Submission To The Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology

Introduction

On behalf of the Ecumenical Health Care Network of the Canadian Council of Churches’ Commission on Justice and Peace, I appreciate this opportunity to comment on some of the Options being suggested by this Senate Committee in Volume 4, Issues & Options.

Historically, Canadian churches have contributed to the development of Canada’s publicly funded and administered health care system, as service providers (eg. religious hospitals, homes for the chronically ill and aged, programs for the poor), as stakeholders (eg. pastoral ministries and chaplaincy services to the ill and dying), and as supportive advocates of new ideas and approaches (eg. community based programs such as parish nursing.) For Christians, Jesus has taught us that illness, or, more importantly, wellness, requires spiritual as well as physical well being.

With this in mind, I will focus my comments on six areas; (1) principles for the provision of health care, (2) financing health care, (3) accountability of all levels of government, (4) the need for evidenced based research, (5) expanding care to include pharmacare and home care, and (6) support for use of the determinants of health in insuring integrated strategies and programs.