Course:DHYG404/groupthree2009

DHYG 404 - Group 3

Hi Group 3, I haven't used Wiki much before so I hope this works. Do we just want to read the report then start posting comments or a paragraph here in response to the question set? Then we can start editing it into our 400 word submission on Wed night, final draft done Thursday. I can work up to Thursday lunch, but am off to the Pacific Rhapsody conference right after work on Thursday (have to do the ferry thing, so won't have any computer access after 2pm). 400 words isn't much...we'll probably have a harder time cutting than creating! Tanya

The question: What are the key strategies that we need to incorporate / implement to align our health care system with the needs and values of Canadians?

According to Romanow the "core values on which our health care system is premised (are) equity, fairness and solidarity." Recommendations that jumped out at me were:

- establishing a new principle of accountability
- Prevention of illness and injury, and promotion of good health should be strengthened ...making Canada a world leader in reducing tobacco use and obesity
- Provincial and territorial governments should take immediate action to manage wait lists more effectively
- The Rural and Remote Access Fund should be used to support innovative ways of delivering health care services to smaller communities and to improve the health of people in those communities.
- expansion of the Canada Health Act to include medically necessary home care services (mental health, post-acute, palliative care)
- Catastrophic Drug Transfer should be used to reduce disparities in coverage across the country

These are just my initial thoughts after a quick first read-through, I'm out of time for expanding on these, but what are everyone else's ideas? Tanya

Marjali's comments...

Hello group 3, I added my comments in the discussion area, by mistake i guess, here is what i wrote:

Hello? group 3? this is so scary, I'm afraid I'm posting this into the wrong area and it will never be seen again, or maybe I'm writing over what Tanya wrote by mistake? eek, i hate technology. Anyway, here are some contributions to the assigned question this week:

-Ongoing research needs to be done to continue to learn and stay up to date on the values and needs of Canadians. Especially those Canadians that are not being heard from as much such as people confined to their homes or those in remote communities. All Canadians should feel like they have a voice in the matter.

-Communication lines need to be open between government programs and the public. Clarity and understanding needs to be promoted to help Canadians feel like health care is "their" system, and not just something being cooked up by some high up government official behind a closed door. The same needs to be done between individual health care providers and patients. Attention and explaining (which invloves time), need to be given to people who do not understand what treatments they are about to receive, what they are having lab tests done for, or what/how to take medications correctly. It seems a lot of people feel like they're being pushed about the system without really knowing whats going on or feeling like anyone cares to explain.

-Evaluations of ongiong programs and health professionals to ensure efficacy, appropriateness, and a high standard of care.

-A larger focus on ethnic minorities, possibly encouraging cultural sensitivity training for health care providers, translators, increased availability of materials for patients in their language, and specialized preventative and wellness programs aimed at specific groups.

-Accountability and timeliness (for example long wait lists)

-The problem of accessability to care needs to be addressed. We either need to get health professionals over to isolated communities without medical care, or to establish a way for the people in these communities to access health professionals. Also home visits for people who are not able to leave their homes. This might include money being directed towards vehicles and portable medical equiptment.

-Elderly care. There are going to be a larger number of elderly Canadians in the upcoming years, and Canadians are living well into their 80's, 90's+, a lot of resources will be needed in this area.

-A larger focus on prevention, and wellness promotion. This includes promoting healthy lifestyles (physical activity, environmental care (eg: clean air), safe housing, community support programs, health education for children to encourage healthy habits from an early age.

-Increased support for "informal" care givers, maybe in the form of financial assistance, stress relief (counselling?), help with child care, etc.

-Ensuring privacy for all patients, especially now that information can be accessed so easily over the internet. People need to feel their information is safe.

Thanks Marja-li - it sounds like we are much on the same page with what we thought was important, you had some extra on support for care givers and the elderly and I had something about catastrophic drug coverage. I'm going to start a Word document with both our ideas in it and post here when I have it together, hopefully tonight, then Jenna and Mariane can add to it. Tanya

hey group 3!!! Sorry it's taken me so long to post... I've been trying to figure out this wiki thing. I really don't understand the benefit of this over our regular discussion rooms and working off of a word document...it seems very non-user friendly to me so far. Anyways, I will continue to try and muddle through :-) I will wait for the post from Tanya and add to it tomorrow (ps. will the word document show up somewhere? as an attachment??) jenna :-)

Hi Jenna.I've done a first draft and attached it in the Group 3 work area (where we posted everything last time.) I think that's probably easier than posting it here, otherwise every time someone makes a change it'll take up a ton of space on this page! The document is a bit too long and of course doesn't yet include your or Mariane's ideas. Feel free to edit at will, change the intro, add a conclusion, and do some necessary word chopping! Let us know here when you've attached your updated document. Cheers, Tanya

• • • Hey Tanya,

I'm going to start working off the document you posted in our "group 3 discussion" area and repost it there :-)