The Ontario Public Health Unit Collaboration on Cannabis
Date of Teleconference: / November 14, 2016Time: / 10:00 am – 11:30 am
Location: / Teleconference
Chair: / Elena Hasheminejad (York Region) and Leah Simon (Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit)
Minute Taker: / Algoma Public Health
Participants: / Jennifer Flood, Kelly Murray (Algoma)
Laura Jenkins (Brant County)
Robin Dozet (City of Hamilton)
Melissa Hutchinson, Chris Arnott (Durham Region)
Jacky Allan (Elgin St. Thomas)
Amber Schieck (Grey Bruce)
Lorna McCleary (HKPR)
Barbara Leavitt (Huron County)
Daphne Mayer (KFL&A)
Amy Fishleigh (Niagara Region)
Randy Casey (Northwestern)
Barb O’Brien-Litten (Ottawa)
Janet Jackson (Perth District)
Deanna Vandenbroek (Peterborough)
Allison Imrie, Bessie Ng (Peel)
Carol Perkins (Region of Waterloo)
Janice Greco, Leah Simon (Simcoe Muskoka)
Janice Piper, Tara Siczkar (Thunder Bay)
Janet Smale (Timiskaming)
Adrienne Chin (Toronto Public Health)
Amy Estill (Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph)
Loretta Bernard, Elena Hasheminejad (York Region)
Regrets: / Porcupine Health Unit
Chatham-Kent Public health
Oxford County Public Health
Halton Region Health Department
Lambton Public Health
Middlesex-London Health Unit
Sudbury District Health Unit
Windsor-Essex County Health Unit
1.0 Welcome & Introductions / Discussion Leader: Leah
Discussion: 30 Health Units now on collaboration
· Welcome
o Welcome to new members- Jacqueline Deroo of Oxford County Public Health, Terry Easterby of Lambton Public Health
· Call-out of members
2.0 Review of Agenda and Previous Minutes / Discussion Leader: Elena
Discussion:
Action items from September minutes reviewed:
3.0 Updates Action Items
· Janice Greco will share the consultation response to SMDHU Chief of Nursing Officer
o Completed
· Elena, Leah and Janine will develop a cover letter and summary of recommendations to share with the collaborative
o This has all been completed. The cover letter, summary of recommendations and final copy of the consultation are all stored on the microsite.
· Consultation will be submitted to alpha and COMOH
o Consultation was submitted to alpha and alpha contact submitted on her behalf to COMOH.
· Jacky will send recommendations she created as a tool
o Thank you Jacky, we received the recommendations
4.0 Moving Forward Action Items
· Elena and Leah will create a survey to send out to the collaborative prior to our next meeting
o Completed – thank you everyone for filling out the survey we will speak to this later in our meeting
5.0 Terms of Reference Action Items
· Elena and Leah will continue to work on the Terms of Reference
o Based on the survey results and our discussion today we will draft the TOR to share
6.0 Microsite
· Elena will set up and organize site and will send the link to the collaborative
o That has been completed, the microsite is up and running. Link: http://www.oninjuryresources.ca/ophucc/item/home
o If you would like Elena to store any documents on it, feel free to send it to her and she will upload it and keep it up to date
o For the minutes moving forward, once they are completed Elena will store on microsite (HU completing minutes can forward to Elena to upload to microsite)
· Minutes approved- Deanna (Peterborough) approved
· Additions to agenda- Public Heath reorganization chart
3.0 Updates
Health Unit Updates
Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit (Leah Simon)
· Myth-busting – Marijuana and Youth Workshop
o Workshop took place on October 18th, 2016 and was well attended (close to 200 attendees)
o Goal of the workshop was to increase the capacity of those who work directly with youth to have evidence-informed discussions with youth and their families about the effects of marijuana use; and to ensure that those who work indirectly with youth have accurate information to develop effective evidence-informed programs and resources.
o Excellent feedback from education, enforcement and youth services such youth justice, housing resource centres, shelters etc. Mental health and addictions provided good feedback but wanted more treatment specific information.
o Pre-recorded expert panel discussion from CCSA, about the myths youth hold about marijuana was well received but a number of suggestions were made for improvement as the presentation was a bit long with a high literacy level. Recommendations shared with CCSA.
o CCSA has released the The Effects of Youth Cannabis Use on the Developing Brain – Myth Busting recorded panel presentation and associated Guide to Facilitate Discussions about Youth Cannabis Use in Your Community
o The local panel discussion and Q&A period was especially well received. Participants from education really appreciated the community coming together on the topic and some said that they would have appreciated time to meet in groups at the end of the workshop to create an action plan. SMDHU is hoping to collaborate with local school boards on the topic in 2017.
