Mid-point reflection

This course has been all about balance, with coursework landing during my busiest work season (September to November).

My biggest surprise was how many frameworks I already use without naming them. Planning outreach around the

Population Health Promotion Model provides the framework and language to explain and justify that work.

Studying adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) has been eye-opening. Barriers stack up across every level of the system. This mirrors my daily work reducing screening barriers for underserved populations.

I’ve also learned from my classmates. Their clinical, patient-centred, and community-focused experience shapes how each of them approaches a health issue, and it has challenged my own assumptions.

The biggest problem I see in health promotion is the “with whom.” Which levels of the system can we reach, and can we get buy-in at each one? Upstream policy is the hardest to move.

 Going forward, I want to keep using the Population Health Promotion Model and the Ottawa Charter in my work with the IDD community to increase access to cancer screening. My goal is for these frameworks to shape how I plan every program, not just my assignments.