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A group of public health units and researchers in Thunder Bay and southeastern Ontario have come together to release a new guide they say will help Ontario predict and prevent gender-based violence (GBV).
The authors used a population-health approach — a model that looks at how social conditions and policies shape people’s health and safety.
The Thunder Bay District Health Unit, Southeast Public Health and Lakehead University developed the Equity-Focused Population Health Framework for Gender-Based Violence Prevention to support Ontario’s public health units in addressing gender-based violence.
The work comes as Thunder Bay continues to face some of the highest levels of intimate partner violence in the country. A recent Statistics Canada report shows the city’s 2024 rate of police-reported intimate partner violence reached 547 victims per 100,000 adults — twice the Ontario rate and 1.5 times the national rate. In 2023, Thunder Bay city council formally declared intimate partner violence an epidemic.
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Marianne Stewart, manager of children, youth and families with the Thunder Bay District Health Unit, says gender-based violence can’t be treated as something separate from daily public health work.
“That would include things like data collection, identifying risk and protective factors, taking action and evaluating, and then scaling up what works,” she said.
The framework lays out how public health units can embed gender-based violence prevention into their core responsibilities including analyzing data trends, identifying who is being most affected and taking action that is backed by evidence. It also centers around equity, aiming to ensure prevention efforts benefit populations most at risk and avoid widening existing gaps.
Marianne Stewart is the manager of Children, Youth and Families at the Thunder Bay District Health Unit. (Marianne Stewart)
It also emphasizes the need for collaboration across health, social services, education and justice.
“We really want to strengthen cross-sector collaboration,” Stewart said. “We know that GBV is under-reported. And so, we really do our best to get a clear idea of the data and lay a clear foundation.”
What a population-health approach means
A central feature of the document is its population-health approach. A population-health approach is commonly used in Ontario for issues like chronic disease or infectious outbreaks. Instead of focusing on individuals, it looks at how society influences who is more likely to experience harm.
Stewart explained, “For instance, gender-based violence exposure is distributed within the population. It helps us to understand and address those inequities, how those systems of inequity, racism, classism, ableism, and homophobia intersect and cause some populations to not only be exposed more to gender-based violence, but then they also have worse outcomes.”
The framework takes action at three levels. Upstream, it focuses on policies that reduce poverty, support women’s economic participation and expand access to services. Midstream, it emphasizes community programs such as healthy relationships education, youth programs and parenting supports. Downstream, it provides immediate help for those affected by violence through crisis responses, shelters and early interventions. (Thunder Bay District Health Unit)
A collaborative process
The project was developed through Public Health Ontario’s Locally Driven Collaborative Projects program, which brings together health units and researchers to study emerging public health problems. It involved 16 public health practitioners, multiple health units, municipalities and academics.
Helle Møller, an associate professor in Lakehead University’s Department of Health Sciences, said the team used the Delphi method — a research process where experts share feedback through multiple rounds until they reach a consensus. The method is often used when evidence is still developing.
“This initiative represents a truly collaborative effort among public health professionals, academic researchers and community partners,” said Møller. “The GBV Prevention Framework was developed by building on existing evidence and harnessing the expertise of public health and partner organizations.”
Helle Møller is an associate professor in the Department of Health Sciences at Lakehead University. (Lakehead University)
Møller said the framework “provides an overview of specific actions that local public health agencies can take” and can adapt it for its needs.
She said success will mean more coordinated action across sectors and, over time, decrease the rates and severity of gender-based violence.
“There needs to be more intersectional collaboration where there are coordinated efforts between public health and other organizations that provide support to people that have experienced gender-based violence,” she said.
“Our hope is that the framework can support people in getting increased awareness about gender-based violence, getting increased support to develop safe, respectful relationships within couples, within families.”