Ottawa (Barbara)
· Added that an online learning module is available on CCSA website
St. Thomas (Jackie)
· Healthy Schools event identified information on marijuana requested by school board staff, HU shared CCSA learning module with school boards (referred to above)
· Arrive Alive conference-a lot of information shared on marijuana and driving, discussed complexities of testing for marijuana
Durham (Chris)
· RNAO chapter held public forum last week on cannabis legalization, varying perspectives shared. Audience primarily nurses and interested in learning about how legalization will impact their work.
Peterborough
· Dec. 6 Smoke Free forum (Toronto) will be held. Human rights lawyer presenting—Will share link
Toward the Legalization, Regulation & Restriction of Access to Marijuana: Submission to Federal Task Force document:
· A number of health units indicated that this document was shared with community partners and local drug strategy committees
Action Items:
· Link to Smoke Free forum will be shared with collaboration
4.0 Agenda Topic: Moving Forward / Discussion Leader: Leah
Survey Results
· Priorities:
o Cannabis Policy – an 80% response
o Cannabis and adolescent use
o Tools and resources for community partners
· Other topic of interest include:
o Drug impaired driving – it was discussed that this is a major priority item, however may fall into other categories. A document was sent this morning to program managers titled Cannabis and Road Safety: Policy Challenges. Report to be sent to members of the collaboration.
o Cannabis and maternal health – also an important topic. Members of the collaboration would like to keep this topic on the radar for future discussions. It was shared that a Best Start Conference will be held in February that will have a session focusing on this issue. The collaboration indicated that they would be interested in receiving the link to the conference to share amongst staff that may work in this area. Elena to share the information with the collaboration. It was also discussed that resources related to drug impaired driving and cannabis and maternal health be placed on the microsite.
o Communication of evidence based health risks for all users and harm reduction – not discussed
o Baseline data, monitoring and evaluation – not discussed
· Frequency of meetings
o The majority have agreed to meet bi-monthly – next meeting to be scheduled mid-January. This allows time for the steering committee to meet. It was encouraged to share information, resources, updates in the meantime as it becomes available. Frequency of meetings will be captured in the TORs.
· Committee name/acronym
o Acronym suggestions from the survey were reviewed. Discussion as to whether the Ontario Public Health Unit Collaboration on Cannabis should include other agencies beyond public health (i.e. CAMH, CCSA). It was decided to defer this agenda item, including the acronym suggestion as the steering committee will meet and discuss further.
· Steering Committee
o 15 agencies have indicated interest in joining the steering committee. Elena and Leah to contact members to schedule initial meeting. Some health units expressed interest of involvement on the steering committee on the survey however did not identify which health unit they belong to. Elena will send survey results to assist health units in determining expression of interest.
Action items:
o Share Best Start Conference registration details
o Update TORs to include changes to meeting frequency
o Determine acronym for collaboration
o Consider whether membership should include other agencies beyond public health. To be further discussed at the steering committee
o Schedule steering committee meeting
o Send survey results to collaboration
5.0 Addition-Public Health Reorganization Chart
· The email and org chart raised questions for many with respect to the best fit for marijuana programming between the Smoke/Tobacco Program and the Addictions and Substances Program. A question was asked if anyone had internal Health Unit discussions about how they would approach marijuana portfolio moving forward. No one on the call indicated they had but that they too wondered about the implications of the reorg.
6.0 Next Steps / Discussion Leader:
Discussion:
o Next collaborative meeting – mid-January. Elena to send a Doodle Poll to determine the specific date and time of next meeting.
o Ideas for guest speakers – please contact Leah and Elena should you have a name for a guest speaker to present at one of the collaboration meetings. One suggestion was to ask the CCSA policy advisor who spoke recently at the M Word Conference – Rebecca Jesseman. Elena to investigate a future meeting date in which Rebecca can attend.
o Resources for microsite – please send any resources, briefing notes, reports to Elena and Leah to be uploaded to the microsite.
Meeting Adjourned