While this April 7 marks the 75e World Health Day, we would like to highlight the essential contribution of the charitable health sector in Quebec.
Did you know that there is a group of charitable organizations that represents 400 health conditions affecting nearly 90% of the Quebec population?
In fact, PartenaireSanté brings together 17 Quebec charitable organizations that act with a view to local health by deploying programs and services on the ground to a very large number of Quebecers.
Our organizations serve vulnerable people with serious and chronic diseases: Alzheimer’s disease, arthritis, cancer, heart disease and stroke, ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, diabetes, dystrophy muscle, cystic fibrosis, liver disease, hemophilia, Huntington’s disease, mental health, Parkinson’s disease, lung disease, kidney disease, multiple sclerosis and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Towards greater use of local health services
As we all know, Quebec’s health and social services network has been operating under constant pressure for decades, a situation that has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it is important to point out that the health care ecosystem in Quebec functions in particular thanks to numerous efforts deployed outside the network.
In fact, thanks to citizen involvement and the community action of health charities, multiple local health services are deployed every day in addition to what is offered within the network: information, prevention, accompaniment, transportation, respite, support, educational tools and awareness initiatives.
According to a 2021 study by Abacus, people with chronic and serious illnesses say that it has become even more crucial in this post-pandemic period to use charitable organizations to supplement the services of the health and social services network which is overwhelmed throughout Quebec.
Need for strong support for health charities
This situation concerns us all, because if they do not affect you directly, our services certainly benefit members of your family, loved ones, some of your friends or work colleagues.
As a society, it is therefore crucial that we acquire the means to improve the field health services offered by charitable organizations in Quebec to ensure their sustainability. Since these organizations are players in complementary solutions to the services offered by the government, their sustainability has an impact on that of the health network.
This is why we call on our public decision-makers to recognize the essential contribution of health charities and to support them on an ongoing basis, both on the fiscal level and on the legislative and regulatory side.
We also call on our fellow citizens who are able to support our organizations to do so. Whether financially or by volunteering, there are no small gestures: all efforts count in health!
On this World Health Day, demonstrations are organized all over the world to emphasize that health is the most expensive good of humans. This is also what we believe and this is why we take our hats off to all those who work day and night to ensure our health, sometimes in difficult conditions and often at the sacrifice of their personal lives.
Dear Quebecers, to your health!
* Co-signatories: Sophie Barrette, Director of Development — Quebec Division, Cystic Fibrosis Canada; Marie-Hélène Bolduc, Vice President, Programs and Services, Muscular Dystrophy Canada; Brady Carballo-Hambleton, Vice President, Heart & Stroke; Terry Dean, President, Canadian Lung Association; Claudine Cook, Executive Director, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Society of Quebec; Sylvie Grenier, Executive Director, Quebec Federation of Alzheimer Societies; Liette Guertin, Director, Exemplary and Corporate Giving—Quebec and French Canada, Canadian Cancer Society; Heather Holmes, Vice President, Eastern Canada, Arthritis Society of Canada; Mathieu Jackson, President, Canadian Hemophilia Society, Quebec Section; Francine Labelle, Executive Director, The Kidney Foundation — Quebec Division; Francine Lacroix, Executive Director, Huntington Society of Quebec; Sylvie Lauzon, President and CEO, Diabetes Quebec; Karen Lee, Executive Director, Parkinson Canada; Nem Maksimovic, Director, Information and Support Services, Canadian Liver Foundation; Diego Mena Martinez, Executive Director, Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada, Quebec Division; Lori Radke, President, CEO, Crohn’s and Colitis Canada; Michel Rodrigue, President and CEO, Mental Health Commission of Canada