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Background: The spiritual dimensions of health offer important protective benefits to young people. Yet, little is known about how concern for these is operationalised for youth in school curricula. Objectives: This rapid review examined if, and if so how, the spiritual dimensions of health were being conceptualised in school curricula and, in turn, how the curricula proposed that the spiritual health of young people is best supported. Method: Using National Collaborating Centre for Methods and Tools (NCCMT) guidelines, we conducted a rapid review of all 10 provincial and 3 territorial physical education and health curricula in Canada. Data included all curriculum documents containing any reference(s) to spiritual/spirituality/religion that were extracted into a master table. Coding and thematic analysis were used to categorise and synthesise the data iteratively. Results: In total, 115 curricula documents were retrieved from the web, of which 67 were included for screening. Analyses revealed how the spiritual dimensions of health are used in curricula overall and provide evidence that while the spiritual dimensions of health offer important protective benefits to Canadian young people, they are often not included in health curricula in Canada, and when they are, they are not always rooted in theory or evidence. Conclusion: Details about how the spiritual dimensions of health are operationalised in the school curriculum remain underdeveloped and vague. Some curricula offer promising ideas about how the spiritual dimensions of health can be used to support child health and well-being. However, educational settings currently provide a missed opportunity to support the spiritual health of young Canadians.

Background Implementation of quality improvement (QI) practices varies considerably among public health units (PHUs) in Ontario. With the emphasis on continuous quality improvement (CQI) in the revised Ontario Public Health Standards (OPHS), there is a need to understand the level of QI maturity in Ontario’s PHUs. The objective of this research was to establish a baseline understanding of QI maturity in Ontario’s PHUs. Methods The QI Maturity Tool - Modified Ontario Version was used to assess the state of QI maturity in 34 PHUs across Ontario. QI maturity was assessed through 23 questions across three dimensions: QI Organizational Culture; QI Capacity and Competency; and QI Perceived Value. QI maturity scores were classified into five stages: Beginning; Emerging; Progressing; Achieving; and Excelling. QI maturity scores were calculated for each of the 34 participating PHUs to determine their stage of QI maturity. Each PHU’s score was then used to determine the provincial average for QI maturity. Participants were also asked to answer three questions related to core CQI organizational structures. Results Across the 34 PHUs, 3503 staff participated in the survey. A review of individual PHU scores indicates that Ontario’s PHUs are at varying stages of QI maturity. The average QI maturity score of 4.94 for the 34 participating PHUs places the provincial average in the “Emerging” stage of QI maturity. By QI dimensions, the participating PHUs scored in the “Emerging” stage for QI Organizational Culture (5.09), the “Beginning” stage for QI Competency and Capacity (4.58), and the “Achieving” stage for QI Perceived Value (6.00). Conclusion There is an urgent need for Ontario’s PHUs to progress to higher stages of QI maturity. Participants place a high value on QI, but collectively are at less “mature” stages of QI in relation to QI organizational culture and the competency and capacity to engage in QI activities. PHUs should leverage the value that staff place on QI to foster the development of a culture of QI and provide staff with relevant knowledge and skills to engage in QI activities.

The mental wellness of university students can be critical for their success. In an attempt to minimize stress for students, many universities have implemented a policy for a fall break with limited evidence to support its intended outcomes. This case study offers a critical appraisal of the formation of the fall break policy at one medium sized comprehensive university using qualitative and quantitative forms of evidence triangulated from (1) University Student Union survey, (2) document analysis and; (3) informant interview. The lack of uniformity on how the fall break is labelled, the timing of the break and its evaluation emerged as design flaws in the creation stage that perhaps, could have been mitigated if faculty and student voices were included in policy creation decisions.

BackgroundThe family is a key setting for health promotion. Contemporary health promoting family models can establish scaffolds for shaping health behaviors and can be useful tools for education and health promotion.ObjectivesThe objective of this scoping review is to provide details as to how conceptual and theoretical models of the health promoting potential of the family are being used in health promotion contexts.DesignGuided by PRISMA ScR guidelines, we used a three-step search strategy to find relevant papers. This included key-word searching electronic databases (Medline, PSycINFO, Embase, and CINAHL), searching the reference lists of included studies, and intentionally searching for grey literature (in textbooks, dissertations, thesis manuscripts and reports.)ResultsAfter applying inclusion and exclusion criteria, the overall search generated 113 included manuscripts/chapters with 118 unique models. Through our analysis of these models, three main themes were apparent: 1) ecological factors are central components to most models or conceptual frameworks; 2) models were attentive to cultural and other diversities, allowing room for a wide range of differences across family types, and for different and ever-expanding social norms and roles; and 3) the role of the child as a passive recipient of their health journey rather than as an active agent in promoting their own family health was highlighted as an important gap in many of the identified models.ConclusionsThis review contributes a synthesis of contemporary literature in this area and supports the priority of ecological frameworks and diversity of family contexts. It encourages researchers, practitioners and family stakeholders to recognize the value of the child as an active agent in shaping the health promoting potential of their family context.