Resources for Health Providers

Health Equity Clicks: Community is the online community for the National Collaborating Centre for Determinants of Health. They provide resources for the Canadian public health community such as the following:

• News - includes links to a wide range of resources such as workshops, webinars, and conferences as well as calls for abstracts, online courses, and newsletters.
• Blog - includes stories from the field on topics such as income inequality, cultural competency, environmental health, and food security.

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Should we treat poverty like any equivalent health condition?

Of course.		You can help your patients who live in poverty.
How?		By using Poverty: A Clinical Tool for Primary Care Providers (MB)* To ask, assess, act and inform patients about benefits available to Canadians.  * Tools for other provinces and territories are available at the Centre for Effective Practice: Poverty.

  

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ASK	Do you ever have difficulty making ends meet at the end of the month?
ASSESS	Examine the evidence between poverty and poor physical and mental health. Factor poverty into clinical decision-making like other risk factors.
INTERVENE	Inform your patients of specific benefit programs they may be eligible for such as Manitoba Prenatal Benefits. Direct your patients to apply for federal financial supports such as Old Age Security, Child Tax Benefit, Disability benefits or First Nations programs. Sign forms and write letters to support applications, if needed. Encourage your patients to fill out and mail in their income tax forms to make them eligible for various benefits, including drug coverage.
CONNECT	Direct your patients to specific community programs and online resources provided by regional, provincial and federal non-profit organizations and governments. Make the website and/or hard copies of Get Your Benefits! available. This booklet details resources and income supports.

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Podcasts

Michael Allan and James McCormack from Therapeutics Education Collaboration invited Gary Bloch to talk in detail about poverty in the following podcasts:

• Episode 381: Poverty - the impact it has on health and what we can do about it. Discussion of a very useful clinical tool for dealing with poverty in primary care.
• Episode 382: Poverty - the impact it has on health and what we can do about it - Part II. Discussion of solving the problem of poverty.
  

Videos

• Family Medicine Forum keynote address by Dr. Gary Bloch - from the November 2017 FMF, Dr. Gary Bloch presents a broad approach to generalist family medicine that considers patients' social contexts.
• What if our healthcare system kept us healthy? - a TEDMED talk by Rebecca Onie, 2012. Onie asks questions such as "What if waiting rooms were a place to improve daily health care?"

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Other Tools for Providers

• Using Online Tools for Primary Care

  	Evaluating the impact of  using an online tool within primary care to improve income security of patients with complex and social needs Poster [pdf] Powerpoint presentation [pdf]
  Study Protocol: Implementation and impact of an online tool used in primary care to improve access to financial benefits for patients: a study protocol [pdf] by Aery A, Rucchetto A, Singer A, et al. BMJ Open 2017; 7:e015947.doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2017-015947.

• Advocacy and Research in Canada
  • University of Manitoba - Primary Prevention Research Group -Dr. Alan Katz has recruited a dynamic interdisciplinary team that is working on multiple projects focused on primary prevention and risk behaviours including: tobacco use and exposure, physical inactivity, mental wellbeing (resilience), nutrition and risk stratification.
  • Manitoba College of Family Physicians - Resources - contains links to Clinical Practice Guidelines database, Manitoba Government health care report card, CME rebate program, and other new services, guidelines and protocols.
  • Health Providers Against Poverty - Resources - contains links to clinical tools, patient handouts, service guides, literature and more.
  • Reviews, reports and commentaries
    • Report - Canadian Council on Social Determinants of Health (CCSDH) - Implementing Multi-Sectoral Healthy Child Development Initiatives: Lessons Learned from Community-Based Interventions [pdf]. Ottawa: CCSDH; 2017. 
    • Commentaries
      • Medicine is not just a science, it's an art. Commentary by Lynn Wilson. Why a good conversation with your doctor is good for your health. November 2016.
      • Social paediatrics: From 'lip service' to the health and well-being of Canada's children and youth - by Denis Daneman et al. Paediatric Child Health 2013 Aug-Sept; 18(7):351-352.

• Brochures and Pamphlets
  • Where to go for dental care in your community - pdf booklet from the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority Oral Health Program, 2013.

Should we treat poverty like any equivalent health condition? - a one-page summary.

• Webinars and Presentations
  • Webinar - Food Insecurity Part 3 - How does food insecurity relate to health and what are the implications for health care providers (May 18, 2017). Valerie Tarasuk, PhD, Lynn McIntyre, MD, MHSc, FRCPC, FCAHS, and Carlota Basualdo-Hammond, MSc, MPH, RD. From  CDPAC/PHAC.
  • Presentation - How to Really Make a Difference to Manitoba Children's Health and Well-Being - through medical practice and advocacy. Noralou Roos, PhD, and Sharon Macdonald, MD, FRCPC, with thanks to Lee Ford Jones, MD, and Gary Bloch, MD.

Also see news articles, commentaries, infographics, and backgrounders available in the General Resources section.