News

Environment has important consequences on the health of patients, citizens and communities. While health issues are key drivers of citizens’ concerns about the environment, health professionals rarely partner with communities in environmental health research and policy. This presentation will initiate debates on three core challenges:

• How to address power imbalances in environmental health, by shifting from an individual to a collective community engagement perspective?
• What are the inherent tensions when engaging communities in environmental health research and policy?
• What practical strategies and examples can support and sustain meaningful partnerships with communities?

Speaker: Antoine Boivin, MD PhD, is a practicing physician and holds the Canada Research Chair in Partnership with Patients and Communities at Université de Montréal. His research focuses on the engagement of patients and communities in science and community health. Co-founder of the Center of Excellence for Partnership with Patients and the Public, Antoine is also co-principal investigator with the Quebec SPOR-SUPPORT Unit for Learning Health Systems. Member of the British Medical Journal International Editorial Board, he was awarded the Donald I. Rice award for vision and leadership by the Canadian College of Family Physicians.

Speaker: Patricia Clermont, PhD, has been engaged as a citizen in the environmental community for some twenty years. Sensitive to the dimensions of social and environmental equity, she is particularly interested in mobility and urban planning. She has rich knowledge of citizen and environmental organizations and participated in many public consultations and community mobilizations. Patricia holds a doctorate in communication sciences and has been an independent analyst and strategist in public policy and political communication, environment, and education. More recently, her work bridges citizen and health professional expertise through her work with the Quebec Association of Physicians for the Environment. 

With reflections from:

Speaker: Rebecca Ganann RN, BScN, MSc, PhD, first joined the School of Nursing at McMaster in 2006 as a part-time faculty member and became a full-time Assistant Professor in 2017. She teaches in both the undergraduate and graduate programs. She is Co-Scientific Director of the Aging, Community and Health Research Unit, the Acting Lead of the McMaster Collaborative for Health and Aging (OSSU Research Centre of Aging), and the Lead of the Primary Health Care – Patient Expertise in Research Collaboration (part of the Innovations Strengthening Primary Health Care through Research network). Dr. Ganann is also a researcher with the McMaster Institute for Research on Aging. Dr. Ganann’s research program is focused on integrated health and social service delivery innovations to promote physical and mental health, and mobility among community-dwelling older adults. Her previous research has explored mental health and health services accessibility for immigrant women.

Apr 8, 2022 12:00 PM in Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Click here to register for the event.