Farewell

Throughout this course I have been blogging about concepts taught in this course as well as interesting issues that arise from class discussions and seminar activities. I’ve noticed that throughout my blogs I’ve always complained about this and criticized that but without looking at the positive aspects of these issues. I had a negative attitude towards a lot of the issues because as soon as I would see a problem with it I would start to look for the other problems and find that there are many problems! I would focus so much on these problems that I wouldn’t even notice the achievements or other positive outcomes.

Apart from the knowledge I gained from this course, this course has taught me to look at issues through different frames. The blogging experience helped with this as well. Mentality, background, beliefs, etc all contribute to the development of a person’s frame of mind and how they view things. With my mentality I personally did not enjoy some concepts taught in this course though I had to learn about them whether I liked it or not and I actually started to especially open my mind to these concepts that I didn’t like. I kept questioning these concepts/issues to try and find a way to “like” them or at least bear them. This made me become more critical and also more accepting to issues that I personally may not agree with. Being critical has indeed opened my eyes and has allowed me to have new perspectives yet I still constantly question things and don’t necessarily “believe” or “accept” them. As you will see in all my previous posts I asked many questions and will probably continue to always ask questions. What can I do I’m just a curious person!

I feel like I do not have any major reoccurring themes in my blogs. Maybe just the concept of health in itself is the main reoccurring theme throughout my blogs... ok, and the criticism of Canadian policies! I feel like in every blog I had a different theme like Canadian healthcare reform, or the knowledge levels of Canadians, or the misinterpretations of the definition of health. Going back and reading my blogs made me think of how judgemental I was towards issues that I may not have completely understood. I have indeed opened my eyes now to why things are the way they are. There are positive and negative aspects to everything and I have to learn to see both areas and not just focus on one.

Before I end this last blog i would like to talk about my blogging experience. On the first day of this course when we were told we have to blog I was not looking forward to it at all! I’ve never blogged and I just never had an interest in blogging, I never imagined I would ever blog. I have to say though this has been one of my favourite experiences in a course. I mean come on; we get to write whatever is on our mind (as long as it relates to the course). I thought I wouldn’t have anything to write about in my blogs but as soon as I would start a sentence I kept going on and on and found that I would be done the blog within 10 minutes! Overall I think blogging has been a great experience and I might actually want to create my own blog in the future. Perhaps a blog that has recipes of traditional dishes from the country I come from with pictures and information about the ingredients used. By the way this might be weird but I always take pictures on my phone of food that I make. Finally, I’d like to thank you all for reading to my blogs!

Community doodling??

Throughout this course I have been ranting in my blogs about the concepts we have learned and always looking at the negative aspects of them such as the problems associated with the Canadian healthcare system. As this is my last blog, I will demonstrate to you that I’m not THAT fussy and I will address an issue I learned about this week with a positive outlook.

In this week of this course we learned about healthy human development. Healthy human development is not achieved if people eat their vegetables everyday but rather many aspects of their everyday lives including their quality of life. Quality of life means for a person to have not only a healthy well being but also the well being of their societies.

An interesting concept that was discussed in class that reflects quality of life is the community design charette. I’ve never heard of this before but what happens is that members of the community get together and actually construct an image of what they want their communities to look like. They actually draw what they want to change in their community, for example, if in the community there is a certain landscape that consists of an empty green space, the members of the community can draw a park in that area to make this space useful to the members of the community.

I think this an amazing idea! I mean members of the community can actually say, or shall I say draw, what they want in their community. I think this is a great way for the people of the community to have their voices heard. Also, actually having a physical representation (that people can look at) that shows exactly what will be changed is more effective for members of the community so they can know exactly what will happen rather than have a written document on a paper that may not be descriptive and therefore people might not fully understand it and accept it.

When creating community design charettes, different members work on different aspects such as housing, infrastructure, neighbourhoods, and transportation. These different categories are a balance of social, cultural, and residential needs that synergistically affect quality of life. These charettes also provide a great representation of the community since the community members are the ones who dictate the changes that need to be made in their communities. As Jane Jacobs said in the clip watched in seminar, people are living sedentary lifestyles today. If communities make efforts to provide more access to parks, sidewalks, bike routes, supermarkets, etc., members of the community can perhaps have an increased quality of life and ultimately healthy development.

As Jane Jacobs said: "Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody."

R u sure ur going to have that?

