The objective of the mapping exercise is to map current public health trends, issues, challenges, tools and resources in multi-ethnic communities in order to increase the ability of public health providers to respond to healthcare issues.

The exercise will demonstrate the matrix of services available within the communities and the manner in which those services are delivered. It will also provide policy developers, planners and service providers base-line data on the range of health issues impacting multi-cultural communities in British Columbia. It will identify the Health Organizations and Community Service Agencies currently or potentially engaged in population health, providing contacts and connection for community-based models for population health. It will also provide trends, risk factors, geographic indicators and other data that will increase the knowledge base for program and policy development on population health.

The objective of the community assessments is to identify best practices for the delivery of accessible culturally competent health care, identify gaps in current methods of outreach and dissemination to multi ethnic, multi-lingual communities and identify new public health resources needed for communication with multi-ethnic communities in British Columbia.

The assessments will provide community-based Health Care and Community Service professionals the opportunity to input their perspective to the process of improving population health. It also allows the community at large to participate in identifying the health issues that truly matter to them. The results will increase the knowledge base for program and policy development on population health and will encourage the formation of partnerships in addressing health needs.

Techniques and activities used to carry out this initiative include surveys to describe the types of health issues addressed at facilities and how the facility provides services aimed at specific ethnic groups, Geographic Information Systems to determine geographic distribution of diseases, map populations at risk, assess resource allocation and plan and target interventions, focus group facilitation to assess how members of different ethnic communities utilize the health care resources available to them and understand and prioritize health concerns and key informant interviews to obtain professional perspective on the health-care issues facing ethnic populations and how institutions are addressing these needs.