University of Toronto Press Release
July 26, 2000
http://www.newsandevents.utoronto.ca/

Government policies threaten public health: study

Social structure affects well-being of the entire population

by Steven de Sousa

July 26, 2000 -- Residents of two Toronto communities believe government
cutbacks are having a direct negative impact on their health and quality of
life, according to a University of Toronto report in the Canadian Journal of
Public Health.

"The people we spoke to overwhelmingly identified government policies as
having a significant and increasingly negative impact on their overall
well-being," says Dr. Dennis Raphael, associate professor of public
health sciences. "The kinds of things that make life good for people in
Canada are the very things they believe are under threat including health
and social services, public transportation and social infrastructure."

Raphael and colleagues led focus groups involving community members,
service providers and elected representatives in two contrasting city
neighbourhoods - Lawrence Heights, a culturally diverse subsidized
housing community of 8,000 in suburban North York and Riverdale, an
economically and culturally diverse downtown community of 85,000.
Information was collected between November 1996 and May 1997, during
which time social assistance benefits were reduced by 22 per cent, new
housing programs were cancelled and the cost of public transportation was
downloaded to municipalities.

Among the themes to emerge from the focus groups were lack of
employment and training opportunities for new Canadians, limited leisure
opportunities for youth and an overall lack of affordable housing. "Rather
than experts deciding that community health concerns are related to
smoking, exercise and diet, we listened to people's own concerns about
their health and well-being," says Raphael, co-director of the Quality of
Life Research Unit in U of T's Faculty of Medicine. "What they told us
is consistent with the latest population health research that identifies how
the social structure - our institutions, policies and services - influences
the
well-being of the entire population."

Funding support was provided by the Jessie Ball Dupont Fund, a charitable
agency based in Jacksonville, Fla. The complete reports are available at
http://www.utoronto.ca/qol/Reports.htm.

Steven de Sousa is a news services officer with the Department of Public
Affairs.

CONTACT:

Dr. Dennis Raphael, U of T Centre for Health Promotion, (416) 978-7567,
[log in to unmask]

U of T Public Affairs, ph: (416) 978-5949; email:
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  Long have I looked for the truth about the life of people together.
  That life is crisscrossed, tangled, and difficult to understand.
  I have worked hard to understand it and when I had done so
  I told the truth as I found it.

  - Bertolt Brecht
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Dennis Raphael, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Public Health Sciences
Graduate Department of Community Health
University of Toronto
McMurrich Building, Room 101
Toronto, Ontario, CANADA M5S 1A8
voice:    (416) 978-7567
fax: (416) 978-2087
e-mail:   [log in to unmask]