An information session on advance care planning – a way to help people think, talk about and document their wishes for future health care – will be held at the St. Albert 50+ Club next week.
An information session on advance care planning – a way to help people think, talk about and document their wishes for future health care – will be held at the St. Albert 50+ Club next week.
The afternoon session will feature family practitioner Dr. Jim Bell and lawyer Stan Galbraith to discuss what the goals of care and personal directives are, as well as their importance.
The Goals of Care designation is a medical order used to describe the general aim of focus of care including preferred location of that care.
Advance care planning is a process that can assist you in making health care decisions now and for the future in the event you become incapable of consenting to or refusing treatment or other care.
Who: Open to all members of the community
What: Deciding While You Still Can
When: Nov. 19, 3:30 p.m.
Where: St. Albert 50+ Club
Sign up at the club or call 780-459-0433 ext. 0 to register.
The results of a new poll show that Albertans want the provincial government to make disease and injury prevention a priority.
In September, a public opinion survey was undertaken by Wellness Alberta – a coalition of more than 100 organizations calling for the formation of an independent wellness foundation to provide sustainable funding to wellness initiatives across the province.
The online poll was conducted by Leger research intelligence group and surveyed more than 1,000 Albertans during the week of Sept. 15.
The survey indicated 69 per cent of Albertans want to see wellness as a priority focus by the provincial government. More than 80 per cent of supporters want to see action within the next year.
“Injuries and chronic diseases like cancer, heart disease and diabetes are filling our hospitals and are placing a tremendous burden on individuals, families, communities and employers. These illnesses and injuries are largely preventable –but the government needs to increase its investment now in proactive strategies to keep more Albertans healthy and out of the health care system," said Dr. Louis Hugo Francescutti, public health professor at the University of Alberta, as well as past president of the Canadian Medical Association.
Currently the provincial government invests approximately one per cent of the total health care budget on initiatives to reduce risk factors associated with chronic disease and injury such as physical inactivity, poor nutrition, substance abuse, and adverse childhood experiences.
“Seventy per cent of Albertans surveyed want the government to at least double the current investment in disease and injury prevention,” said Kate Chidester with the Heart and Stroke Foundation.
“It's time to make wellness a top priority and provide the resources needed to achieve meaningful results. "
The independent foundation sought by Wellness Alberta would be funded through an annual government investment of $170 million per year – equivalent to one per cent of the annual provincial health budget.
