The Canadian Citizens Care Alliance (CCCAlliance.org) has initiated a campaign to increase awareness regarding vitamin D insufficiency amongst citizens and to encourage steps to correct this situation. To this end, we have promoted our ideas through a number of activities including two days of symposia in Toronto and Chatham, On (Nov 1 & 2), a cross-Canada bicycle ride and a dedicated website (areyougettingenough.info).
As I see it, this campaign is one step of a larger change that should be realized to improve the overall health of citizens (of Canada) and rehabilitate healthcare. Currently, our healthcare is being served in a less than optimal fashion as indicated by various criteria including large numbers of citizens without family physicians and long wait times for many health services. Throwing more money at the existing system is unlikely to resolve these issues.
We will always need the services of our doctors, nurses and hospitals. But they can’t do it all. We require change.
Of all the changes that have been advocated by various individuals, I believe that we should address greater involvement by individual citizens in their own health. The model that we have embraced generally to date is largely based on patient-doctor-hospital relationships in which citizens with health problems are seen by a doctor who often prescribes a medication or admits them to a hospital for more extensive treatment. It is now obvious that we could do much more in the area of health maintenance/preventive medicine to keep people healthier and decrease our reliance on the healthcare system. Thus, citizens should take more responsibility for their own health by acting to maintain their bodies and minds- not unlike we maintain our cars.
Just as we have presented the rationale for improving overall health through vitamin D, the low-hanging fruit of population supplementation, there is a spectrum of activities that could be and should be considered by citizens to look after themselves. Just as vitamin D sufficiency could reduce the demand for medical services by 6-7% overall, addressing the broader issues of health maintenance across the board ought to decrease the demand to a significantly larger extent; do I hear 10%? 15%? 20%?
So- where are the opportunities to make a difference? What health challenges could yield the biggest bang for the buck? This is where you, the readers come in. Please put your ideas in the comments section below. Diabetes could be one.
How do we increase citizen responsibility in rational manner? I like to think that ordinary citizens are smarter and more capable of making informed decisions than many of our “authorities” credit them with. Can we enhance their abilities herein by raising our expectations of them? Respect their ability to decide what is best for themselves? Give them more choice and fewer orders? I’d like your ideas here also.
What options should citizens be offered? More choice for health maintenance via subsidies or tax deductibility? Examples- chiropractic, physical & mental health coaching, physiotherapy, naturopathy, nurse practitioners, traditional Chinese medicine, indigenous medicine, natural health products, dieticians and more.