Project Description:
Falls are the leading cause of disability, emergency department visits and hospitalization among Ontario older adults. Even though most falls are preventable, they continue to affect the quality of life of older adults and impact our health care system.

An important way to address falls among older adults (aged 65 and older) is for public health professionals to work with community partners (service providers from health care organizations and other sectors) on developing programs, services and policies. In our prior work, we found that community partners needed to improve fall prevention efforts through increased collaboration and sharing of knowledge with public health professionals. While collaboration between public health and community partners is an important component for addressing fall prevention in older adults, there are no evidence informed frameworks of how Public Health can effectively work with community partners.

This purpose of this project is to identify the available literature on ways public health can work with community partners to address fall prevention. This project will involve a scoping review focused on identifying existing community mobilization (CM) models and theories that public health professionals currently apply towards their practices. The scoping review will specifically aim to 1) identify examples of the CM frameworks or models that have been used to address public health; 2) identify frameworks or models that would be consistent with or allow for the promotion of a CM approach; and 3) identify whether any CM frameworks or models have been evaluated in real-world situations. Findings from this project will provide recommendations and enhance knowledge for how public health professionals in Ontario Public Health Units can mobilize community partners based on available research evidence.

 

Expectations:  
We are seeking applications for a Postdoctoral Fellow position to work in the area of Fall Prevention. Candidates must hold a PhD in an appropriate discipline (e.g. Aging, Evaluation, Health) at the time of appointment and have experience working in a research environment. The anticipated start date is March or April 1, 2016. This is a one year position with possibility of being renewed for a second year (contingent on funding).    

 The successful candidate will join a unique team, comprising of researchers, public health professionals and knowledge users, led by Dr. Alexander Crizzle. The successful candidate will work with the research team to perform a scoping review (by synthesizing information from the literature and other health domains) to develop/recommend a community mobilization framework for how public health units across Ontario can work with community partners. The Post-Doctoral Fellow will work collaboratively with the team taking an active leadership role. Moreover, the candidate can be expected to be involved in grant submissions, mentoring of graduate students, article and presentation preparation, as well as knowledge translation activities.  

 

Requirements:
Applicants should hold a PhD degree in Health Studies or a related field at time of appointment. The candidate should have a background with conducting scoping reviews or other types of reviews, as well as a background in program evaluation and mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative methods). With respect to scoping reviews, candidates should have experience searching for literature, working with librarians, using RefWorks (or other reference databases), developing an extraction table, ascribing levels of evidence and report writing. Prior experience working with older adults, as well as fall prevention initiatives, is considered assets, as well as prior experience writing grants, manuscripts and preparing conference presentations.  

 

How to Apply: 
To apply, please send the following to Dr. Alexander Crizzle via email: amcrizzl@uwaterloo.ca

• A complete CV
• A research statement on the applicant’s past, present and long term goals (max two pages),
• A statement on how the applicant can fit the position (max one page)
• Graduate transcripts
• Names and contact information for three referees

Submissions by e-mail will only be accepted. After an initial screening, selected applicants will be asked to forward three academic and/or professional letters of reference.

Please do not submit incomplete applications!

Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until a successful candidate is identified.