Please set aside the dates November 28-29, 2002 for a major conference in
Toronto entitled "Social Determinants of Health Across the Life Span:  Canadian
Perspectives"  The conference will be a partnership of the School of Health
Policy and Management at York University and the Centre for Social Justice.
Further details will be coming shortly.  The following provides an overview.

The objectives of the two day conference Social Determinants of Health Across
the Life-Span: Canadian Perspectives are to:

1. Bring together the latest developments in knowledge concerning various social
determinants of Canadians



' health across the life-span;
2. Provide an up-to-date accounting of the current state and quality of these
social determinants of health across Canada;
3. Identify policy implications for improving the health of Canadians that
involve influencing the social determinants of health across the life-span; and
4.Establish stakeholder networks that can work to implement measures to improve
the quality of the social determinants of Canadians' health across the
life-span.

Increasing evidence is accumulating that while medical and lifestyle choices
affect the state of Canadians' health, by far the greatest influences upon
health concern how communities and societies are organized to support health.
These aspects of societies and communities ? how income is distributed,
availability of education, housing, food, and transportation, degree of support
for early childhood development, the availability and type of employment, and
the extent to which citizens are socially excluded from participation in society
? are called social determinants of health.  Canada has been a world leader in
conceptualizing about these social determinants of health but to date there has
little systematic attempt to bring together those working in these fields for a
comprehensive examination of these issues within a social determinants of health
framework.

Such an examination is particularly timely as there have been profound changes
in many aspects of Canadian society that appear to be directly related to the
quality of these social determinants of health. There have been shifts in the
distribution of income in Canada with the result of many more Canadians living
with low incomes than may have been the case 15-20 years ago. The availability
of housing, access to food and transportation has been affected by these shifts
in income distribution as well as by changes in government economic and social
policies.  Access to, and quality of health and social services ? commonly
termed the social safety net ? have also been modified in many provinces. The
nature of employment has also shifted with greater increases in job insecurity
becoming apparent as well as greater numbers of part time employment
opportunities. Increases in numbers of Canadians who are either homeless or at
risk for homelessness have increased as have the number of people coming to rely
upon food banks.

Many of these social determinants of health are the focus of specific
stakeholder groups who do not view their importance in relation to the health of
Canadians. Similarly, the quality of many of these health determinants such as
education, employment, food, housing, and transportation is the focus of
municipal authorities who also do not work with a social determinants of health
perspective. This separation of concern with these issues from a health focus
continues to be the case in spite of twenty-five years of Canadian policy
statements outlining the importance to health of these factors.

In addition to providing an update of the quality of these social determinants
of health across Canada, and identifying policy options for improving them, an
important aspect of the Social Determinants of Health Across the Life-Span:
Canadian Perspectives conference will be, therefore, to reinforce the
relationship to health of these diverse community and societal factors.  By
doing so, the conference will help build networks to improve the quality of
these factors among those concerned with these issues. An edited volume of
conference papers will be made available in both official languages.


Dennis Raphael, PhD
Associate Professor and Undergraduate Program Director
School of Health Policy and Management
Atkinson Faculty of Liberal and Professional Studies
York University
4700 Keele Street
Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3
tel: 416-736-2100, ext. 22134
fax: 416-736-5227
email: [log in to unmask]