Services for women and children are just a small click away
Public Health at VCH has been working hard over the last year to expand and improve the listings of services for women, children and youth on the VCH website.
Where do you go for health information?
Times have changed and studies show that more and more people are going online for health information. The VCH website had more than 135,911 visitors last month, so of course, we wanted to make sure those visitors were getting the most accurate and up-to-date information about our services for women, children and youth.
According to a 2011 study, 41per cent of Canadians went online for health information (CBC News/Leger) and in a more recent study our neighbours to the south, the numbers of people seeking health info online were as high as 72 per cent (PEW 2013).
What’s new?
We created a number of informative pages for the following services: Breastfeeding, New Mother & Baby Care, Postpartum Depression and Anxiety, Children & Youth with Disabilities, Mental Health for Children & Youth, Eating Disorders, Speech and Language (0-5 years), and Vision screening – Early Childhood. We also linked these pages to pages for the populations we serve including women, infants, children and youth.
How did it happen?
A number of teams from across the organization worked together with communications to update the site. Communications provided the templates and consultation on best practices for web writing and the public health teams did all the heavy lifting by writing and updating the content.
What’s in the future?
Stay tuned for new pages on topics including: Public health nursing, Injury prevention, Tobacco cessation, Pregnancy, Dental, Audiology, Parenting Support and Nutrition.
Who can we thank for these new pages?
We would like to thank everyone who participated in the project including the team that led the project including Lisa MuCune (Community developer), Jennifer Scarr (Policy Consultant) and Joanne Wooldridge (Regional Leader Early Childhood Development).
We would also like to thank all the teams who reviewed the content. Special thanks to the (deleted as they really did their own thing:Youth Addictions Team, Vancouver) the 0-5 Public Health Nursing Leads, the Children and Youth Public Health Nursing Leads, the Perinatal Depression Steering Committee and the Baby Friendly Initiative Steering Committee.
How do I add my program or service to the VCH website?
Visit VCH Connect to see how you can contribute to the website or contact the web team and we’ll get you started.
Where can I learn more about people’s habits online?
· Article: Online health advice sought by more Canadians (CBCNews, January 2011)
· Study: Pew Internet Health