The last Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Board of Health meeting for the year will focus on a couple of different areas. You like vaping? Maybe you do, but if you’re a kid under 19 than no one should be selling any vaping products to you. Do you want to get sick this holiday season? If not, maybe this is a good time to be reminded that you should get a flu shot. Have a young person behind on their shots? We’ve got a reminder for that too.
NOTE #1: This meeting will held virtually online. To get the link you will have to send a request to join the meeting via an online form that you can find here. Deadline to send in the request is Wednesday December 6 at 11 am.
NOTE #2: The meeting begins at 2 pm.
MOH Update(s) – Medical Officer of Health Dr. Nicola Mercer will deliver her verbal report on current matters facing Public Health.
PRESENTATIONS:
There will be one formal presentation to the board, and it involves the next topic.
Tobacco and Vape Enforcement – Did you know that the number of retailers selling vapes and vape products has doubled in our area since 2018? Well along with more places selling vapes, there’s also been an increase in the sale of vapes and vape products to young people; out of 110 retailers about 33 sales were made during youth test shopping inspections. There have been issues doing these youth test shopping inspections, another unintended consequence of the pandemic, but Public Health is trying to redouble their efforts with the proliferation of vaping, and they will focusing their efforts on shops around high schools.
Nutritious Food Basket 2023 Report – According to this year’s report, the cost of the local Nutritious Food Basket, which is a measure of how much it costs for a household to eat nutritiously, was $311.61 per week in 2023 compared to $272.67 per week in 2022. This is an increase of 14 per cent. With nearly one in five households in Ontario facing issues with food insecurity, including about 18 per cent of the WDG area plus some 40 per cent of University of Guelph students, the data will help guide what kind of assistance and support that’s needed to fight the issue.
Immunization Requirements for Students Attending School in Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health – There are nine designated diseases that require proof of vaccination or a valid exemption to attend school in Ontario: Diphtheria, Tetanus, Polio, Measles, Mumps, Rubella, Meningococcal disease (meningitis), Pertussis (whooping cough) and Varicella (chicken pox). In the 2022/23 school year, 38 per cent of kids in daycare and 26.7 per cent are found to have outstanding records or overdue shots. The good news is that there were nearly 6,900 shots given our by June 2023, so the gap was tightened in some of these categories, and despite the recent hysteria around vaccine hesitancy there’s only been a small increase in the number of exemptions. Public Health continues to work on the problem.
Fall Preparedness and Vaccine Administration in Congregate Settings – Public Health staff will review the process and promotion that they undertook to prepare congregate settings in the region for this fall’s COVID-19 and respiratory illnesses season. They will also look at promoting the increased uptake in vaccines now that flu season is officially here.
A Portrait of Older Adults in Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph 2023 – With the area population of people over 55 years of age expected to grow by 56 per cent in the next 23 years, and especially with the increase in people over 75, who are expected to grow in number by 159 per cent in that same time period, it’s important to know the challenges of our aging residents. The goal of this report is to demonstrate some of the healthcare challenges with an increasing older population who are more susceptible to chronic illnesses, more likely to live in low income, and are prone to some specific mental health issues.
CLOSED SESSION:
There will be an MOH update about labour relations or employee negotiations and personal matters about an identifiable individual.
SEE THE COMPLETE AGENDA ON THE WDG PUBLIC HEALTH WEBSITE HERE.
Guelph Politico 