Government of Canada's Children's Health and Safety Campaign

Background:  Health Canada’s Marketing and Communications Services Directorate is the departmental focal point for strategic advice, planning and implementation of social marketing, Health Canada's Internet, public opinion research and evaluation, and the policy lead for corporate consultation. The Social Marketing Unit develops social marketing campaigns, in collaboration with Departmental issue experts to help change attitudes and behaviours to raise awareness and increase knowledge of specific health issues and motivate Canadians to adopt healthier behaviours; develops strategic alliances to help bolster social marketing campaigns; and Manages all Health Canada advertising agencies.

Program background:  Parents can feel overwhelmed when they are looking for health and safety information for their children.  Where can they get the most up to date, relevant, accurate information?  How can they be sure that information can be trusted?    The Government of Canada’s Children’s Health and Safety Campaign responded parents looking for reliable information on children’s health and safety issues.  Within six months, Health Canada’s Marketing team worked with multiple Canadian federal government departments and agencies to amalgamate government information into a new user-friendly website (www.healthycanadians.gc.ca/kids). 

Evaluation Methods and Results:  

The fieldwork for the evaluation took place between February 14 – March 4, 2011. A total of 1,214 interviews were completed (1,013 Canadians, plus 201 Canadian parents of children aged 16 years of age or younger).

Conclusions: By targeting a specific audience, parents and caregivers can access accurate, timely information through several avenues, including social media tools, online manuals, mobile applications, and more.  The campaign collaborates information from experts from the Department of Transportation, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the Public Health Agency of Canada, Public Safety Canada and Health Canada.

Implications for research and/or practice:  In this session, we would examine how public sector barriers were overcome through effective collaboration across the Canadian federal government.