York Region planning for a healthier future
York Region looks at ways to make good health easier to find

yorkregion.com
March 16, 2017
By Kim Zarzour

When the Queen of England celebrates her 91st birthday next month, it is likely to reignite the worldwide speculation: how does she do it?

How can she be nearly a century old and still be the picture of health?

It couldn’t be the typical British diet, heavy on fats and carbs. Could it be daily nip of gin? Her afternoon tea and chocolate?, Her penchant for barley water?

Adelina Urbanski believes we are barking up the wrong tree.

The Queen’s good health has less to do with diet, and more to do with social determinants of health, says York Region's commissioner of community and health services.

Your health is not simply a result of lifestyle choices. A variety of other circumstances - known as social determinants - have a big role to play, Urbanski says.

It is true that the Queen is blessed with good genetics, but she is also blessed with good education, a great “career”, strong family support, safe housing and an active social environment.

If Urbanski has her way, in the future all of us will focus on those social determinants as we strive for good health.

Studies show what makes people healthy depends on whether we have good jobs, income that lets us feed our kids well and live in safe homes free of mould, in neighbourhoods with recreational opportunities and a sense of connectedness.

Urbanski believes that in the future, public health will play a key role in designing communities with these social determinants in mind.

In York Region, that includes initiatives such as the seniors strategy (that tries to keep the elderly engaged in the community) and a diversity and inclusion strategy (that helps immigrants feel welcomed).

Dr. Richard Gould, the region’s associate medical officer of health, Healthy Living division, predicts public policy will increasingly look at how to make living a healthy life easier. 

He envisions a planning process that favours more compact, mixed use, transit-friendly and walkable neighbourhoods - similar to an approach that has been adopted in Richmond Hill, Brampton and Vaughan, where sustainability metrics help guide development. (see sidebar)

Streets will be built in a way that is safer for pedestrians - from timing signals and shortening intersection distances to reduced speed limits - and in grid-patterns conducive to public transit transit.

Getting people out of cars makes it easier to build activity into your day, rather than an extra add-on, he says. It also helps reduce air pollution and stress from long commutes and congested streets.

If we want to plan a future with healthy populations, reduce hospital admissions and physician visits, we need to look at the bigger picture, Urbanski says.

“My big hope is that one day we will all get to the point where we...we look beyond diseases to focus on what makes people healthy in the first place.”

SIDEBAR

The Town of Richmond Hill joined with the Cities of Brampton and Vaughan to develop a set of sustainability metrics to be used in creating healthier communities with cleaner air and water, vibrant walkable streets, efficient buildings and mixed-use neighbourhoods with access to parks, trails and open spaces.

The metrics are a “menu” from which new development must choose - and be scored - to be considered for approval.