So I went out for dinner with my family which we do often when we are all home to spend time with each other. This was a pretty fancy place with dark walls and leather booths and fancy crystal chandeliers and even the waiters working were all dressed in black shirts and ties and all the waitresses were wearing black miniskirts or mini dresses. I expected that everyone working there would be polite and courteous because of the image that this restaurant has created for itself. I didn’t pay attention to what my family ordered, I don’t even remember what anyone ordered (but I would imagine my brothers had some sort of burger) but I had a taco salad with grilled chicken and water to drink as always (I don’t actually drink it) because I get too full having a meal and a drink so I almost never order a drink. So we all ate, talked, argued, and up until now it was the same as any other time I go out with my family for dinner.

After we finished our meals, the waitress asked us if we wanted dessert. Actually, let me repeat exactly what she said. She said: “I know you guys are trying to be healthy but do you want any dessert”? I almost never analyze what people say and think about it and what they meant exactly (like you said what you said and who cares I’m not going to analyze that) but this time I did. In fact I was furious with her. Maybe it was her tone of voice and the slight eye roll, I don’t know, but it just frustrated me. It’s been about 4 months since this happened and I still remember it sometimes. The way she said it “I know you guys are trying to be healthy but do you want any dessert”? Um, no, were not “trying” to be “healthy”, just because someone is eating a salad that means their “trying” to be healthy? And that means they can’t have dessert? Who is she to decide if I’m “trying” to be healthy anyways? Maybe I wasn’t “trying” to be “healthy”, maybe I was “trying” to be “unhealthy”, because I did have plans of having a dessert after my salad (which I did and it was amazing). So, no, you don’t know that we are trying to be healthy!

What does that mean anyway? What does being healthy mean? Having a salad? Not ordering a pop? Not eating dessert? This brings me to a point that I often ponder about which is how people always associate health with food. Fruits and vegetables in particular, they’ve become a symbol of health, I bet if you Google the word health now you’ll see an image of an apple. But people never think about mental health or social surroundings as being contributors to health. Like the waitress that frustrated me, maybe this will negatively impact my health (don’t worry though I’m not THAT sensitive).

To conclude, I think that the definition of health is destroyed, or misunderstood (actually, did people ever understand it from the beginning?) and people should not judge certain issues about health based on false information. As I’m typing this I just remembered, my brothers ordered chicken wings as an appetizer (I didn’t have any, I don’t like them), and the waitress still called them/us healthy after that!

Tommy Douglas vs. Justin Bieber

In seminar of week 4 of this course we were asked to address any issues or questions we had about the concepts we learned in the previous weeks of this course. Everyone in the group i sat with had something so say about Tommy Douglas. Apart for that he is a great person and an influential figure in Canadian history, we all asked each other why that at this point in our education (3^rd/4^th year) do we not know about him? It seems like he is such an important figure in the development of the Canadian health care system yet none of us even new about him. Some of us said we might have learned about him in the past and forgot about him but I was sure I’ve never heard of him before, otherwise I would have definitely remembered him.

Apart from Tommy Douglas, why do we as Canadians know so little about the development of the Canadian healthcare system, or even the current state of this system? I’m not just saying that Canadians do not about their healthcare system just because I don’t know about it, but from peers that I chatted with in classes and even from reading some of your blogs, it seems that that is the case. I mean we were discussing healthcare reform the previous week but before taking this course how much did we really know about the Canadian healthcare system? Ok, we may not completely understand all the nitty gritty of the Canadian healthcare system that might not be openly discussed amongst the public such as regulations, policies, and funding, but what about the things that are made for the public? The things that we are supposed to know about? The things the government wants us to know about. Why do we not know about them? Things such as community healthcare services provided by our local community centres or health centres. From the group that I chatted with in seminar, most of us mentioned we do not really know much about the healthcare services provided by our local community centres. Also, all of us said we have never even seen a health centre! We have all indeed seen community centres (though we do not quite know the services they provide in terms of health care) but none of us have actually seen a health centre. So, I ask, why do we Canadians know so little about our country? Why are we so oblivious to what goes on around us, even within our local communities?  

I feel like as Canadians we have a long way of educating ahead of us. Not just about Canadian history such as influential figures in the development of Canada (e.g. Tommy Douglas, although he didn’t develop Canada, though some people argue that Canadian healthcare is part of their Canadian identity) but also about public services/health services provided by the Canadian government.

