Diabetes, obesity and heart disease are examples of the kinds of chronic health problems — due to idleness and lack of physical activity — identified by Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) that are afflicting current and coming generations.
VCH policy consultant Claire Gram and medical health officer Dr. Paul Martiquet brought a proposal to Gibsons committee of the whole on March 17 to introduce a collaborative effort between the Sunshine Coast and VCH to promote healthier lifestyles.
“They’re diseases which, in the past, were considered ‘lifestyle diseases,’” Gram said. “They’re mainly preventable through diet and exercise and other things, but we’ve recognized that when you call it a lifestyle it doesn’t really show that people don’t always have a choice about these things.”
Their goals are to create environments on the Coast that promote healthy living — things like making it easier to walk or cycle instead of drive and educating people on how to live healthier lives. By working with local governments to identify problem areas, VCH can deal with health issues specific to individual communities.
“A lot of it is what we call the ‘determinants of health.’ It’s your income, your education, your amount of control over your own life, your early childhood,” Gram said. “Those kinds of factors all play in to whether or not you’ve got good health.”
In 2011 the Ministry of Health launched the Healthy Families BC Healthy Communities Incentives. That was the first step towards collaborations between VCH and local governments. Now things are moving forward, as long as council approves the collaboration.
“We definitely want to move forward with this,” said Coun. Charlene SanJenko.
She inquired about possible next steps for the collaboration if council chooses to go in that direction at its April 7 council meeting when a motion from the March 17 meeting will come forward.
Chief administrative officer Emanuel Machado said one of the next steps would be a meeting between VCH and the four governments on the Coast to identify priority health concerns specific to the communities here.
“One of the things we’re recognizing is people’s social connections,” Gram told Coast Reporter in a later interview. “We are social beings and we need to support each other. So, what are our neighbourhoods like? Are there areas where we can get together with friends and family? Those kinds of things matter.”
