News

Imagine Citizens Network (ICN) has been working with Albertans to capture what matters most to them about primary healthcare and share these insights with the Modernizing Alberta’s Primary Health Care System (MAPS) initiative. The goal is to identify immediate and long-term improvements that can build on Alberta’s many primary health care successes. 

ICN engaged with 32 Albertans from across the province to identify guiding principles that reflect people’s values regarding the redesign and delivery of primary care programs, services, and care.

This is the third story in our series Modernizing Primary Health and Care where we share the recommendations we provided to Alberta Health’s Modernizing Alberta’s Primary Health Care System (MAPS) initiative.

Our health is shaped by a complex set of factors, including genetics, lifestyle choices, environment, and social determinants of health. Social determinants of health refer to a wide range of social, economic, and environmental factors that affect our health, such as income, housing, education, and discrimination.

While a citizen-centred approach to health is essential, many factors beyond an individual and his/her family impact health. Health is a community accomplishment. Structural and social community assets such as easily accessible recreation facilities, green spaces, employment opportunities, affordable housing, safe roads, faith-based and cultural organizations, and service clubs are examples that contribute to health outcomes.

At Imagine Citizens Network, we believe citizen-centred care should be a priority in reforming Alberta’s primary health system. 

Citizen-centred care considers the individual in the context of their life, their environment and social context and the opportunities life has afforded or limited, and the health and community options available in them. This needs to be the starting point for primary health: the understanding of the context in which the citizen lives. 

We are on the cusp of unprecedented change in the way health services are delivered, personalized, accessed, and funded. The rapid growth in connected personal health services, devices, and data is creating opportunities to re-imagine aspects of healthcare access and delivery, personal health and fitness, and health data.   

As healthcare becomes increasingly reliant on technology, questions about who owns health information and how it is accessed become increasingly important. Understanding where data is stored, how it is accessed, and who is responsible for safeguarding it are at the centre of the digital health evolution. According to Dr. Ewan Affleck, “information is the currency of care.” Personal health data is an enabler of patient safety, better health outcomes and reduced harm.  

Several years ago, ICN and other patient-partnered organizations initiated the iKnow Health project to help people in Alberta understand how healthcare works, how to navigate and advocate for themselves, and how to apply their rights. While that project was designed to reach a wide population with its online guide Healthcare Basics for Albertans, we knew there were significant additional challenges for rural and minority/marginalized communities. To better understand these challenges, we partnered with the Alberta International Medical Graduates Association (AIMGA) to support volunteer Connectors to host seven conversations about healthcare in newcomer communities in Alberta.

If you are 65 and older or care about someone who is, add your voice to Alberta Health Service’s (AHS) strategic planning!

ICN is partnering with AHS to connect with Albertans to identify the most important measures of quality in AHS’s work with older adults and their supporting caregivers.

Imagine Citizens Network, through our relationship with O’Brien Institute of Public Health at the University of Calgary, is inviting you to participate in Giving Day – our most significant donor campaign of the year. Your gift will go twice as far with the matching funds offered by the University.

Last year marked a turning point in our evolution. Since our inception seven years ago, we have been a volunteer powered organization. Last year we received a donation of $150,000 ($50,000 over three years) allowing us to begin to hire core staff.

In the coming year, we will continue to build our foundation (technology infrastructure, staffing and funding) as well as focus on two key initiatives:

This is the second in a series of articles about Patient Storytelling. 

Patients share their health care stories in public for many reasons: fundraising purposes, media exposure, advocacy efforts, and to educate or to support quality improvement projects. We even tell a version of our stories when we simply submit a biography or introduce ourselves at a meeting.  

 I’ve had many experiences writing and speaking my own story as the mom of a young man with Down syndrome and as a recent breast cancer patient. I’ve spoken with the media for advocacy campaigns, explained parts of my story at committee meetings, lectured at grand rounds and presented at health conferences. Most of these experiences have been positive, but some have gone side-ways.  

This is the first in a series of articles about the power of patient stories.

“I tried all sorts of storytelling to write my way through my cancer. I wrote in my journal. I handwrote in the variety of little notebooks that I carried around with me. I typed out thoughts on my phone. I texted myself…” -Bird’s Eye View book

Stories matter in healthcare and they promote citizen engagement in health and care issues. Early this year, we embarked on a project to produce five digital stories with our Child & Youth Mental Health group.

Digital storytelling through its use of photos, participant voices and music can meaningfully capture and share poignant personal stories. With a skilled facilitator, it’s a highly effective approach to share lived experience while also empowering storytellers and promoting and protecting their wellbeing. With the storyteller’s permission, these stories are then used to initiate conversations on issues that are of concern to the storyteller.

This aphorism is useful in many settings, including when talking about person-centred care (PCC) and about patient engagement, without which PCC will never achieve its promise.  It’s relevant because when communities and citizens continue to accept non-person-centred healthcare, they are effectively promoting non-engagement.

A Declaration of Health Data Rights, endorsed by ICN and other organizations, has been published for the first time in Canada offering citizens a much needed guideline to their rights regarding health data and their control of it.

There is an adoption problem with the concept of person-centred care (PCC). The precepts of this concept were detailed almost 30 years ago, and it has been vigorously promoted ever since. And while a commitment to PCC can be found on every Canadian health system website, it’s struggling to gain traction in what continues to be a discouragingly provider-driven healthcare system. What’s afoot? Why the crazy slow adoption of PCC?

IMAGINE Citizens has refreshed its brand to become Imagine Citizens Network (ICN)!  Our new name and bold new logo will better support us in building awareness of who we are and what we’re about as we continue to grow our presence in Alberta. We are indeed a network of health citizens, community partners, health-oriented organizations and innovators aimed at transforming health and care in Alberta.

Amateur and professional athletes agree that there is little that compares to the joy of participating on a highly functioning team. Interestingly, the same applies in healthcare. 

It was a special experience for me as a practicing Nephrologist (now retired) to participate as a team member in a clinic devoted to the treatment of patients with chronic kidney disease, some of whom were headed to chronic dialysis. The culture in this clinic was all about the team: nurse practitioners, dieticians, social workers, pharmacists, doctors and patients working together. Every healthcare provider was there to meet the needs of the patient, as defined by the patient, during every visit. As the doctor, I was just one team member, no more important than any other. And the captain of the team? That was the patient.