Truly Client-Centred Health System

01 Oct Truly Client-Centred Health System

Re: Nova Scotia’s recent budget: I can live with the tiny increase in health care, provided we change to a client-centred system to better meet health needs across the population.

Client-centred example

I think we need to consider the shift to a client-centred system, carried out by the Addiction and Mental Health Program in Nova Scotia’s South Shore District Health Authority. They dramatically reduced wait times and improved services by changing the system – without demanding more resources. AND they were able at the same time to put a greater emphasis on health promotion and disease prevention.

They learned how to create a system truly focused on the needs of clients, which led to more clients and better-served clients. 

Changing to a client-centred system

Todd Leader’s book, It’s Not About Us, clearly describes how to create system change – no easy task.  As Todd emphasizes, health professionals are client-centred in their individual interactions with clients. It is the system that needs to change. Such changes might include putting services in community locations, making it easier to connect to support during evenings and weekends, and getting into the system more quickly.

I suggest that our entire health system needs to shift to a truly client-centred approach to make the improvements we need. Only in this way can we create positive change without overburdening the provincial budget.