Just over 100 years ago the leading cause of death was bacterial infections. Things have changed. Health care has evolved and we now have antibiotics in order to prevent illness caused by bacteria. This is difficult to believe, modern medicine which I would argue came into being around the time of penicillin, has only been a practice for roughly 100 years. In this time we have focused on reacting to disease in order to treat people when they have become sick, however in order to ensure continued health and improvement a shift in how things are done is needed.
Today more than 38 million people die from chronic disease each year which is the leading cause of death far outpacing infectious diseases. What is unique about this is that with proper programming and initiatives these deaths could be preventable. The illness’ we are discussing are typically cardiac disease, uncontrolled diabetes and respiratory diseases. It is estimated that in Canada 33% of our health care costs go towards the treatment of chronic illness. As such I would argue it is time for a shift in how we educate health care workers. By continuing to focus on reactive medicine and how to treat acute changes to the body it is necessary for us to begin focusing education more on the chronic diseases that people are faced with every day and how these illness’ affect their lived experiences.
By focusing on chronic illness in the education of health care workers we can better prepare them for the realities of the system they are entering. Someone with a passion for emergency medicine may be shocked to learn that more often then not the patients that will be treated are those seeking relief from the symptoms of their chronic condition. How then do we educate students on this new reality of care? How can we solidify the adage “an once of prevention is worth a pound of cure”?
One of the largest barriers to overcome is cost. The difficulty that preventative programming typically runs into has to do with the price of the programming. It is often difficult to measure the benefits of these programs as they do not showcase in the short term. If we were to implement a program now that partnered every citizen with a personal trainer once a month in order to guide them through physical fitness it could be argued that instances of diabetes and cardiac disease would be decreased and as such the cost on the health care system would be drastically decreased, but these affects won’t be seen for decades.
As a health educator the importance of focusing on chronic disease management and treatment for students is clear. The goal now will be to modify curriculum to address the challenges that these illness’ present to our system, and engage students in a way that allows for creative responses to these new challenges.
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Learning How To Care 
Hi Gregory,
I agree with you that there needs to be a change if we want to see improvements to health in Canada and also to address the leading cause of deaths, which you stated were chronic illnesses. As someone who has lead an active sport life, I feel quite lucky that I have had the opportunities to learn about fitness, health and body awareness. I know when I am feeling under the weather mentally that it is probably due to a lack of exercise or diet. I know that when I start working out at the gym after a long break, that it is going to suck because my body isn’t used to it, but that it will get better. As a teacher, I can already imagine which students are the ones who might be suffering in the future from preventable chronic illnesses. I see students who are 7 unable to run a whole lap around the gym because they never run around and play, I see students who eat treat after treat after treat and are heading down a path that they might not be able to recover from. We educate at school the importance of an active lifestyle, and balanced nutrition, but ultimately it is parents that are the driving force behind those choices and we are not allowed to “tell” them how to parent. I’ve never really seen “active parents” that don’t have “active kids”. I am not sure if you have a suggestion on how to change parents perspectives on living healthy lifestyles, but if you do let me know 🙂
Thanks for your thoughts, I think it would be amazing if there was a monthly check-in with a personal trainer.
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Hi Bailey,
You have absolutely highlighted an inherent issue with programming. I recently listened to a podcast by freakenomics in which they discussed the issues with scaling up programs. Those most likely to access the program are those that most likely don’t need to and as a result entire groups of people continue to be left behind.
I wonder if there is not a way to incentives parents in order to promote the healthier lifestyles that will ultimately produce positive outcomes. I wonder if one of the issues is education around what is truly healthy. Perhaps one way to promote a healthier at home lifestyle without telling parents how to parent would be to have the children plan a week of meals and activities that are within a very conservative budget to be mindful of costs.
Or alternately more education around how to grow their own food?
Thank you ,
Gregory
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