"Courage, my friends; 'tis not too late to build a better world." Tommy Douglas

To reform or not to reform?

In week three of this course there was much discussion of the Canadian healthcare system and much debate over whether it is effective or not. I personally do not have much experiences with the Canadian healthcare system (besides just going to my family doctor if I have the flue) so I couldn’t really relate to what was being discussed in class and seminar. From the very little experience I do have with the Canadian healthcare system (going to my family doctor) I have to say I feel like the service is poor. I always thought it was just my family doctor that doesn’t provide good service (I hope she doesn’t read this) but from reading Romanow’s article and hearing what my classmates had to say about healthcare services I feel like most Canadians are facing this problem of poor services and not just me (so maybe it’s not my family doctors fault).

 So whose fault is it? Is it the Canadian government’s fault which does not provide training for doctors regarding proper communication with patients? Or is it the doctors fault themselves who are too busy to want to talk to their patients? I’m not trying to blame anyone here but I think it is important to answer this question before discussing healthcare reform. If the Canadian government does start to change its current approach to healthcare services will the “new and improved” approach truly be effective? If for example training regarding communication skills are provided to doctors, will the doctors even follow through with this? Or will their busy schedules hold them back from in depth explanations to their patients? I can’t imagine my doctor actually taking time to talk to me rather than just give me her back and ask me how I’m doing while writing out that messy prescription. (I don’t know why the doctor in the image below is smiling at the fact that he has his back to his patient and is just thinking of which medication to prescribe him).

It may sound like I’m against healthcare reform but I’m not, I’m just questioning how effective it will be. Many points were mentioned in class regarding healthcare reform such as quality of care, accessibility, and timeliness (these are ones that I found were most important). I think these points, as well as all the others mentioned in class/seminar, are important to address but we have to think: is it actually possible to meet all these expectations?   

            Before I end I just wanted to mention one more thing. A certain topic was discussed in class and lecture and this is the “one size fits all” concept. It was argued that the Canadian healthcare system should be tailored to individuals’ needs but in my opinion how realistic is that? Canada has a population of 33 million so it’s safe to say that having tailored healthcare for everyone is impossible. I’m sure no country is able to do this so why is everyone complaining that Canada isn’t doing this? I completely agree that healthcare should be tailored to meet each individual’s needs but this is just not realistic.

Have a look at this clip regarding Canadian healthcare: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXJgkvF19QA I was shocked! I didn’t know Canadian healthcare was that bad. If you don’t want to watch the entire clip fast forward to 3 minutes. In a town outside Toronto they have a lottery for winning a family doctor!

Village on a diet?

Village on a diet?

Today people are just so obsessed with health. What to eat, where to eat, when to eat, what to do, what not to do! So many rules about how we should live our lives so that we don’t get sick and ultimately, don’t end up dead!

The media has been promoting healthy living in so many ways that even TV shows have been created based on this concept. Some of these shows gained much popularity such as The Biggest Loser, yet others, not so much, like the show Village on a diet which has been discussed in almost all my classes this semester several times. But I wonder do these shows actually promote health? How effective are they in motivating people to get up and exercise, or to swap a can of pop for milk? How effective are all the ads we come across every day, and are they even worth being displayed?

You may find it strange that I’m a nutrition student and that I’m saying this but I feel like everywhere I look I’m bombarded with internet ads, radio ads, billboards, posters, etc, all promoting healthy living. Well maybe not everyone wants to live this “healthy” lifestyle and is happy with the current lifestyle they are living. Why does everyone have to have fibre and eat lots of leafy vegetables and cut back on foods they like like pizza and be miserable when they can eat what they want and be happy and enjoy life? For example, the people in Village on a diet, are they actually happy? I mean yeah, maybe they are losing weight and are happy about that but do they still have a joy for life?

It may seem like I’m against being “healthy” but that’s not true at all. I think everyone should live the way they truly want and be happy about who they are and what they do. For some people this may be by eating healthy and living a healthy lifestyle, and for others this may be by eating foods that they enjoy and doing others things they enjoy, so, stop with the ads about how everyone should live a healthy lifestyle. I completely support the ads that are targeted for people who want to adopt healthy lifestyles, yet when the media tells everyone they have to lose 20lbs, hum... not so much! There are ways of trying to educate the population about taking care of their health, like promoting personal hygiene, or educating about the consequences of high risk behaviours, yet telling everyone to lose weight or eat a certain way maybe asking too much of an entire population.