The School of Population and Public Health
The mission of the School of Population and Public Health is to create, share and apply knowledge to protect and improve well being and to promote equity in the health of people and communities at home and around the world. The School’s research and teaching examines local, national and global health challenges across seven themes.
The Maternal-Child Health Theme
The Maternal Child Health (MCH) Theme, the first of its kind in Canada, takes a population health perspective on improving the health and well-being of women, children, youth, and their families. Students interested in this area can follow a curriculum in physical and cognitive development, health problems, relevant health services and policies, appropriate research methods, and program planning and evaluation. Typically, MCH practitioners are involved with infrastructure building (e.g. needs assessment to identify essential gaps in existing programs serving mothers and children, enhancement of information systems, standards development), population health monitoring (e.g. incidence of very low birthweight infants, incidence of adolescent suicide) and applied prevention research (e.g. planning and evaluation of home-based injury prevention programs for toddlers). MCH works at a systems level to complement direct services provided by clinical practice providers.
Partners
The MCH Theme is supported by the following partners: the UBC Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the Women’s Health Research Institute, BC Children’s Hospital and BC Women’s Hospital. The Women’s Health Research Institute has, in addition, provided sponsorship for a practicum placement and a scholarship for a graduate student. Students in the MCH theme whose work is based at the C&W Hospital site will be eligible to apply for the Child & Family Research Institute scholarship. 
