A Patient Partner post, Patient engagement

What is "Patient Engagement"

According to the World Health Organization, it refers to the process of building the capacity of patients, families, carers, as well as health care providers, to facilitate and support the active involvement of patients in their own care, in order to enhance safety, quality and people-centredness of health care service delivery.  It starts at a personal interaction between you and health staff attending you while you receive healthcare until you are healthy and continues with interactions with your family doctor.

https://youtu.be/Elmx1nkQDI8

My MSed up definition:

That is the world scope, above.   I've had lots of practice with executing  Patent Engagement from long before my time with the Patient Voices Network, unofficially prior to 2009 and often at the risk of being shunned by the healthcare service as an individual because of my personal views on my MS'ed up treatment.  By the way, I'll just say "Cannabis saved my life" and be on my way with a puff from that part of patent engagement.  My story told of my personal successes such as ending a tobacco addiction and staying upright and active 18 years into my diagnoses of Multiple Sclerosis which impressed many in the health care field and I feel helped Northern Health accept PVN when approached in 2009. It was a good networking tool.  That attitude helped change the health care system slowly toward accepting it at my personal healthcare team's level and a large part of what I saw in the Patent Voices Network who have our own definitions of Patient Engagement with shared discussions, based on the life experiences of patents from all professions from health care to homeless.  O and it's not always about Cannabis but a few of the best engagements had some involved.  Once a patent has that relationship with doctors and fitting with the theme of this post, Patent Engagement is a collective effort in groups as well as found by the health care experts.

How do we affect the health Care System?

Here is one blog post I found through the Patent voices Network.  Overall at many levels of the health care industry appears positive with these partnerships as far as I see.  Here in British Columbia overall, people with life experience in health care working together with professionals in the Health Care profession have influenced many other patent's and their health care progress through out their life journey, while interacting with BC Health from family doctors to specialists in every health authority.  Projects we worked at with the health care authorities included and influenced emergency room procedures, Person and Family Centered Care,  procedure specific reactions, other problems faced by medical professionals in communication with their patients and many more situations specific to conditions.  That's the work of Patient Engagement and where it leads.  At the BC SUPPORT Unit in Vancouver BC, it's defined as this and what it isn't,  in a collective sense.

How will it evolve?

Patent Engagement is also encouraged while medical students go through courses at UBC and UNBC, as far as I understand.  We're all patents, even medical students.  The Northern Medical Program began at UNBC in 2000, to overcome to a severe doctor shortage we face in Northern British Columbia.  That was the year I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in UHNBC (then known as the Prince George Regional Hospital) while my dad died in that hospital.  The school has graduated well over 100 new doctors who remained in our areas, while UBC educates doctors for use in the south-coastal and island health authorities local to them.  People like myself are even sitting at national research boards on patent councils at the BC- Regional SUPPORT Units and within the PVN influencing  medical professionals as well as their profession nationally with Patent Engagement.  That's a great question on how it will evolve.  Perhaps we all need to learn self care and not depend on the health care profession except for serious medical problems and regular checkups to prevent chronic development, all of Canada has to get on board with it as well.  Most of the provinces have a Patent Voices Network and a SUPPORT Unit now, and in the USA much information comes from Patent Advisory groups like ours.  It will evolve globally however it manifests.

Do other MS affected people sit on these boards?

Yes, we do.   I've made provincial MS connections on both the Patent Voices Network of BC and at the BC SUPPORT Unit.  I have found similar mindsets in many from just our local MS Community and widespread across our MS'ed up province taking on civic roles of accessibility awareness, healthcare in the province or your local health authority.  I hope to find them trough the Regional SUPPORT Unit I'm making contact with this afternoon too!  What's this Regional center?    We're passing on our knowledge of overcoming barriers that we face to people that see those barriers while in their professions dealing with people with all abilities and can make the changes so many of us need.  Be the change, it starts with you.  Not just with research.  We make life better with our wisdom of life experiences and having the time to sit on these needed boards to address these issues.  We can become accredited citizen scientists.  This makes life better for everyone with any level of ability.  Access blocks no one from anywhere, it's needed in public spaces as well as healthcare for everyone.






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