Advocacy strategies for government sponsored public health agencies: the BCCDC a case study

The Public Health Agency of Canada includes advocacy as a core competency for public health practice in Canada, yet many public health professionals feel that they are unable to fulfil this requirement due to their proximity to the government. While advocacy in public health is a well-researched area, strategies to overcome the differing barriers dependent on an agency’s placement in the public health environment are less well understood. This paper highlights some of the barriers identified by nine (9) program managers, employees, and communication personnel at the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control. Christoffel’s conceptual advocacy framework is used to categorize the advocacy efforts that government-sponsored agencies can engage in. Recommendations to overcome these barriers are proposed based on methods employed by other government-sponsored agencies.