Indirect Impacts Surveillance Dashboard
Results of SMDHU’s 2020 Mitigating Harms of COVID-19 Public Health Measures Situational Assessment highlighted the need for ongoing surveillance of the pandemic on the health and health equity of residents of Simcoe and Muskoka.
The Indirect Impacts Surveillance Dashboard (clicking this link will open a new window with the dashboard) is an interactive tool that presents priority health status indicators in eight categories: basic needs, child and family health, substance use, mental health, immunizations, oral health, infectious disease, and general health.
The health unit will monitor these indicators over time to assess changes in health status during pandemic recovery and into the future. The dashboard has been built using local data where possible, and displays indicators for Simcoe Muskoka, Simcoe County, Muskoka District and Ontario. Data in the dashboard will be updated twice per year.
Changes to the dashboard include:
New indicators
- Eating disorder-related emergency department visits
- Immunization doses administered under the Ontario Immunization of School Pupil’s Act (ISPA)
- Urgent dental health conditions in children
- Influenza outbreaks, and
- Childcare outbreaks
Revised/refined/removed indicators
- Percent positivity for influenza testing was replaced by the new influenza outbreak indicator to describe flu in the community.
- Additional data at the level of Simcoe County and Muskoka District were added for percent positivity for chlamydia and gonorrhea.
- The indicator for new parent concerns about basic needs was removed from the dashboard.
New visuals
- Low income and household food insecurity
- Immunization doses administered under ISPA
- Influenza immunization rates
- Influenza outbreaks, and
- Childcare outbreaks
Changes to the data
There was a change in status in nine of the existing indicators since the fall update including:
Improving Indicators
- Volume of calls to 211 related to mental health needs (Simcoe Muskoka, Simcoe County and Ontario)
- Prevalence of low income in 2020 (Simcoe Muskoka, Simcoe County, District of Muskoka, and Ontario), this is related to the availability of income supports such as CERB
- Percent positivity for chlamydia (Simcoe Muskoka, Simcoe County, District of Muskoka, and Ontario)
Indicators of continuing indirect harms
- Volume of calls to 211 related to mental health (District of Muskoka)
- Immunization doses administered under ISPA by the health unit (Simcoe County and District of Muskoka)
- Opioid-related emergency department visits (Simcoe County)
- Provincial suicide rates, the previous update showed rates were lower than pre-pandemic levels, while current update shows a return to pre-pandemic levels
- Childcare outbreaks (Simcoe County and District of Muskoka)
Please click on the link below for a brief video demonstration of the dashboard:
For information about the direct harms of the pandemic (e.g., cases, hospitalizations, and deaths) please visit our other COVID-19 HealthSTATS pages.
Links to Related Information and Resources
Page last updated June 7, 2023