Mississauga (Diabetes) Healthy City Strategy

Diabetes is affecting a rapidly growing number of Mississauga residents. The City is working with partners, experts and communities to develop a strategy to prevent cases from rising.

Project overview

The development of a Mississauga Diabetes Healthy City Strategy will guide risk reduction and ways to improve how we live, work and play to ultimately decrease the prevalence of type 2 diabetes in Mississauga.

Through a focus on building healthy complete communities that are compact, pedestrian-friendly and transit-supportive, and contain a mix of uses that support daily living and enable physical activity through active transportation, Mississauga will have access to more healthy choices. The strategy will also inform community services and programming to continue to support active living and education for diabetes prevention.

The City will work with the community, industry, agency and government partners to better understand Mississauga’s unique diabetes challenges, identify community needs and priorities, build the strategy and determine the action plan.

The strategy will also inform community services and programming to continue to support active living and education for diabetes prevention. Through engagement with the community the City will be seeking to understand what interventions will be of most value and effective for consideration in the strategy.

Public engagement opportunities

The City is engaging with Mississauga residents, especially those who are at an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, to identify areas of change and generate insights to build the Mississauga Diabetes Healthy City Strategy.

Thank you to all who participated in focus groups, completed a survey, attended the Diabetes Healthy City Expo and engaged on this project. The "City Connector" (Mivian Consulting) for this project has compiled the community engagement results and identified key findings in their report.

The City has used this report to frame a draft Healthy City Strategy. On October 24, the community joined us to discuss the draft Healthy City Strategy. Please see linked presentation and comment sheet. Happy to any further comments by October 30.

The experts

Developing a diabetes strategy requires an evidence-informed approach, and we need experts and data to understand diabetes in Mississauga. This important work is reliant on our policy, data and research experts.

Together the City, partners, experts and community will build the Mississauga Diabetes Strategy.

• Peel Public Health (PPH) is made up of health experts, practitioners, researchers and changemakers, with a goal to prevent people from getting sick in the first place. More information on PPH’s role in chronic disease prevention can be found here: Healthy Complete Communities, School Healthy Pledge Program, Workplace Health, Health Status Reports the Diabetes Atlas, The Healthy Development Monitoring Map, and literature reviews.
• University of Toronto Mississauga Novo Nordisk Network for Healthy Populations is leading research to identify and implement strategies to reduce the inequities in risk and burden of diabetes and other chronic diseases through better care, lower risk factors and healthier environments.
• Institute for Better Health – Trillium Health Partners – The Family and Child Health Initiative is leading research with the Black and South Asian communities to understand those with lived experience of diabetes and those that are caregivers.
• Cities for Better Health (formerly Cities Changing Diabetes) Programme is an international network of municipalities building and sharing strategies to prevent and manage diabetes.

Backgrounder

Based on projections from 2015 to 2016, Peel Region is expected to have almost 100,000 new cases of diabetes over the following 10 years, putting a significant strain on the Region’s healthcare system including an estimated cost of $643 million.¹

To help prevent diabetes, the City of Mississauga joined the Cities for Better Health (CBH) (formerly Cities Changing Diabetes) program in 2021 to connect to an international network of municipalities building and sharing strategies to prevent and manage diabetes. CBH was launched in 2014 by the Steno Diabetes Centre Copenhagen, University College London and Novo Nordisk. Today, the program has established local partnerships in approximately 40 cities around the world with the City of Mississauga serving as the only active Canadian municipality. Through this membership, the City will access CBH resources, such as case studies from other cities, to inform our work on the Mississauga Diabetes Strategy.

Sources:

1. Region of Peel Public Health. The Changing Landscape of Health in Peel. A Comprehensive Health Status Report. 2019.