2019 Annual Report
Our agency
200 employees and 150 volunteers
KFL&A Public Health is a local public health agency with over 200 staff and 150 volunteers who deliver public health programs and services to the people of the KFL&A area. The underlying goal of our services and programs—from immunization, physical activity, nutritious eating, food safety, raising healthy babies and children, sexual health, tobacco use reduction, and many other public health areas—is to promote and protect the health of the more than 190,000 residents of the Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington region.
Vision
Healthy People, Healthy Places
Mission
KFL&A Public Health promotes and protects the public's health and strives to reduce health disparities through a skilled and dedicated work force that collaborates with our partners and communities and engages our residents to be as healthy as they can be.
Mandate
We are directed by Ontario's Health Protection and Promotion Act and the Ontario Public Health Standards: Requirements for Programs, Services, and Accountability. We develop and implement evidence-informed policies, programs, and services to address the public health needs of the residents in the KFL&A region.
Board of Health Members |
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Message from KFL&A Board of Health Chair, Denis Doyle and the KFL&A Public Health Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Kieran Moore |
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We are pleased to share with you the 2019 annual report. We are immensely proud of the programs and services KFL&A Public Health provides to our communities. We know when public health action functions well, our efforts recede into the background and seem largely invisible to the general public; unless, there is an unexpected outbreak of disease. This past year, the government of Ontario announced intentions to modernize the health care system. Public health plays a crucial role in supporting an effective health care system by reducing the demand for hospital services and thus, delivering value for money. Studies have shown tremendous return on investment. For example, every $1 spent on:
So when the new government of Ontario announced its plan to end “hallway medicine” by transforming public health services and reducing public health funding we were shocked and felt it was a major contradiction to the essential role public health plays in keeping our community healthy. The government’s proposal would place a significant strain on the ability of local public health agencies, like KFL&A Public Health, to continue to deliver on its mandate. A reduction in public health funding would result in cutting services. These cuts would impact our ability to deliver the front-line public health services that keep our KFL&A residents out of hospitals and primary care offices and would ultimately mean greater costs to the health care system. We voiced our concern over the proposed changes and asked Premier Doug Ford, and Minister of Health, Christine Elliott, to seriously review how funding cuts and the regionalization of local public health agencies would be implemented. We requested consideration for a comprehensive consultation process to allow for input and dialogue with all stakeholders. The Ministry of Health has agreed to a consultation process and has invited representatives from all local public health agencies to participate in this process. We are looking forward to this process as it will allow us to address our local needs and concerns, set feasible transition timelines, mitigate any risk, and avoid significant disruptions to public health services. Over the past year, the KFL&A Board of Health advocated to the provincial and municipal governments in several areas to support public health measures and to protect the health of our residents, including requests to:
As well this year, we had the honor of hosting the Association of Local Public Health Agencies 2019 annual general meeting and conference in Kingston, ON. It was very well attended with public health representatives from across the province who participated in an informative conference that examined issues related to public health restructuring. The accomplishments described in this report demonstrate the dedication and passion of our public health staff. We would like to thank them for the outstanding work they do each day. |
KFL&A region at a glance
Encouraging data trends which include: a continued decrease in adult smoking rates (currently 19.2%) (2015 and 2016), and hospitalization rates for ischemic heart disease (ISH) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) that are lower than province (244 versus 283 per 100,000 people, respectively for ISH and 852 versus 880 per 100,000 people, respectively for CVD) (2018).
Health inequities have also been identified in KFL&A especially among females. Using the Shared Health Equity Dashboard, compared to females living with higher incomes, 27% fewer females living with lower incomes report excellent or very good general health (2015 and 2016). A slightly smaller, but significant difference is seen for mental health, with 15% fewer females living with lower incomes reporting excellent or very good mental health than those living with higher incomes (2015 and 2016).
The proportion of the KFL&A population exceeding either of the two low risk drinking guidelines continues to be higher than the province, 49% in KFL&A versus 44% in Ontario (2017); however, the rate in KFL&A has decreased from 52% (2015 and 2016).
Exclusive breastfeeding rates at 6 months is trending upwards from 15% in 2014 to 24% in 2019 (KFL&A Infant Feeding Surveillance System). This increased rate could be attributed the agency's of Baby-Friendly Initiative designation in 2015 and re-designated again in 2019.
The rate for low vegetable and fruit consumption, eating less than five servings of vegetables and fruit per day, differs significantly by language and education status for KFL&A females only (2015 and 2016). For females who speak French or another language most often at home, the rate for vegetable and fruit consumption is 1.4 times higher than those who speak English most often. Females with at least a high school diploma consume 1.3 times higher rate of vegetables and fruit.
For the third consecutive year, the KFL&A region had the highest number of cases for Lyme disease in Ontario in 2019 (287 confirmed cases). This total was the highest number our region has recorded to date and eclipsed our previous high of 199 cases in 2017.
