Welcome to The Need To Know Team Meeting #12: January 31-Feb.1, 2005

1. Welcome to The Need To Know TeamMeeting #12: January 31-Feb.1, 2005 Director of Project: Patricia J. Martens PhD The Need To Know: collaborative research by MCHP, rural and northern RHAs, and Manitoba Health funded through CIHR’s Community Alliances for Health Research Program

2. Timeline of activities LOI Proposal Funding Major RHA needs assessment Funding ends |______|______|______|______|______|______| 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 The clock is ticking Project 1 COMPLETE Project 2 COMPLETE Project 3 IN PROGRESS Support for interaction between RHA Team members and academic researchers (CAHR funds 3 meetings per year in Winnipeg) for collaborative research and ongoing educational opportunities Set up laptop computers for each RHA Team member (CAHR funded) new computers (CAHR funded) Develop web site (CAHR funded) Develop and test interactive web site content (CAHR funded) Opportunities for training and interaction with MCHP technical and academic support staff (CAHR supports 2 trips to each RHA per year by 2 MCHP personnel) Support for ongoing training and dissemination of knowledge products (CAHR funding supports 4 conferences for the MCHP directors, 2 conferences or workshops for each of the 11 RHA Team members, over the five years of funding)

3. Conceptual model of the MCHP/RHA/MH collaboration: the “need to know” knowledge transfer model

4. January 31, 2005 Introduction, State of the Union Sex Differences deliverable Coffee break Sex differences deliverable cont’d LUNCH (working group also) Site visits, Evaluation North/South Meeting Coffee break MOH 101 February 1, 2005 Quasi-Experimental Designs revisited – What Works? Coffee Break Dissemination of Mental Illness Report LUNCH Getting the right Message to the right people (Andre Picard) Coffee Break Andre Picard continued Closing/homework ADVISORY Board: 3:30 pm in room 409 Agenda DINNER: 6 pm Ivory Restaurant (guests –working group, Andre Picard)

5. Some observations • PEOPLE and PLACES and TIMES • WELCOME to Maria Cendou (WRHA), Randy Gessell (MOH Churchill), Suzanne Dick (North Eastman)! • Donna Champagne now working for CCOHTA • Tannis Erickson – broken leg! • Eilish Cleary – now our liaison with the Chief MOH Office • Conferences/workshops with attendees: Sudbury • the fall Provincial conference, with lots of POSTERS from RHAs, Manitoba Health and MCHP • Jeremy Dacombe and Jen Magoon, our newest research assistants • Next two sets of meetings??? May 28-29, 2005; fall to be determined

6. Some observations • SUSTAINABILITY • Our funding proposal to CIHR for the “What Works” project (to extend our collaboration for another year, “year 7”) • Didn’t make it! But other possibilities for this, including getting it more specific and making this a deliverable plus the LOI • Our June 1st funding proposal to CIHR for the “From Evidence to Action” project (to extend our evaluation into the realm of organizational barriers and tools to evaluate these) • Submitted, but not heard back yet • Pushing ahead money from years 1-5 to year 6 • CIHR LOI January 7th, 2005: the CIHR Team Grant to replace CAHR – up to 5 years of funding … we managed to put it in! • Same Team, plus a new piece to this (Quality Circles Teams)

7. Some observations: evidence-based story telling, and looking for gold nuggets WE ALWAYS NEED STORIES from the RHAs as to how this is being used, or how you feel it is putting evidence to bear in decisions/planning • used in the recent MCHP KT submission this week • Will use in the next submission for the Team grant if our LOI is accepted • A “thrust” of the evaluation in the coming months

8. Some observations • MISCELLANEOUS TIDBITS NEWSLETTERS … thanks to Elaine Burland!! article to CMAJ on Rural/Northern Indicator differences (is Romanow Right?) – rejected, but re-sent to the Health Services Research and Evaluation Journal, and under review One article on the evaluation (Bowen et al.) in press for the Health Services Research and Evaluation Journal. Another article (Bowen et al.) awaiting the new Canadian Health Services Research Journal announcement. AUTHORSHIP concerns? Will be working on some mental illness report submissions

9. The Tipping Point • Very neat book! • Connectors • Mavens • Salespersons “One of the things I'd like to do is to show people how to start "positive" epidemics of their own. The virtue of an epidemic, after all, is that just a little input is enough to get it started, and it can spread very, very quickly. That makes it something of obvious and enormous interest to everyone from educators trying to reach students, to businesses trying to spread the word about their product, or for that matter to anyone who's trying to create a change with limited resources. The book has a number of case studies of people who have successfully started epidemics--an advertising agency, for example, and a breast cancer activist. I think they are really fascinating. I also take a pressing social issue, teenage smoking, and break it down and analyze what an epidemic approach to solving that problem would look like. The point is that by the end of the book I think the reader will have a clear idea of what starting an epidemic actually takes. This is not an abstract, academic book. It's very practical. And it's very hopeful. It's brain software.”

10. Are we in a Tipping Point? • Mental Illness Report • Attention from Senator Kirby (teleconference December 2005, with Tannis Erickson, Deb Malazdrewicz, Sue Crockett, Pat Martens, Elaine Burland, Randy Fransoo) • Attention from CIHR President Dr. Alan Bernstein in speech to the Federal Treasury Board in November 2004, as a great example of KT • Recognition throughout Manitoba and Canada • SK trip, Sue Crockett trip, Halifax trip planned for March 2005

11. North/South/Manitoba Health meetings Take some time to brainstorm about possible (a) site visit evaluation questions; and (b) outcomes evaluation questions. Write these out and HAND THEM IN, Please! Are there groupings of site visits that are possible, based on RHAs that are near to each other?

12. The importance of evidence-based stories … The truth about stories is that that’s all we are. “I will tell you something about stories,” the Laguna storyteller Leslie Silko reminds us, “They aren’t just entertainment / Don’t be fooled / They are all we have, you see / All we have to fight off / Illness and death. You don’t have anything / If you don’t have the stories.” (page 92) Take Louis’ story, for instance. It’s yours. Do with it what you will. Cry over it. Get angry. Forget it. But don’t say in the years to come that you would have lived your life differently if only you had heard this story. You’ve heard it now. (page 119) Thomas King. The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative. Dead Dog Café Productions Inc. and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 2003.

13. The importance of evidence-based stories … “If we could shrink the Earth’s population to a village of 100 people, with all existing human ratios staying the same, it would look like this: There would be 57 Asians, 21 Europeans, 14 from the Americas and 8 Africans. 80 would live in substandard housing. 70 would be unable to read. 50 would suffer from malnutrition. 50 per cent of the entire world’s wealth would be in the hands of only 6 people. And all 6 would be citizens of the United States.” (page 489) Ahdaf Soueif. The Map of Love. New York: Anchor Books (A Division of Random House, Inc.). 1999.

14. Homework: February 1, 2005 • Sex differences report: keep looking at the graphs as they are distributed, and be ready for draft chapters to review. • Mental Illness Report and other reports • keep track of what you do and what works! We will be collecting information by interviews. • Quasi-experimental program or policy evaluation • Brainstorm what your RHA wants to do, what the outcome would be (like our sheet from the session), and who would be people to interview within region about this • Other deliverable ideas