Bruyère Continuing Care at the Great Canadian Healthcare Debate
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14/6/2017
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On June 13, Amy Porteous represented Bruyère Continuing Care at the Great Canadian Healthcare Debate, held during the Canadian College of Health Leaders and HealthCareCAN’s annual conference.
Bruyère sponsored a motion for the development of a national, affordable and supportive housing strategy for seniors, focused on community living. It was part of over 35 motions that had been received and reviewed by the Policy Resolution Committee. In the spring, this motion was selected as one of the top 10 motions that all early-bird registered delegates could vote on leading up to the conference. Through this process of elimination, these were further narrowed down to six motions that were voted on by all delegates on the evening of June 12. Other motions presented in the live debate included National Dementia Strategy and Patients and families as partners in health.
The message was delivered loud and clear that the time to act is now and that a country like ours must invest time and money in the development of a national framework where housing and healthcare plan together towards the development of an affordable and supportive housing strategy. Amy’s strong argument was, “Until we do this, our hospitals are going to continue to be breaking at the seams.” She impressed upon the health leaders that collectively, we have to realize that health is only a by-product of the social determinants of health. The Bruyère Village was highlighted as a model to be emulated and studied. The motion for the development of an affordable and supportive housing strategy for seniors was selected as the top priority (with 53% support of over 700 delegates) to be worked on in the coming year. This topic now has legs and will be studied by the different levels of government, health and housing providers.
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