The National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health invites you to attend the upcoming Environmental Health Seminar. Webinar instructions will be included in the confirmation email. A recording of this webinar will be posted on the NCCEH website.

Lessons in Public Health Planning for Wildfire Smoke Events

Presenter: Sally Maguet, Consultant, Context Evaluation Consulting

Summary: Wildfires pose a significant threat to public health and safety and are expected to worsen under climate change. Reducing the adverse physical and mental health effects related to wildfire smoke exposure is a complex public health issue. It requires insight into social, economic, political and health-related factors at the community level as well as collaboration within and across sectors. Despite high levels of awareness and concern, planning for interventions that would reduce population level exposure to wildfire smoke is still in the very early stages of development in most jurisdictions across Canada. This webinar will present findings from two years of research and 48 interviews with public health practitioners and collaborators from seven Canadian and two US health jurisdictions. We will explore the capacity and research needs practitioners have identified as well as some of the lessons learned from those experienced with managing wildfire smoke events.

Presenter Bio:

Sally is the owner and principle consultant for Context Evaluation Consulting in Vancouver, BC. She has designed, implemented and reported on evaluations of complex, system-oriented initiatives in a variety of health programs and services including Mental Health and Substance Use, Harm Reduction, Indigenous and Environmental Health. Working collaboratively and in partnership with service users, service providers and decision makers, Sally uses evaluation as a tool to inform and guide research and planning to improve health services and outcomes on a provincial and national scale.