The BC Rural Health Network presented to the Standing Committee on Finance on June 14th, 2022, and we believe the presentation was well received.
The audio recording for the full day’s hearing is online and the BC Rural Health Network starts at 1:23pm on the index bar and can be listened to by clicking here.
The three main areas we forwarded are listed below. Unfortunately, I had added an extra zero in my notes as to the number of rural physicians and stated 20,000 (we wish!) and otherwise the presentation went well.
This is the content I was speaking to at the hearing.
- Invest in rural communication and connection. The disconnect with rural residents and their governments, healthcare providers, authorities and experts generally are degrading rapidly in BC. Top-down communication has missed the mark and rural residents are becoming increasingly isolated from good information. Grassroots, community level communication methods are desperately needed.
The BC Rural Health Network members started as a small collective of community level advocacy groups that organized during the past several decades of declining healthcare resources in rural BC. The membership formed to unify their voice and to share ideas, research and generally “network.” The group has grown organically due to a need of rural residents to be heard and not just listened to regarding their health and wellness.
We provide communication through our communities from the ground up and connect through the volunteers who work tirelessly in support of their healthcare system. We have seen the disconnect between the resident in our communities and their care providers, governments and authorities degrade even further due to COVID-19. Heat domes, forest fires, floods are just a few of the additional challenges we all have faced but the rural residents have had to manage these extreme events with far fewer resources than our urban neighbours. Limited local response resources due to centralization of services has furthered the disconnect between the resident and the system.
We believe in science-based approaches and work with all levels of the health system to improve education, care, and wellbeing for all British Columbians. We work tirelessly to inform the public through our website on resources and information that reduces impacts to the system and provides sound science-based information to the readers. We are tweeting and engaging in the ‘virtual small town coffee shop’ that social media has become for many rural residents. Misinformation has been prolific and horrific in its’ ability to reach many vulnerable people. We do as much as we can to reverse misinformation and we need to be invested in to do more.
- Invest in the rural resident to the same degree you invest in the rural physicians and academia. The BC Rural Health Network has a diverse Board and enjoys liaison representation from other organizations including physicians, researchers, and community-based care model developers. Our network grows daily as does our voice.
The BC Rural Health Network has a seat at several health tables at the Provincial level and co-chairs the Rural Citizens Perspective Group. While sitting at these tables and providing the insights, understandings, and concerns of rural residents, we see the other groups at the table as being well funded entities whose voice is valued by the province.
The voice of the rural resident is not well heard. The voice of the rural resident is complex due to the diversity of the over 1000 small communities in BC. ~1.5 million people live, work, and play in rural, remote, small communities that are as diverse as the people who live there. Our membership and many non-members (currently) work and volunteer throughout these communities and are the fabric that holds the system together. These people need resources, information, training, financial help, scholarships and be connected to each other.
With a very small grant and only .5 entry level FTE staff we have redeveloped a website that is connecting rural residents to these resources. We can do a lot with very little, but we need to do so much more. If an organization like ours had a stable fund and staffing to reach out across the province, our benefit to the system, the taxpayer and the health of residents would result a very high rate of return.
The discrepancy between the investment in the voices and representation of parties is clear when we see our good friends at RCCbc receive over $1 million in funding (well deserved, needed, and additional investment required) to represent 2,000 rural physicians and have 20 staff in three locations. The group that represents their patients’ interests (~1.5 million people living rurally), gets nothing, we have .5 staff, no offices and investment limited to the generosity of others
- Invest in communities’ health and wellness with community investments in volunteerism. The rural residents in their communities are the experts in their communities. The gap between urban beliefs and rural realities are almost as significant as the gap in communication and connection. The grassroots organizations that provide millions of hours of volunteerism are being left out of the loop.
Volunteerism has saved many health services in rural BC. Our membership represents a lot of these people. Whether they are working in hospice care, palliative care, nursing homes, meals on wheels, volunteer fire-departments, search and rescue, local seniors’ clubs, community services, child support workers… and the list goes on.
Just like the paid professionals these people are getting burnt out and exhausted from the demands they have faced in recent times. Much like the paid workers their desire to continue is dwindling and many are finding it hard to find volunteers to work. Rural residents are a resilient bunch (generally) and like independence (generally,) but they also need to be included in the investment end of the equation. We need to promote community volunteerism and people need to have more reasons to volunteer.
Attracting younger people to volunteer and providing opportunities for them to learn is an example of these types of investments. Investing in our rural youth to seek health related education results in more rural healthcare professionals. Growing up in a rural community often leads young people to return to a rural community, if their skill sets are needed and adequate. Investing in community groups that can seek and assist in recruiting our future physicians, nurses, paramedics, technicians, and ancillary is not happening and although the return on investment is years away, the investment is needed now. More seats don’t help if there isn’t people sitting in them interested in living rurally.
The BC Rural Health Network can assist in all aspects of reaching rural residents and improving their wellness, health, and happiness.
Yours in health and wellness,
Paul
Paul Adams || Administrator|| BC Rural Health Network ||
1-250-295-5436
https://bcruralhealth.org//||paul.adams@bcruralhealth.org|| : LinkedIn
The BCRHN is the healthcare voice of the rural residents of British Columbia and seeks better health outcomes for all people, through solutions-based approaches with governments, and information provision to residents.
