Durham improving in priority areas

By Dave Flaherty/The Oshawa Express

The latest update on low-income neighbourhoods pegged as significant areas of concern by the region hints at progress, while still showing room for improvement.

The third batch of data related to Durham’s Health Neighbourhoods program was released in December.

Launched in January 2015, the program maps out 50 Durham neighbourhoods identified as having some deficiencies in the health and well-being of its residents.

Neighbourhoods are monitored on 80 key indicators including education and income levels, early age development, chronic and infectious disease rates and smoking rates.

Of those 50 neighbourhoods, the seven with the lowest-income levels have been identified as priorities, including five in Oshawa – Downtown Oshawa, Lakeview, Gibb West, Beatrice North and Central Park.

Mary-Anne Pietrusiak, an epidemiologist with the Region of Durham, says while residents of these areas face numerous disadvantages, these neighbourhoods have “a lot of strengths and community assets.”

Health Neighbourhoods heavily focuses on Early Childhood Instrument (EDI) indicators, such as physical well-being and emotional maturity of senior kindergarten-aged children.

Data shows there are a larger number of  “vulnerable” children in lower-income neighbourhoods, especially in Oshawa.

However, Pietrusiak says significant improvements have been made in this area, specifically in Downtown Oshawa, where the number of vulnerable children since the last update in February 2016 dropped from 65 per cent to 35 per cent, and in Lakeview, where the number dropped from 55 per cent to 41 per cent.

“These rates are still higher than Durham Region, but big improvements,” Pietrusiak stated.

As to why these specific areas showed improvement, Pietrusiak said it could just “be by chance” or it could be an indication that initiatives aimed at improving the situation have been successful.

Child immunization rates were one of the newest indicators included in the latest release of data.

Throughout Durham as a whole, 75 per cent of children between seven and eight years old, and 90 per cent between 16 and 17 years old are up-to-date for school-required vaccines.

However, immunization rates for these age groups drop off significantly in the seven priority neighbourhoods, except in the cases of vaccines for meningococcal disease, hepatitis B, and HPV, which are administered by public health nurses rather than physicians.

Pietrusiak noted a reason for this may be due to parents having to make several visits to a doctor for their children to be fully immunized, which may be more challenging for lower-income families.

With this wealth of information available, Pietrusiak says numerous community organizations have reached out to access the available data to assist in developing their programming and for grant applications.

“I’ve done 90 presentations on Health Neighbourhoods since 2013. When I go into some kind of presentation or even just speak with people, they are very familiar with it,” she said.

Pickering Councillor David Pickles enquired whether these organizations have made requests for other indicators to be mapped.

“Are they looking for more information we can use in the future?” he asked.

Pietrusiak noted that they are often asked for exceptionally specific information to be tracked, but some “we just don’t have or can’t map at a neighbourhood level.”

“Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. We need to have enough data.”

With opioid-related abuse and overdoses on the rise, Oshawa Councillor Dan Carter voiced a desire to see the issue given consideration in the Health Neighbourhoods program.

Pietrusiak confirmed there have been discussions about this, but it would be “important to get definitions of indicators and areas set before you move into that.”

According to her, the next release, set for later this year, will be bolstered by full census data and new indicators from the Central East Local Health Integrated Network (LHIN) and Ontario’s modernized health standards.