Welcome

Many recent public health scares (SARS, the tainted blood scandal, listeria outbreak) and on-going threats to the public’s health (tobacco use, obesity, physical inactivity) highlight the need for effective public health policy and the central role of public policy in building public health capacity and improving population health.

What is Public Health Policy?

Public health policy, the backbone of public health, is policy related to public health issues. Substantively, public health policy addresses a broad range of issues, including but not limited to:  policies for infectious and chronic disease prevention and control, food security and food policy, climate change adaptation, environmental health policy, physical activity policy, substance abuse and harm reduction policy, gambling policy, and occupational health policy. Public health policy includes a wide array of legislative and regulatory interventions, administrative practices, financing and funding decisions, and various forms of soft law operating at all levels of government, affecting multiple settings, jurisdictions and sectors of activity.

Public health policy is different than health policy, which focuses on issues of health services and health care delivery.

Why offer a Training Program in Public Health Policy?

In Canada, the need for professionals trained specifically in public health policy has been identified as a top priority by government agencies at all levels. The CIHR Strategic Training Program in Public Health Policy fills this niche, providing an exciting opportunity to become intellectually and actively involved in the complex tasks demanded by public health policymaking including: policy change; policy analysis; policy assessment; and policy structures and planning. This training program promotes an active, productive and collaborative multidisciplinary community of researchers, trainees, policymakers, educators and practitioners that works and learns together to address – from a policy perspective – the key issues compromising the public’s health at local, regional, national and global levels.

Please see How to Apply for application guidelines, dates and forms.

The CIHR Strategic Training Program in Public Health Policy is part of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)'s Strategic Training Initiative in Health Research (STIHR). Funding for this program is provided by the CIHR Institutes of Population and Public Health; Health Services and Policy Research; and Child and Youth Health.