Case Synopsis
Mia is a program officer in the Public Health Liaison Unit at Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada’s Migration Health Branch. Mia works with her team to oversee medical surveillance notifications related to tuberculosis. Mia and her team identify migrants arriving to Canada who require tuberculosis testing and care, and connect them with the appropriate Provincial/Territorial Public Health Authority in the province or territory they want to reside in. Lately, Mia has noticed that the number and type of client concerns filling up her email inbox are increasing. These client concerns range from knowledge, language, and interpretation barriers, to difficulties understanding where to report for medical surveillance. Mia wants to conduct a program evaluation to determine exactly where client barriers exist within the medical surveillance system. She wants to use this information to suggest transformation to areas that require change.
Case Objectives
- Use an understanding of disease incidence, prevalence, and surveillance to influence the development of programs or interventions for targeting and eliminating disease transmission.
- Select quantitative and qualitative data collection methods that are appropriate for conducting a program evaluation. Determine which stakeholders and resources are required to do this.
- Discuss the means to achieve health equity for foreign nationals by specifically looking at how immigrants undergo medical surveillance in Canada.
- Design a population-based policy, program, project, or intervention that keeps the end user in mind.
Case Study Questions
- How does the Public Health Liaison Unit help facilitate medical surveillance?
- What is the main challenge identified by the protagonist Mia in the case?
- What are the challenges endured by immigrants who arrive in a new country? How might this impact their ability to complete medical surveillance?
- What factors need to be considered when conducting a program evaluation?
- How can successful program evaluations be used to transform programs and interventions?
Keywords
Client-centered program evaluation, foreign nationals, medical surveillance, tuberculosis
ISBN
978-0-7714-3150-0
Recommended Citation
Jamaly, F., St-Laurent, M., & Thind, A. (2020). Is it too Late to Re-evaluate? Creating Client-centered Changes within Canada’s Medical Surveillance System in: McKinley, G. & Speechley, M. [eds] Western Public Health Casebook 2020. London, ON: Public Health Casebook Publishing.
