If health knowledge is health power, then a new information program created by citizens and health providers is giving Albertans a valuable new tool.
More than two years ago, a few citizens and health providers got together and discussed how to address the fact that many Albertans feel they lack power to influence our health-care system. We wanted to change that. We wanted to make as much health knowledge available to Albertans as possible.
Now, after two years of hard work, Healthcare Basics for Albertans is here.
You can get started live on MyHealth Alberta (MHA) with this first module from the series of four planned. You can also find it by linking to IMAGINE’s website.
We’ve worked with many others to create this tool. All spring, our Health Care 101 (HC101) Task Force has been finalizing approvals with our health system partners, and we’ve been incorporating last-minute edits with staff from MHA’s content and user experience teams. Next, our small and dynamic communications team, based in the Strategic Clinical Networks™ and supported by our task force, co-designed the messages that promote Healthcare Basics for Albertans. Finally, a group of students from the University of Lethbridge’s Dhillon School of Business spent eight months developing a joint communications strategy that was framed in part by input from Albertans.
The goal is to help Albertans become interested enough to explore, trust and read the first in the Healthcare 101 series: Healthcare Basics for Albertans.
What can you do?
- Read and learn about Healthcare Basics for Albertans. You have made this work possible through your co-design and collaboration efforts. Enjoy. Share. Ask questions.
- Watch for and share HC101 and Healthcare Basics promotional materials. You’ll find them posted on IMAGINE Citizens and Alberta Health Services social media channels.
- Seek out, read, talk about and share Healthcare Basics for Albertans widely.
- Contact HC101@imaginecitizens.ca if you want to get involved in the next module, Finding My Way.
- Make comments or suggestions about the HC101 content using MyHealth Alberta’s dedicated feedback email address, feedback@myhealth.alberta.ca.
- Contact our Alberta Health Services communications partner Faye Furdyk if you have any questions. She can get you a copy of the communication social media field kit or graphics to help spread the word, and can help you know how best to communicate about Healthcare 101. You can contact her at Faye Furdyk, Senior Communications Adviser, Alberta Health Services at +1 403-701-0785 or faye.furdyk@ahs.ca.
About the author
Troy Stooke newly self-identifies as Métis and celebrates child and youth perspectives daily as a grandma. Her work career was in Alberta, across government and not-for profit sectors at the intersections of human/health/built and natural environments.
