Older Women’s Network accepts the definition of health of the World Health Organization, as modified by the Platform for Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women, held at Beijing in 1995:

Heath is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. Women’s health involves their emotional, social [cultural, environmental] and physical well-being and is determined by the social, political and economic context of their lives, as well as by biology.

Women, as a majority of the 65+ population suffer disproportionately from poverty, poor health and isolation. We expect, and will continue to monitor, our Government’s progress in meeting the commitments to women that it made after the Beijing Conference, which were:

• to review existing legislation, including health legislation, to reflect a commitment to women’s health and ensure that the legislation meets the changing roles and responsibilities of women to implement gender sensitive health programs, including decentralized health services that address the needs of women throughout their lives and take into account the special needs of women with disabilities and the diversity of women’s needs arising from age
• take measures to eliminate harmful, medically unnecessary or coercive medical interventions and over-medication of women
• develop information programs and services to assist women to understand and adapt to changes associated with aging and to address and treat the health needs  of older women
• address the health needs of senior women who are particularly vulnerable to relatively lengthy periods of chronic illness or disability, and who do not have adequate or appropriate health services and social support.

Keeping our issues in the forefront of public debate, Older Women’s Network supports the preservation of the principles of the Canada Health Act (universality, accessibility, portability, public funding, and availability regardless of ability to pay) which make health care a resource for everyone, rather than a benefit for some. We also urge the Federal Government to protect our public health care system by declaring illegal the establishment of private facilities offering "enhanced care" for those who can afford it (as in Alberta’s Bill 11).

We support the inclusion of Pharmacare and Home Care as medically necessary services under the principles of the Canada Health Act, as recommended by the National Health Forum.

Changes in family patterns, structures and lifestyles can have a detrimental effect on older persons. The makes the inclusion of National Home Care of particular importance to older women, who form by far the greatest proportion of those who need care in order to remain in their own homes. It is equally important to mid-life women, who, as daughters and daughters-in-law of aging parents, make up the majority of the family care-givers and provide between 80 and 90% of all elder care in Canada.

With the precipitous downsizing of hospitals in Ontario, the public home care system has been forced to take care of the many patients being sent home sicker and quicker fom acute care. This has stretched their fixed budgets (which constitute only 5% of the total health budget) to a point where home care is rationed and adequate supportive care for those disabled by age-related or chronic conditions can not be provided.

We urge the co-operation of our Provincial and Federal governments to::

• define Home Care as a medically necessary service, to be adequately funded and governed by all the principles of the Canada Health Act;
• end the recurring Emergency Room crises by reforming the costly fee-for-service model of primary care and providing non-profit, multidisciplinary community teams for health promotion, as well as illness and injury treatment available 24 hoursa day, 7 days a week when needed;
• end the game of political football over funding for a sustainable public health system (which all comes from the same taxpayers’ pockets), with its sustainability recognized as more important than cutting taxes.

We advocate that the Ontario Government:

• support the establishment of a National Home Care system and, in the meantime increase substantially the funding for Community Care Access Centers;
• provide authentic and visible incentives to primary care physicians who opt for multidisciplinary group practice on a capitation, non-profit basis and
• negotiate in good faith with the federal government over primary care reform;
• restore required staffing ratios for all nursing homes to provide 3.5 hours of care per day for the heavy-care patients who are no longer accepted or acceptable in chronic care hospitals;
• increase funding for supportive housing and extend support services to all present Metro Seniors’ buildings. 

We advocate that the Federal Government:

• prohibit the inclusion in our public health care system of private facilities offering enhanced services to those who can pay for them;
• extend pension credits to caregivers for all the years that they must drop out of the labor force to care for elderly or chronically ill family members;
• provide "eternity leave", comparable to parental leave for new parents, for persons who must temporarily leave employment to care for a dying family member;
• negotiate a national pharmacare system that would enable governments to achieve substantial savings in the cost of pharmaceuticals through bulk purchasing
• protect Canadians from the bio-engineering experiments with our food being
• conducted by multi-national agri-business corporations, who, in their rush for profits are risking our long-term health and risking the "wearing out" of insecticides and weed-killers comparable to the "wearing out" of antibiotics from over-use.

Health Issues Committee, May 2000

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