During the Canadian Bioethics Society Annual Conference from June 9 to 12, 2010, the NCCHPP's François-Pierre Gauvin and Christopher McDougall hosted a workshop highlighting public health ethics and public engagement.
This session provided approaches to designing models and methods for public engagement activities to inform complex and controversial public health issues and policy-making. The presenters reviewed the conceptual literature on public engagement methodologies, as well as on public health ethics, and recommended fruitful lines of inquiry to shed more light on how best to weigh qualitative, quantitative, and normative considerations, including the questions of why, when, and how to facilitate public engagement.
The presenters also shared procedural and substantive findings from a series of research activities that developed their hands-on experience on how to conduct and evaluate public engagement.
The audience shared their thoughts and experiences during facilitated small- and full-group discussions intended to help attendees to design and implement public engagement approaches relevant to their work.
Through this workshop, the NCCHPP set out to help participants:
- Consider what public engagement is, and what forms it can take,
- Distinguish how public health ethics is distinct from bioethics,
- Identify when and why public engagement on ethical issues in public health is significant for public health practice and policy, through practical case examples,
- Develop strategies for integrating tools for public engagement tailored to their professional activities.
Click here to visit the Canadian Bioethics Society website.
Click here to read NCCHPP resources on deliberative processes.
Click here to read NCCHPP resources on public health ethics.
For more information please contact Francois-Pierre Gauvin or Christopher McDougall.