Latifi; Maziar Moradi-Lakeh; Karyn Morrissey; Kris Murray; Tara Neville; Maria Nilsson; Tadj Oreszczyn; Fereidoon Owfi; David Pencheon; Steve Pye; Mahnaz Rabbaniha; Elizabeth Robinson; Joacim Rocklöv; Stefanie Schütte; Joy Shumake-Guillemot; Rebecca Steinbach; Meisam Tabatabaei; Nicola Wheeler; Paul Wilkinson; Peng Gong; Hugh Montgomery; Anthony Costello Journal: Lancet Date: 2017-10-30 Impact factor: 79.321