Public health, health promotion, health behaviour change and health communication
If you’re stuck in the daily grind of human services delivery, leveraging evaluation data can help you see and chart your progress. Among the most difficult things healthcare and human services professionals deal with is progress. Whether you’re an ER nurse, a front-line social worker, or a palliative care doctor, seeing progress is something that
Monitoring as Motivator: Harnessing the Progress Principle Read More »
A modern, global culture supported by technology has disconnected us from the rhythms of the natural world. The winter solstice reminds us of them. I’m writing this in that liminal space of the calendar between Christmas and New Years. It’s just after the winter solstice when things are the darkest in my part of the
Seasonal Variations Read More »
Allostasis is a term that can make a big difference in shaping our understanding of change and what it means for us. Biological processes can provide explanations and metaphors that guide how we view and approach change. Among the most popular is homeostasis. Homeostatic processes view things from a set point or baseline and view
Allostatic Change And Why It Matters Read More »
Asking if its better to have people work in a physical office together or from home is the wrong question if you’re not willing to look at the work itself. Since COVID-19 forced the world’s office workers home as their base for the better part of 36 months the world of commercial real-estate hasn’t been
Work Design For People and Production Not Places Read More »
Canadian wildfires are ravaging millions of hectares of forests prompting the evacuation of thousands of people and smoke plumes that are affecting millions. It’s a case study in how we address the psychology of climate change, invoke systems thinking about health, and apply what we know about design to it all. In a recent interview
Wildfires: When Sparks Lead to Flames Across Systems Read More »
There’s something that happens when you spend enough time working in a field that fosters true wisdom. When you’ve had the chance to see the fruits of your labour and the cycles and patterns of your domain of practice, the best metrics emerge. I didn’t appreciate the wisdom of experience enough when I was younger.
Wide-Angled Metrics for Health Read More »
The coming years will test our ability to design for the unseen, familiar, and pervasive issues tied to mental health and well-being. Are we up to the challenge? I recently attended my first public event where I felt I had been transported to 2019 – the year before the pandemic (“Beforetimes”). It was a small
Designing for Unhealthy Time Horizons Read More »
What happens when the global pandemic gets forgotten, and our organizations, communities and bodies still remember? How might we design institutions that help us recover from what’s happened and thrive in what’s to come? The World Health Organization is meeting this week to discuss whether the emergency phase of the global COVID-19 pandemic response is
What Design For Recovery Might Look Like Read More »
I might be writing this near the holidays in 2022, but the message I want to send is timeless. In times of disruption — which seems to be all the time — these are the lessons that my clients, friends, and family did best when they were heeded. They certainly worked for me. I love
Four Holiday R’s: Rest, Reflection, Recovery, Reinvigorate Read More »
In this final series on designing for well-being, we look at the application of a design framework to achieving the core aspects of health and care for people. We’ve outlined the role of well-being in supporting a healthy organization and the core aspects of well-being itself in the workplace. Now, we turn to asking: what
The Design of Well-Being in Practice Read More »
