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Dynamic First Meeting on Canadian Forces Family Health Care

Humming with energy and filled with passionate people, the first meeting of the Canadian Forces (CF) Family Health Care Advisory Committee and Working Group generated a remarkable number of ideas and proposals.

CF family members, Military Family Resource Centre (MFRC) staff and health care professionals came together October 23, 2008 in Ottawa to put their collective expertise to work. Taking the health care ideas first raised at the CF Family Services Summit in May to the next level, they spent the day brainstorming recommendations for the Director Military Family Services (DMFS). They will continue to meet over the coming months to draft a feasible and vibrant vision for enhancing CF family health care.

The participants’ discussions were lively and interactive, and the group worked hard to couple unique challenges with practical solutions. The group’s central recommendation was for a shift from a doctors-centred vision of health care to an expanded focus on total family wellness.

“We’re talking about a holistic approach to health care for our families,” explained one attendee. As a part of this broad approach, the group considered including specialized health care service providers like dieticians, physiotherapists and midwives in any CF-generated family health services plan. They envisioned that these changes could have a positive affect on the retention and recruitment of CF members and their families.

The group also recommended that the CF could play a larger role in helping military families find doctors during a posting to a new CF community. While there are doctor and nurse shortages nation-wide, especially in more isolated locations, the group stressed that the frequent relocations necessary to the CF lifestyle make finding physicians exceptionally challenging.

The group considered partnerships with universities to offer scholarships, bursaries and special incentives for internships as possible ways the CF could attract doctors to working with military families. They also suggested that allowing families to use base/wing medical services while they look for a local doctor could be a great help to recently posted families finding their way through new medical systems.

In the short term, the participants discussed ways that local MFRCs could take a more comprehensive approach to the health care needs of CF families. Lorie Hall, a board member from MFRC Esquimalt, shared the best practice example of having a staff member act as a special “health care navigator” for families. To supplement this practice, she recommended that MFRCs could also make sure to post local health care information on local community and MFRC web resources to give families online support.

Though they debated over some topics, all of the participants agreed that the local MFRCs will continue to be crucial partners in enhancing the health care services available to families.

“Often, when you have really good and empowering sessions with families at MFRCs, it really eases the communication gap,” said one attendee. “Health care is a very complex process, and I think we can really help to ease our families through that process.”