Health Compass

Health Compass provides education and training to health care providers, non-clinical staff, and administrators on promoting patient and family wellbeing.

Promoting Mental Wellbeing

Health Compass was developed in order to transform health care and shift organizational culture to promote patient and family mental wellbeing. This transformation recognizes that there is no health without mental health, and that everyone in health care has a role to play in promoting patient and family mental wellbeing.

Mental wellbeing is a dynamic state in which individuals are able to develop their potential, work productively and creatively, build strong an positive relationships with others, and contribute to their community

Research evidence suggests that mental wellbeing can have a positive effect on overall health by helping to reduce risk behaviours and physical illness, and improve recovery rates and physical health outcomes.

Introducing Health Compass

Health Compass is an interactive online course accessible on the PHSA LearningHub. It is is a self-guided, learner-driven journey that includes activities, opportunities for reflection, and additional tools to support your learning. Health Compass is also available as a full resource guide that can be integrated in whole or in part into education and training processes.

Health Compass is divided into four modules:

Module 1: Mental Health Promotion Concepts and Principles

Introduces mental health promoting concepts and principles, and their application to health care

Module 2: Communicating to Empower

Focuses on self-awareness, self-reflection, and the development of interpersonal and communication skills

Module 3: Healthy Teams and Mental Wellbeing

Concentrates on the role of teams in supporting patient and family mental wellbeing, and highlights opportunities for inter-professional team practice

Module 4: Healthy Organizations

Explores how organizations can promote patient and family mental wellbeing by creating healthy organizational cultures

Health Compass Development

Development of Health Compass was led by BC Mental Health and Substance Use Services, with partnering agencies across PHSA: BC Cancer Agency, BC Centre for Disease Control, BC Children's Hospital & Sunny Hill Health Centre, and BC Women's Hospital & Health Centre.

Health Compass was developed in an interactive process, with and by stakeholders, defined by:

Collaboration between an Interprofessional Steering Committee, Interdisciplinary Advisory Committee, and International Expert Reference Group
Consultation with health care professionals, content experts, and patients and families
Engagement of 130 pilot test evaluation participants from across PHSA

Benefits of Health Compass

Health Compass is designed to enhance the capacity of health care providers and organizations to promote patient and family mental wellbeing.

Health Compass enhances health care provider capacity by:

Deepening knowledge and understanding
Strengthening skills
Supporting leadership competency development

Health Compass enhances organizational capacity by:

Contributing towards practice change
Contributing towards the delivery of safe, quality, equitable and patient-centred care
Supporting strategic planning, accreditation, employee engagement, and workplace health activities and initiatives

Health Compass was funded by PHSA Population and Public Health Program and BC Mental Health and Substance Use Services.