The Canadian Institute for Health Information released a major research report documenting health disparities by urban neighbourhood which: documents pervasive health differences between affluent and poor neighbourhoods; reviews consistent research findings on the adverse health impact of poor housing, environment, lack of access to heath and social; services, adequate food, transportation and recreational facilities;
Health Care Innovation: But Not Without Equity
The Globe and Mail has been running a week-long series on the potential of innovation and private health care delivery. A Nov 9 article focused on private firms providing second opinions and health system navigation is in danger of missing the key point about this innovation: the point is not that the innovations they describe […]
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Health care for the uninsured: why it’s important and next steps
Recently, the Wellesley Institute participated in the Seeking Solutions Symposium, a conference that addressed access to health care for people living in Canada without health insurance. Even though we in Canada like to think that everyone has access to free health care, this is not the case. The fact is, people who lack documentation do […]
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Health as an Equity Issue – and as a Union Issue
I was really pleased to speak at an OPSEU symposium on equity over the weekend. Unions have long played a central role in the broad community coalitions that are so vital to addressing the underlying social determinants of health inequalities. And OPSEU and other union members work on the front-lines of health and are vital […]
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Happy Pride II: Ensuring Health Equity For LGBTQ Communities
The inequitable health outcomes and the stigma, discrimination and other barriers to access to health faced by LGBTQ communities have been well documented. In celebrating Pride, we can also celebrate the enormous work done to address these inequities: from the pioneering HIV/AIDS movement that transformed not just the face of a crucial disease, but how […]
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Great holiday news as Ontario steps up with transitional funding for housing and homelessness supports
The Ontario government announced today that it would provide transitional funding of $42 million in 2013-14 for municipalities to develop and implement their consolidated housing and homelessness plans, which will set out how each muncipality addresses their local housing needs. The Wellesley Institute and community groups from across the province have been calling on the government to […]
Follow-up memo to the Standing Committee on Social Policy on Bill 36
On January 30 Wellesley presented a brief to the Standing Committee on Social Policy on Bill 36, the enacting legislation. We were also asked for some additional research on the impact of British-type split purchaser-provider funding models and sent a follow-up memo. You can read it here. *Bob Gardner, Director – Public Policy
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First Workshop of the Season
Yesterday we had our first workshop in our conference room at the new location (45 Charles St. East). I’m pleased to report that it went great. It’s a great room for the kind of workshops we put on as it fosters interactivity. Hopefully you’ll see it sometime soon as the majority of our workshops will […]
European reports on policy action to address health inequalities
Two recent reports survey policy action on health inequalities in Europe. The first is a summary of the situation in 21 countries, examples of best practices for local interventions and overall conclusions derived from the European Union’s Closing the Gap project. The report stresses that “it is however at the local level where measures to […]
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European Policy and Global Health
A recent report from the European Foundation Centre argued that European social and economic policy should take global health into account. It stressed the “internationalization of health risks and ever greater interdependence. Global health requires cooperation and coordination.” For example, European farm subsidies have an adverse impact on the economies and trade patterns of poor […]