NDP to take new ‘approach’ on women’s health care

Alberta’s NDP government is calling for a new “targeted approach” to women’s health but details of what that will mean are sketchy.

In the 2017-20 health ministry business plan released with the provincial budget, the government says that in many families women have not only their own complex health needs to consider but are also responsible for the health and wellness of their partners, children and parents.

“As such, a targeted approach to women’s health is needed — one that supports the interests of all women, at all stages of life, and acknowledges the diversity of women’s experiences including higher incidences of violence and social and economic vulnerabilities,” says the report.

The government says it will develop the new approach using Alberta’s “Gender Based Analysis Plus approach,” which commits the province to examine all policies to determine whether there are specific impacts on women and to consider other identity factors such as sexual orientation, ethnicity, geography, faith, income, gender identity and gender expression. The business plan said the new approach “will enhance health equity in care provisions and support equality of health outcomes for all women (Indigenous, seniors, disabled, youth, LGBTQ, new Canadians and rural Albertans) and will go beyond traditional health services.”

In a recent interview, NDP Health Minister Sarah Hoffman had few details to add on what she said is a policy that is still under development. She said the issue of possible gender-based inequity within the health system is something that needs to be examined.

“We need to know where it’s at so that we can properly make sure that we’re moving the envelope. I regularly hear from demographics throughout the province that feel that access is difficult for a number of services they receive,” said Hoffman.

The government says that among the areas likely to be looked at as the policy emerges are women’s status as mothers, chronic conditions that have a disproportionate impact on women and women having different pathways toward the same diseases as men. The gender analysis plus policy is supposed to be applied across government. However, the health ministry is the only department to refer to the approach in its business plan except for the Status of Women, the lead agency on the policy.

Dr. Sue Ross, the Cavarzan Chair in Mature Women’s Health Research at the University of Alberta, will watch how the policy plays out but says it’s potentially “a really useful thing to happen.”

She said the concern is not deliberate inequity within the health system, but instead ensuring that women and men have treatments tailored to their needs.

“With heart disease, women often present with what seems not to be heart symptoms, and therefore they go to the doctor and it’s not always recognized as being indicative of heart problems,” said Ross as an example.

“It’s not because anybody is discriminating, it’s just because they present in a different way.”