What is Health Canada’s Women’s Health Strategy?
Health Canada's Women's Health Strategy is a framework to guide Health Canada in fully integrating Gender-Based Analysis (GBA) in departmental programs and policies. This initiative arises from Canada's
international and national commitments to gender equality. Adopted
in 1999, the overarching goal of the Strategy is to improve the health
of women in Canada by enhancing the responsiveness of our health
system to women and women's health needs. The four objectives of the Strategy
outline a commitment:
- To ensure that Health Canada's policies and programs are responsive to sex and gender differences, and to women's health needs;
- To increase knowledge and understanding of women's health and women's health needs;
- To support the provision of effective health services to women;
- To promote good health through preventive measures and the reduction of risk factors that most imperil the health of women.
The Bureau of
Women's Health and Gender Analysis (formerly the Women's Health Bureau)
is responsible for promoting and advancing the Strategy within Health
Canada.
To meet these objectives, 64 key activities are outlined in the Strategy. These include, for example:
- Applying gender-based analysis to programs and policies within Health Canada, as well as to the development of health system accountability frameworks and health system modernization and expansion plans.
- Consulting with women's organizations and health organizations interested in women's health on key policy files.
- Developing a plan to
mobilize interdepartmental collaboration in identifying objectives and
initiatives that will address socio-economic determinants of women's health.
- Development of a women's
health report that includes indicators of health status and utilization
indicators to be published every four years.
- Involving Aboriginal women in the development of programs to strengthen home and community care and in the development of health information systems in First Nations communities.
- Supporting the development
of "best practice" models to address certain specific women's health issues
(e.g., violence, abortion, mental health).
- Reducing environmental hazards and physical and psychological occupational health hazards that undermine women's health and well-being.
- Fostering health promotion activities to reduce teen pregnancies and to reduce or prevent cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis and diabetes.
- Monitoring the implementation of the Women in Clinical Trials guidelines (adopted September 1996).
Some Strategy Accomplishments
- Established the Women's Health Contribution Program to support the Centres of Excellence for Women's Health, the Aboriginal Women's
Health and Healing Research Group, and national working groups monitoring
Health Reform and Health Protection issues, as well as the Canadian Women's
Health Network.
- Began the Women's Health Indicators Project: the goal is to improve the ways in which women's health is measured and to more accurately monitor changes in women's health status/outcomes.
- Coordinated, monitored and evaluated the implementation of a Gender-Based Analysis process throughout Health Canada
Why revisit Health Canada's Women's Health Strategy?
Health Canada's Women's
Health Strategy is now more than five years old. It is not
unusual for Health Canada's strategies to be reviewed and updated at this time point. Moreover, there has been no systematic evaluation of the current Strategy's
activities as well as an assessment of how many of the overriding
goals have been met.
In March 2005,
Health Canada told the Standing Committee on the Status of Women
of its plans "to review the Women's Health Strategy to influence
a vision of the future. Development of a renewed plan of action on
women's health with targeted objectives will need to focus research
policy and program work on life cycle and diversity issues. It must
take into account the emerging knowledge and the needs of Canada's
diverse peoples and the voice of civil society."
More information on Health Canada's Women's Health Strategy
CWHN's Role
In view of Health
Canada's review of its Strategy and goal of developing an action plan, CWHN has decided to undertake an informal consultation to inform this work. CWHN is, therefore, initiating this project to learn what Canadians think of the effectiveness of the current Strategy and of the progress made in women's
health since 1999.
We hope you will
let us know what you think of the current Strategy, what's missing, and what you'd
like to see included in a renewed plan of action. If you have not read Health
Canada's Women's Health Strategy and do not have the time to do so, you
can still participate by answering the survey and giving us your thoughts on priority areas that need to be addressed to improve the health of women in Canada.
CWHN will compile
the results of this survey into a comprehensive report, which will
be presented to key policy makers and decision-makers in the federal
government responsible for this important initiative. This report
will give those involved across the country in the advancement of
women's health THEIR say. The final document will also be posted
on the CWHN website.
In addition, we want to identify groups and individuals who would
like to take part in the review process in an ongoing way.
Please take a few minutes to answer the following questions; completing this form should not take more than 20 minutes.
CWHN thanks you for your time and interest in answering the questionnaire. You do not have to identify yourself if you do not want to.
