Is there a role for advisors in environmental sustanability in healthcare?
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I am involved in planning a conference which will look at these issues:
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What is environmental sustainability in healthcare?
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What is patient engagement in healthcare?
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Should advisors be involved in the work around sustainable health care currently underway?
It hopes to bring together the two groups to learn from each other and look at ways advisors can support the environmental sustainability in healthcare.
QUESTIONS FOR YOU
Have any of you a) been involved in environmental sustainability projects in healthcare? b) Are any of you interested and think this is important?
DEFINITION - off the web
By definition, sustainability aims to promote healthy, viable, and equitable communities. In the same way the healthcare industry promotes healthy behaviors such as eating right and exercising; it should encourage environmental stewardship since the health of our environment affects public health.
READING - WHO Environmentally sustainable health systems: a strategic document
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I don't see how we promote all of these attributes - healthy, viable, and equitable communities through environmental stewardship.
I see that our environment affects public health and agree that environmental stewardship is important but I'm not sure how this promotes equity. There are tradeoffs everywhere. If I live downtown in a large city I am likely to die about 1.5 years sooner than my friend in Timmins. However her lifespan is shortened by a lack of medical services in her area.
So that's my first reaction, though I am missing the big picture I'm sure.
The idea of virtual conferences to save energy is sound and works very well for groups that know one another in real life. It will take a lot more work to make that virtual conference of equal value to patients, caregivers and even students when the in-person dimension is reduced or non-existent
Annette
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Although I've not been involved in any environmental sustainable projects in health care - I think it is very interesting and very important. For sure patient advisors should be involved.
I guess a virtual conference is a starting point or a low hanging fruit. Easiest to implement!
Getting all the players to the table and starting the conversation is the first step.
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Two more angles to propose on the intersection of environmental sustainability and health.
- Global climate change. One need not look further than our northern Inuit communities to see how this is having a devastating impact on food security and mental health.
- Remember the news headlines about forest fires raging in BC and California? Flooding in Gatineau a few years back? The uptick in natural disasters spurned by global climate change will have implications on how we evacuate and re-settle our most vulnerable (elderly, those with disabilities).
Here are links to amazing work that's being done in Australia to help people of different abilities to prepare for natural disasters, whether it is to shelter in place or to be evacuated. And yes, having the patient-caregiver voice is central when using the toolkit.
Emergency toolkit conversation starter for emergency preparedness in natural disaster for people with disabilities
http://collaborating4inclusion.org/prepare-nsw/
Prepare NSW (Australia) - the three videos explain everything in an easy to understand fashion.
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Happy New Year Alies!
This past fall, I attended a retreat on environmental nutrition that was organized by the McConnell Foundation. Not 100% what you are currently involved in, but there certainly is overlap!
I was one of twenty people invited from across Canada to participate in a dialogue on the intersection of the environment, food, nutrition, AND health.
I was the only person representing the patient voice in the room. However, they did have people from food services for regional health boards and hospitals, as well as the Heart & Stroke Foundation, Health Canada, leadership from Indigenous organizations, and the Dietitians of Canada. We also had Gillian, the founder and owner of an organic farm near Collingwood ON.
There are numerous examples in the US now of hospitals offering FREE food to people identified at risk of developing diabetes and who are also experiencing food insecurity, whether it be because of poverty, under or unemployment, illiteracy, inadequate housing etc. Access to healthy food choices plays a role in health equity.
They had this guy from MaRS come facilitate, and we were divided up into groups to brainstorm how to have healthy, environmentally sustainable food (and thus healthy communities).
Just imagine if every hospital offered locally-sourced organic produce for both in-patients and visitors, and if the employees could receive their CSA food baskets at their place of work. There would be an onsite therapeutic garden for those recovering from mental illness. A rooftop garden to help cool buildings in the summertime, and reduce the carbon footprint. Gosh, if procurement of any and all health institutions had a goal of maximizing locally sourced food, it becomes a sizeable influence on the local economy too!
I hope in your planning you are calling upon community and urban planning people, as well as those who work towards making the built environment universally accessible. If we make the built environment universally accessible, it will meet the needs of people as their abilities wax and wane over the lifespan.
Sounds like a very exciting initiative!
please do keep us posted!
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Amy, I'm sorry to be absent for so long. I have just done a complicated and stressful move and am starting renos. Your information is very helpful as I am not familiar with the environmental side of healthcare.
This will be a symposium that aims to identify synergies between the power of patient engagement/ leadership, and the need to build more environmentally sustainable health systems.
The symposium, which will take place on the afternoon of March 25th, 2019, at the U of Toronto Faculty Club will feature guest speakers and facilitators from the sustainability and patient engagement communities seeking to share knowledge, identify synergies and "chart a path forward together."
We see our guiding question as: How can we ensure that patients are involved in developing environmentally sustainable approaches to delivering health care that actually improve patient safety, care, and experience?
We will have breakout sessions focused on potential intersections between environmental sustainability and patient engagement at the following levels:
• Macro (e.g. health system policies)
• Meso (e.g. organization of health services)
• Micro (e.g. personal care)So while we are involved in all sorts of ways in healthcare, this seems to be a somewhat new area. Alies
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The IHPME (Institute for Health Policy, Management and Evaluation) at U of Toronto held a workshop that looking at environmentally sustainable healthcare and patient engagement (PE). There was a good showing from the patient partner side.
It was an encouraging experience since those of the environmental side were mostly new to PE. So this was a great opportunity to expand the influence of patients and caregivers in another aspect of healthcare.
Perhaps some of the other PAN members who attended have some observations.
Alies
