Let us begin with congratulations to Leona Aglukkaq on
reaching the pinnacle of her third anniversary in October 2011 as Minister of
Health. There have only been four previous
to meet this mark in the past 40- years. The Honourable Minister joins the elite club with
the likes of Mark Lalonde, Monique
Begin, Jake Epp and Alan Rock,
impressive company to stand with.
She was last week in the roaring metropolis of Happy
Valley/Goose Bay announcing funding for the gathering of best evidence on
suicide prevention. Granted it is only a
total of $300K.
The other question might be given a resource in the Centre
for Suicide Prevention why this existing
infrastructure was not bolstered to continue its past work in the field ? (previously SIEC the Suicide Information and
Education Centre which lost federal funding after rise of the federal
conservatives to power, and remains as
an Alberta provincial resource Centre
for Suicide Prevention and a hidden
treasure of national scope.
Efforts to prevent
and contain suicide have seen funding come and go quickly. Sustained and continuous efforts have not
yielded wide swings in reducing mortality from suicide, though no doubt have
had a positive impact on mental health manifestations and responding to
suicidal behaviour. The proposed
literature reviews should provide a valuable update to the very active works
that previously existed.
The graphic actually demonstrates the long term trend,
although there are some notable problems with the data. PHAC and Health Canada are now 6 years
delayed in posting mortality data for public use. Quebec has for many years not reported
suicide rates to the federal mortality system. The
good news is that suicide rates in both genders have trended downwards over the
past few decades. If the data was
extended back we would see climbs after WWII to the 70’s followed by a
flattening before the slow and steady decrease. More was discussed DrPHealth
suicide and the stock market crash
There is a good news story here in the suicide rate
reduction and good news in some renewed funding for research/knowledge
synthesis in suicide prevention. The
unspoken questions that might be asked are:
·
Why a mere $300K for what has been consistently
a top 10 killer in Canada and there isn’t much other research or programming
going on?
·
What will be done with the best evidence
knowledge synthesis papers?
·
Is there a longer term pan-Canadian commitment
to finally invest adequately in programming and research to substantively
affect suicide rates?
·
What exactly has the Minister done during her
leadership role?
Perhaps the last question is a bit unfair, but take a scan
of Ministry press releases for the past year News releases
from Ministry of Health. A couple of
subjective observations:
Most of the releases relate to
non-controversial or niche issues
Few related to substantive investments
in efforts to improve the health of the population.
Perhaps the secret to preventing political suicide is to avoid negative publicity, in this respect Minister Aglukkaq may be a master and key to her longevity. Does she deserve to stand amid the elite club that she recently joined? What do you think? Time for some pointed comments to be posted on this blog.
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