Health Equity: 11/11/11

Friday, November 11, 2011

[EQ] Addressing Health and Emerging Global Issues in Canada

2011 Global Health Conference in Montreal 13-15 November

Addressing Health and Emerging Global Issues in Canada

McMaster Health Forum, November 2011
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada - ISSN 1925-2277

Steering Committee: John Lavis & Steven Hoffman (McMaster University); Chantal Blouin (Carleton University); Janet Beauvais, Nick Drager & Laurette Dubé (McGill University); and Jenilee Guebert, John Kirton & James Orbinski (University of Toronto).

Issue Brief:
Addressing Health and Emerging Global Issues in Canada http://bit.ly/uJSCld [39p.]

Topic overview [2p.] http://bit.ly/uuF87y

Dialogue summary [13p.] http://bit.ly/sFBh05

Video interviews [12 videos] http://bit.ly/sqnf2e

An issue brief drawing on research evidence to describe the challenges related to emerging global issues, and offering three options for addressing the problem, as well as implementation considerations, was produced to inform a stakeholder dialogue convened earlier this year by the McMaster Health Forum (12 May 2011).

“……An increasing number of global issues have emerged as key determinants of health. Governments around the world are recognizing the importance of considering and acting upon these global issues as a way to protect and improve the health of their citizens.
Specifically, these governments have started to respond to this challenge by integrating national leadership across the health and ‘non-health’ spheres (5) and investing heavily in the ‘architecture’ and domestic partnerships necessary to support them (6-13). Some have also promised enhanced contributions to broader global health with the view that the absence of health in one part of the world affects the health of people everywhere (7).
Indeed, research suggests that such national investments in global health efforts may not only contribute to sustainable development, trade, human rights, humanitarian relief work and global security, but also work to enhance the health of the investor’s own citizens…….
“

TABLE OF CONTENTS

KEY MESSAGES

REPORT

THE PROBLEM

Emerging global issues that can affect health

1. People are increasingly mobile and travel over longer distances than ever before

2. Cross-border trade of goods, services and investments has reached unprecedented levels

3. Agriculture is increasingly a single worldwide integrated market with food sourced globally

4. Damage to the environment and depletion of its resources is occurring at increasing speeds

5. Information and communication technology lets people connect across vast distances

6. Issues are increasingly addressed through international law, regulations and standards

Additional equity-related observations about these emerging global issues

Where collaboration across traditional divides is needed to (prepare to) address these issues

1. Working across departments within the federal government

2. Collaboration among federal, provincial and territorial governments

3. Collaboration between government and stakeholders

4. Collaboration between Canada and other countries

THREE OPTIONS FOR ADDRESSING THE PROBLEM

Option 1 – Support mutual learning across sectors

Option 2 – Coordinate government action and provide a framework for stakeholder action

Option 3 – Undertake new initiatives that provide value for money

Looping back to our understanding of the problem

IMPLEMENTATION CONSIDERATIONS

Potential barriers to implementing the three options

Strategies for addressing potential barriers to implementing the three options

1. Engage non-health sectors in the emerging global issues that affect health

2. Clearly articulate the value-for-money proposition

3. Communicating benefits to Canadians

Looping back to our understanding of the problem

REFERENCES

The issue brief and the stakeholder dialogue were funded primarily through Health Canada’s International Health Grants Program. The Global Health Research Initiative provided funding for the translation into French. Additional financial contributions to support the participation of key individuals in the stakeholder dialogue were provided by the British High Commission to Canada, McMaster University (through both the Office of the Vice President, Research and International Affairs, and the Office of the Associate Vice-President, Academic, Faculty of Health Sciences), and the Norwegian Knowledge Centre for the Health Services (through a grant from Norad, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation). The views expressed in these outputs should not be taken to represent the views of any of the financial contributors.

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[EQ] Social Determinants of Health - What Doctors Can Do

Social Determinants of Health – What Doctors Can Do

British Medical association BMA - October 2011

Available online PDF [28p.] at: http://bit.ly/uOx4Ib

“…………Doctors worldwide recognise the importance of health inequalities. Historically many considered the main reason to be lesser access to health care, and concentrated on improving access. They now know this is only part of the picture. Today they are increasingly aware of the social gradient and its impact, as well as the impact this should have on the targeting of care and ill health prevention.

They recognise that health inequalities are related to structural determinants such as age, income, education, occupation, gender, ethnicity and place of residence. Many feel unable to make effective changes to any of these for their patients and their communities and are often frustrated by their inability to make a difference. Such despondency is unnecessary as there is much that is already being done, and can be built on, by doctors and their teams. In England health and life expectancy are steadily improving, but the poorest, the lowest socio-economic groups, are improving the least and differences across the gradient are increasing; doctors are seeking ways to reduce the gradient.

The magnitude of the social gradient in health is not fixed; it varies between countries and, indeed, within regions in Britain. Such variation shows that, in principle, it should be possible to attain the level of the best. While gradients between countries are not the major focus of this report they do need attention. It is worthy of note that the social gradient exists in all countries, even the poorest, but the slope of the gradient and therefore the scale of inequalities is amenable to action.

This paper will set out, very briefly, some of the evidence and examples of actions that doctors can take to affect the social determinants of health and reduce the social gradient. We hope that doctors will use the examples in this report to effect change themselves.

We recognise that not every doctor has the opportunity to change the social determinants of health throughout the life course of individual patients and have thus included other ways in which they can make a difference, as doctors working as community leaders…………”

Content:
Introduction

What are the Social Determinants of Health?

Why should this be a concern of doctors?

Practising Holistic Medicine

The interaction of social factors

Unemployment and Poverty

Housing

Ill health prevention strategies

The NHS as an employer

What can doctors do? (including action grid to help inform activity)

Conclusions

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