Women, The Family And Health
Patricia Rustad
The National Council of Women of Canada is a federation of twenty Local councils of women, five Provincial Councils, and twenty-seven affiliated national organizations. Policy decisions are made, after discussion and debate at the local and provincial level, by a vote of the membership at the Annual General Meeting, and represent the views of many women’s groups across Canada.
The Mission statement of NCWC is: To empower all women to work towards improving the quality of life for women, families and society through a forum of member organizations and individuals.
It is, therefore, in this context that I am pleased to discuss with you some of the most important health problems facing Canada, affecting women and the family.
The Canada Health Act of 1984 is the Federal Government of Canada’s legislation defining Health Care. The legislation is based on five principles: health-care programmes will be comprehensive, universal, portable, accessible and publicly administered.
Over the past decade all levels of government have concentrated on deficit reduction. One of the important fall-outs from the Federal Government’s financial cut-backs has been the weakening of the Government’s ability to enforce national standards across Canada, with the result that Canadians must decide whether they are going to have a single national health system or 10 distinct and increasingly dissimilar ones
NCWC is a strong supporter of the Canadian Medicare system, guided by national standards of care.
Two trends have been emerging worldwide in healthcare: a shifting of resources from acute care, where needs were dropping, to community and primary-care areas, where needs are increasing.
The shift to home-care, ambulatory care, an increase in day surgery and a reduction in the length of hospital stays, even in the case of childbirth, is increasing in scope and volume, and is especially affecting women, as the main source of care-givers.
The family network has become smaller and women, increasing numbers of whom now work outside the home, are faced with heavier responsibilities, including, in some cases, the provision of care for both their children and their aging parents.
The transfer of care and services to the home is accompanied by a transfer of responsibilities; caregivers are often obliged to co-ordinate fragmented services and must learn to provide care with few resources in the community
Research has clearly shown that better supports for families and children from earliest years and throughout childhood are essential to the creation of a healthier population NCWC is a strong supporter of a system which promotes health rather than dealing mainly with illness, and provides a continuum of care, home-care, respite care and day-care, through the broad spectrum of the Canadian Medicare System.
Last Modified: June 05, 2010