Preventative Health – A Different Approach to Healthcare

Recently, our president and founder at Global Medical Services, Dr. Allan Holmes, gave a speech at the Fraser Health Quarterly Business Meeting.

Led by Dr. Nigel Murray (Fraser Health’s CEO), the meeting brought together more than 250 managers, directors, executive directors, physicians and other senior executives.

What was their agenda? – Introduce enhanced health through a new preventative health approach.

Preventative Health is a key priority for Fraser Health and the BC Ministry of Health. Together, their goal is to establish a foundation of involvement through community partners to spearhead preventative health measures.

“Our health promotion and prevention services are provided by a team of professionals committed to the health and well-being of communities throughout Fraser Health.

Among them are public health nurses, speech-language pathologists, audiologists, community nutritionists, tobacco reduction coordinators, dental hygienists and others who provide community based services with a population health focus.

These services focus on health screening, health assessment, referral, early treatment, and building public health capacity through community development and strategic partnering.” – Fraser Health

How is Global involed? Dr. Holmes and his team have been working with community partners to embrace a proactive health approach that lines with Fraser Health’s vision, “everyone a champion for better health.”

Specifically, in conjunction with Fraser Health, Global is working with the Surrey Fire Department in the development of their HomeSafe program.

 

The HomeSafe Program is the creation of the Surrey Fire Service. It was developed by Fire Service members who provided suggestions and recommendations to reduce the number of private dwelling fires in the City of Surrey, as well as other ways to mitigate health risks.

The four key areas HomeSafe focuses on are:

• Free Home Safety Inspections
• Fire-Setter Intervention Program
• Child/Seniors Welfare and Human Trafficking Training
• Fire Prevention Week / Public Displays

Each section deals with many unique social, demographic and awareness issues. For example, senior welfare can involve identifying indicators of abuse or neglect.

View the HomeSafe Brochure:

Fall prevention is also a key element in the HomeSafe program. Falls are by far the leading cause of seniors’ injuries and injury-related hospitalization in Canada. Falls cause pain and, for many, lead to a move from home to a care establishment. They often cost seniors their independence and quality of life as well as represent a huge cost to our health system. However, most falls incurred by seniors are preventable.

With Surrey Fire, Global has identified many recommendations for reducing fall related injuries among seniors.

A prevention strategy could include:

• Minimizing changes in surface types
• Securing rugs with non-skid tape as well as carpet edges and avoid throw rugs
• Removing oversized furniture and objects
• Placing phone extensions on each level of the home with emergency numbers posed
• Adding electrical outlets to avoid overloading breakers and tripping on extension cords

Prevention strategies such as HomeSafe are key for communities seeking to reduce health incidents, which otherwise, could have been avoided through proactive measures.

“Bringing this all together into a comprehensive program like this will undoubtedly create greater fire-awareness and modify current behaviours to encourage personal safety for young and old,” said Surrey Mayor, Dianne Watts.