The Public Health Agency of Canada and Health Canada are pleased to announce the release of the three new courses to support training of Canadian contact tracers:
- Introduction to Contact Tracing
This introductory course looks at the who, what, when, why, and how of contact tracing. This course is intended for public health volunteers and professionals who will support contact tracing activities and who have no previous training in contact tracing.
Estimated time to complete: 60-90 minutes - Introduction to Case Interviewing
This course provides a general introduction to interviewing best practices and aims to leave participants comfortable with conducting public health interviews.
Estimated time to complete: 60-90 minutes - Introduction to Public Health in Canada
This module provides an overview of public health in Canada, including key roles and functions, history, scope, and jurisdictional considerations. The course may be used to provide public health context for training on other topics.
Estimated time to complete: 40 minutes
Timelines:
The pre-release of the English modules are live. We expect the French modules to be available by the end of September. We will send out a second notification when the French courses are available online. You will be able to see these modules on Canada.ca web page on October 1.
Registration:
There is no cost to participate in the courses. To register for any of these courses as part of the Contract Tracing Learning Path, please visit https://training-formation.phac-aspc.gc.ca/ and click on “Health Emergency Management”.
Please note that additional courses in the contact tracing learning path are already available through World Health Organization (WHO) or the Global Outbreak and Response Network (GOARN). To access these courses, please go to the following external links:
Emerging Respiratory Viruses, Including COVID-19: Methods for Detection, Prevention, Response and Control (OpenWHO – available in multiple languages)
This course provides a general introduction to emerging respiratory viruses, including novel coronaviruses. Contents include:
· The nature of emerging respiratory viruses, how to detect and assess an outbreak, strategies for
controlling outbreaks due to novel respiratory viruses;
· What strategies should be used to communicate risk and engage communities to detect, prevent and respond to the emergence of a novel respiratory virus.
Social Determinants, Culture and Contact Tracing (Australian National University, hosted by GOARN – only available in English)
This module provides a general introduction to the importance of recognizing social determinants and culture in the design and implementation of contact tracing activities. This module aims to build awareness and enable the participant to apply learnings to real-world contexts through working examples from a variety of infectious diseases where contact tracing is a core public health intervention to mitigate transmission. This module is relevant for both novice and experienced contact tracers.
Mental Health and Well-being for Contact Tracers (Australian National University, hosted by GOARN – only available in English)
This module provides a general overview of the mental health and psychosocial impacts of contact tracing for individuals being treated for an infectious disease, and for individuals who have been exposed to an infectious disease, as well as the public health professionals (or trained volunteers) who conduct contact tracing activities. This module is relevant for both novice and experienced contact tracers.
We would like to take this time to thank everyone who has contributed to this initiative and to all of our reviewers, authors and collaborators.
Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to [email protected]. We also welcome feedback on how to improve our courses.
