Combining vision with evidence for child health and well-being indicators in British Columbia

How does a society know if the health and well-being of children and youth are improving, staying the same or getting worse? If one was to choose a manageable set of indicators to follow over a 20-year period, what would it look like? Since we know that what gets measured focuses attention, programming and funding, the question is this: what measures, covering which aspects of the lives of children and youth, should be selected from a population perspective? Given the variety of world views that exist among the many child and youth service providers, as well as the multiple definitions of health and well-being, this question is particularly difficult to answer. This is what the provincial health officer (PHO) of British Columbia is facing with an upcoming report that will look at the health and well-being of children and youth in the province. To answer these questions the Office of the PHO has partnered with the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) to identify a set of indicators to define and track child health and well-being in British Columbia. The process of identifying this suite of indicators is committed to transparency, evidence and collaboration.