“This year the budget will exceed $60 billion. In six years, it’s an increase of 50%,” he declared in front of a crowd of experts as part of a conference on health at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM).
Minister Dubé and the Minister responsible for Seniors, Sonia Bélanger, announced Friday morning that Quebec plans to adopt a national policy on prevention next spring. This strategy will aim to act further upstream to alleviate pressure on health and social services.
In a press release from the cabinet of the Ministry of Health, it is emphasized that the role of the ministry is expected to evolve with the entry into office of Santé Québec, scheduled for December 1. In this context, the ministry intends to give “an increased place to prevention”.
“This gives us a unique opportunity to rethink and refocus the vision of the ministry by separating the operations that will now be done at the network level. There will be much less confusion in the directions of the ministry and the operations of a network of 350,000 employees,” maintained Mr. Dubé.
In his speech, he recalled that all Quebecers want to age healthily.
“We must ensure that this aging can be done in a pleasant way,” he declared. He argued that despite all the efforts made in recent years to increase the supply of care, demand still exceeds supply, particularly due to the increase and aging of the population. “If we don’t work upstream, we will continue to have this increase in demand. What should be done? We must reverse the trend,” he said.
Ms. Bélanger mentioned in her speech the strategy that she had previously presented, which is called “The Pride of Aging”. This is a five-year plan, adopted by the Council of Ministers, containing around a hundred measures focused on the health of seniors. “We are moving towards a national home support policy. I also want to mention that we will work, it has already started, to adopt a policy related to Alzheimer’s,” she shared.
She specified that there will be at least four axes in the policy on Alzheimer’s, including one on prevention.
Faculty of Health Sciences at UQAM
UQAM took advantage of its conference “A new vision of health” to announce the creation of a new Faculty of Health Sciences. This faculty will bring together different health programs already existing within the university such as psychology, social work and ergonomic intervention. The objective is to improve synergy between programs and invest in new fields of study and research.
“UQAM’s vision in health is centered on a global, interdisciplinary and collaborative approach. Far from being limited to the treatment of illness, it aims to maintain health through approaches focused on prevention, a government priority, the promotion of healthy lifestyles and community resilience,” the rector indicated in a press release. from UQAM, Stéphane Pallage.
Editor’s note: This is a corrected version. In a previous version, The Canadian Press erroneously wrote that the Quebec government announced Friday morning a new strategy entitled “The Pride of Aging”. In fact, this strategy had already been presented before. For more information, see Noovo Info’s editorial standards.
