healthcare

Patients, families key to changing the system. When Glenn Fahner was paralyzed after a fall during a fishing trip in August 2009, he was sent to Michigan for care because there were no appropriate hospital beds for him in Ontario.

If that wasn't enough, after his return to the province, he was bounced between institutions, including the Lyndhurst rehabilitation facility in Toronto, St. Joseph's Complex Continuing Care, Pioneer Manor and Health Sciences North. Read the full article here.

Photo credit: Heidi Ulrichsen

The second annual conference of the Patients’ Association of Canada (PAC) was a broad-based discussion of how patients could participate in guiding our health care system. There were 19 separate sessions on a wide variety of topics held throughout the day. The notes will be posted on the web site and commentary will be made available. As you read them, you’ll notice that the topics are wide ranging and full of ideas. Patients are increasingly being engaged with respect to health care governance, and the patient perspective is steadily developing to be included in governance activities regarding the patient experience.

February 3, 2012 - Last night was a significant meeting of the Patients' Association of Canada. More than 30 members came for a very special workshop run by Sue Reynolds and her associate Theresa Dekker who are experienced writing teachers and members of Amherst Writer and Artists (AWA). We were introduced to writing by the injunction “Show! Don’t tell!” and after some warm up exercises everyone wrote for 10 minutes and took turns reading their writing. As Sue and Theresa reaffirmed, "it's not therapy, but it's therapeutic."