Abstract
Background
Capacity building has developed as a health promotion approach that enables people to address determinants of health and to improve health outcomes. Although capacity building has been much discussed, little is known about what it means to build capacity in northern communities. This study explores the meaning and experience of capacity building in the Yukon.
Methods
A qualitative study, using an interpretive descriptive analysis, was undertaken through individual and small-group interviews with 21 Yukon health education workers associated with the Yukon College Public Health and Safety unit as first aid instructors. Participants were randomly selected from four groupings of Yukon communities, based on size. Transcripts were analyzed and interpreted for the health education workers’ understanding, experience and observations of the outcomes of capacity building.
Results
Findings about capacity building are reported in relation to meaning, process, role of the health education worker and capacity-building outcomes. Themes that emerged indicate the ways in which health educators build on strengths, their focus on achieving an end of immediate importance within the community, and how they live in relationship with the community while undertaking capacity-building activities.
Conclusion
In Yukon communities, the influence of relational practices of health education workers living and working in their communities on enhancing community capacity should not be underestimated. Further clarification of the concepts and appropriate measurement of capacity building and community capacity, particularly for rural and northern communities, may help support practice that contributes to redressing health inequities.
Keywords: Health education, Yukon, health promotion, qualitative research
Résumé
Contexte
Le renforcement des capacités est une stratégie de promotion de la santé qui permet de tenir compte des déterminants de la santé et d’améliorer les résultats sanitaires. Bien que l’on parle beaucoup de cette approche, on en sait très peu sur son application dans les communautés nordiques. Notre étude a donc porté sur la signification et l’expérience du renforcement des capacités au Yukon.
Méthode
Dans le cadre d’une étude qualitative, nous avons effectué l’analyse interprétative et descriptive de données d’entretiens individuels et en petits groupes menés auprès de 21 éducateurs et éducatrices sanitaires travaillant comme moniteurs de secourisme pour le service de santé publique et de sécurité du Yukon College. Les participants ont été sélectionnés au hasard à partir de quatre ensembles de communautés du Yukon classées selon leur taille. Les transcriptions des entretiens ont été analysées et interprétées en vue de déterminer les connaissances et l’expérience des éducateurs et éducatrices sanitaires et d’observer les résultats du renforcement des capacités.
Résultats
Les constats qui se rapportent au renforcement des capacités sont présentés selon la signification, le processus, le rôle de l’éducateur ou de l’éducatrice sanitaire et les résultats de l’intervention. Plusieurs thèmes se dégagent de l’analyse: les façons dont les éducateurs sanitaires misent sur les forces actuelles de la communauté, leurs efforts pour atteindre un objectif d’importance immédiate, et la vie des éducateurs dans la communauté pendant les activités de renforcement des capacités.
Conclusion
Dans les communautés du Yukon, les pratiques relationnelles des éducateurs et éducatrices sanitaires qui vivent et travaillent dans leur communauté exercent une influence non négligeable sur l’amélioration des capacités communautaires. Pour favoriser les pratiques qui contribuent à redresser les inégalités en santé, il serait bon de clarifier les notions de « renforcement des capacités » et de « capacités communautaires » et les mesures appropriées, surtout dans les communautés rurales et nordiques.
Motsclés: éducation sanitaire, Yukon, promotion de la santé, recherche qualitative
Footnotes
Research was undertaken as a student of the Yukon cohort in the Master’s of Community Health Science program
Acknowledgements: We acknowledge the contribution of the study participants, with the hope that we have done justice to their wisdom and experience in this paper. The study was undertaken with the support of a Research and Endowment Grant from the Northern Research Institute
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