Historically, KFL&A had some of the lowest rates for gonorrhoea infections in the province; however, local rates over the past 5 years have gone from a rate of 20 per 100,000 people in 2015 to a rate of 37 per 100,000 people in 2019. Our region had its highest number of cases in 2019 with 81 per 100,000 people, which is nearly double what was recorded in 2015. This surge in cases prompted a gonorrhoea outbreak to be declared in KFL&A.
The number of salmonellosis cases in the KFL&A region in 2019 was the lowest seen in the past 10 years. Our 14 cases equated to a rate of 6.6 cases per 100,000 people, which was the lowest of any health unit in Ontario. For context, the overall rate for the province in 2019 was 16.3 cases per 100,000 people.
There were 989 retweets on KFL&A Public Health campaigns by 500 different users.
KFL&A Public Health ads were shown 1.5 million times on Twitter.
KFL&A Public Health ads on Facebook had 132,400 video views to at least 10 seconds.
The KFL&A Public Health Facebook page had 851 shares of posts.
Mental Health Promotion
Mental health promotion is a new area of work for public health agencies that focuses on mental well-being of individuals, groups, and whole populations by addressing the risk and protective factors known to impact mental health in the different settings in which we live, work, learn, and play.
There has been a paradigm shift to look towards ‘upstream action’ to address mental health that is mental well-being focused. This shift in focus includes three elements. The first element is to recognize a need to reduce the heavy and inequitable burden of mental illness and poor mental health. The second element involves increasing recognition that society, governments, and health systems should place equal value on mental health as they do on physical health (i.e., there is no health without mental health). The third element is to move from solely preventing mental illness and supporting recovery, and to move towards promoting mental well-being.
There is enormous opportunity to support mental health promotion in the public health work that we do. This shift in focus for mental health promotion recognizes that everyone benefits from efforts to create environments in which people can thrive and that encourage practices that support mental well-being and positive coping. The desired goal of mental health promotion will be to shift the mental well being curve in the population to achieve the greatest gain in mental well-being for the greatest number of people.
Fluoridation of Municipal Drinking Water
Fluoridation of municipal drinking water is one of the most significant preventive measures in the fight against dental disease. Optimal community water fluoridation is a safe and effective public health measure for reducing dental decay at all stages of life.
The health benefits of fluoridating municipal drinking water include:
- Ensures universal access to preventive dental care, benefiting all residents in a community regardless of age, socioeconomic status, education or employment.
- Reduces tooth decay by approximately 25% over a person’s lifetime.
- Strengthens tooth enamel which stops and reverses the tooth-decay process.
- Contributes to smoother tooth surface which is more resistant to decay and easier to clean.
Every $1 invested in drinking water fluoridation yields approximately $38 of savings in unnecessary dental treatment for families and the health care system. Advocacy and support for healthy public policy related to community water fluoridation has included stakeholder engagement, preparation of community oral health reports, and a comprehensive health communications campaign.
The communications campaign focuses on the value of fluoride to help protect teeth from decay and highlights the importance of oral health for our population, across all ages and sectors. This campaign objective was to increase awareness of the importance of good oral health, the problems associated with poor oral health including links between oral health and overall health, and address inequities in access to care.
Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Health Clinic
A Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) health clinic launched this year at KFL&A Public Health in partnership with HIV/AIDS Regional Services (HARS). This clinic focuses on a harm reduction approach that recommends the use of a pre-exposure prophylaxis, a medication, to prevent disease in individuals who have not yet been exposed to the disease-causing agent, thus a strategy for the prevention of HIV and AIDS.
This initiative has proven to be a successful partnership with HARS as this agency had already formed strong linkages and services with the target audience who may access this clinic and assisted our agency in advertising and promoting the clinic services in the community too.
Financial Report
Public health programs revenue: $23,993,819
| Operating expenditure | Amount |
| Mandatory programs | $15,270,658 |
| One time funding | $74,689 |
| Infection control | $444,500 |
| Enhanced food safety/safe water | $48,200 |
| Nursing initiative | $392,100 |
| Healthy Smiles Ontario | $670,277 |
| Ontario Seniors Dental Care Program | $77,475 |
| Ontario tobacco strategy | $826,721 |
| Needle exchange | $99,900 |
| Harm reduction enhancement | $150,000 |
| Panorama | — |
| Syndromic Surveillance Project | $259,764 |
| Community hubs | $103,468 |
| Hospital surge monitoring | — |
| Blind Low Vision, Preschool Speech & Infant Hearing Program | $1,630,685 |
| Healthy Babies program | $1,104,791 |
| Private Sewage program | $556,285 |
| Special project expenses | $1,086,825 |
| Total | $22,796,338 |
For a copy of the full financial report, please contact us.