Carol’s experience at the CEAN forum

Carol, a PVN member from Powell River, travelled to Vancouver to attend the Community Engagement Advisory Network (CEAN) forum on health literacy on October 22. CEAN is a group of members of the public who are involved in health service planning and decision-making at Vancouver Coastal Health.

We asked Carol to share some thoughts and learnings from the event.

According to Statistics Canada, by the year 2016, 50% of Canadians will be 65 years of age or over. With less than 50% of the population working and paying taxes, the Ministry of Health will have to find new, effective ways to provide care with limited resources. 

Part of the solution being looked into by the Ministry of Health is health literacy. How can they do a better job of assisting patients to be partners in their own health outcomes?  It’s not an easy task, but it’s do-able if patients and health care providers work together on acknowledging the gap between receiving information and actually understanding it – and ultimately using the information as part of an individualized patient health care plan. 

Health literacy needs to be addressed so patients, as partners with their health care providers, can make informed decisions about their own health outcomes. Below are some factors that may affect a patient’s understanding in a health care situation:

• English is not a patient’s first language
• They do not have a good understanding of the Canadian health care system, especially if they have recently immigrated to Canada
• Mental health conditions
• Chronic diseases and pain
• Hearing difficulties, eyesight problems, and speech difficulties
• Dyslexia
• Cultural and religious backgrounds

It will take time, it will take money, and it will take re-education for doctors, health care workers, and patients to deliver plain-language, understandable information that can be understood and – most importantly – used effectively by the patient.

Part of the forum was small group brainstorming.  Many innovative ideas were put forth: medical records micro chipping, better school involvement on the subject of health literacy, and (from my own group) more solutions at the community level, as there can be no “one size fits all approach” to such a broad range of topics. 

Can the health care system get its message across?  We will find out in the future how effective the Integrated Primary Community Care (IPCC) will be in integrating patient and health care provider input to deliver a more effective, coordinated, continuous method of care and address a range of health literacy concerns.

Being in small groups also allowed me to have personal chats with new people. A CEAN member from Whistler and I sat talking for a long time about health care delivery in smaller communities. 

Thank you to CEAN and Patient Voices Network for the opportunity for me to be a part of the Health Literacy Forum.  It was a great experience for me, both educationally and on a personal level, to meet other like-minded people.