The Cochrane and Area Health Foundation (CAHF) hosted a gathering of 11 health foundations during a brainstorming and strategy session at The Station last Wednesday, April 2.
The session was prompted over uncertainty regarding the impending re-organization at Alberta Health regarding the four pillars of the so-called "new, unified provincial health care system," which will have four specialized areas of focus: Primary Care Organization, Continuing Care Organization, Acute Care Organization, and Mental Health and Addiction Organization.
Up until recently, all these areas were under the jurisdiction of Alberta Health Services (AHS), and all funds raised by local health foundations like CAHF would be paid out to support AHS.
“The health foundations across the province realize that with the Four Pillars that are happening with Alberta Health, we just want to know where we fit in with the pillars," explained Brian Winter, chair of CAHF. “The brainstorming session to discuss what we can do, how we can function better as a group, and to determine where we are going to fit in the overall function of the Health Foundation.”
The gathering at The Station last Wednesday allowed the 11 attending foundations to share ideas and discuss how to work together as a group going forward, said Winter.
Two main areas of discussion were how the different foundations fundraise for their community health facilities and what types of grant opportunities may be out there.
“How do people fundraise? As you know, the health foundations across the province are a fundraiser for AHS. So how do we fundraise? What are some of the things they are doing that we’re not doing? What are some of the things we’re doing that’s not working that we can share with the group?” explained Winter. “There are (also) a lot of grants out there with respect to different organizations, and we just need to determine how we start applying for grants, and what are some of the hints.”
The session at The Station was also an opportunity to test the waters, said Winter, about how the organizations, which tend to be siloed within their own communities, might work together collectively in the face of broad changes coming to Alberta Health.
“How can we work together? Is there any merit in forming a formal or informal committee where we can all have the same type of voice, and making it toward AHS and the Health Minister … So hopefully it’s the start of something bigger.
“It’s a start,” concluded Winter, who said he was open to the idea of all the foundations meeting quarterly in either a formal or informal way to come up with common ground on how to work with Alberta Health and Alberta Health Services moving forward.
