Submitted by: June Crandall, Contributing Author
Healthcare is everyone’s problem! Maybe I should say the lack of healthcare. This series of articles delves into the issues, the problems, some community solutions, and a discussion throughout about the long-term sustainability of the current healthcare system. This series does not reflect the position of the healthcare systems in New Brunswick unless it is directly cited. The thoughts, ideas, and opinions are going to be mostly anecdotal.
I will begin this series by telling you a bit about myself. I grew up in Elgin, Albert County, NB. My siblings and I were raised in a God-fearing household. My mother, my grandmother, and great-grandmother were all WI members. So, I am going to accurately state that WI was hard-wired into our DNA from an early age. At the age of 23, I married and moved to the US. Years later, I retired from a 25-year career in Social Science Research and moved back to my native home in Elgin. It is so good to be home!
Healthcare is everyone’s problem! Maybe I should say the lack of healthcare. This series of articles delves into the issues, the problems, some community solutions, and a discussion throughout about the long-term sustainability of the current healthcare system. This series does not reflect the position of the healthcare systems in New Brunswick unless it is directly cited. The thoughts, ideas, and opinions are going to be mostly anecdotal.
I will begin this series by telling you a bit about myself. I grew up in Elgin, Albert County, NB. My siblings and I were raised in a God-fearing household. My mother, my grandmother, and great-grandmother were all WI members. So, I am going to accurately state that WI was hard-wired into our DNA from an early age. At the age of 23, I married and moved to the US. Years later, I retired from a 25-year career in Social Science Research and moved back to my native home in Elgin. It is so good to be home!
Shortly after settling back in Elgin, I joined the WI. I would be remiss if I failed to mention my sister, HazelAnna Carter, who has been a WI member for over 40 years. I deeply admire and appreciate her dedication to WI. As I re-familiarized myself with my community after 44 years in the US, I noted one glaring problem (I heard a lot of commentaries on the issue) -lack of adequate healthcare in my community and local areas. Over the course of my life and career, I was blessed to have excellent healthcare, so I was appalled by the stories of very long wait times for elective and non-elective surgeries and treatments for life-threatening illnesses. I often wondered how many ultimately died because of not getting adequate care and treatment in a timely manner. For example, according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), between 2019 and 2021, New Brunswick was below the Canadian average in avoidable deaths from treatable causes (NB=67 vs Canada=61), meaning that more individuals died in NB than the Canadian average. Note that according to CIHI, this has been trending downward since 2010. With my experience of having excellent health care and hearing the stories and facts, I decided there must be something that can be done at the community level to help people. So, I reached out to people that serve on a common committee that is striving to bring change to the community. That committee is the Community Health and Wellness Advisory Committee.
I will continue the story in the next issue of this newsletter. In the meantime, remember that your public servants are servants of the public – YOU. They need to hear from you.
I will continue the story in the next issue of this newsletter. In the meantime, remember that your public servants are servants of the public – YOU. They need to hear from you.
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