Patient advocate offers health-care tips in new book
Nova Scotia’s health-care system succeeds in many ways but one way it doesn’t is by failing to be patient-centred – that’s according to Mary Jane Hampton, a long-time healthcare planner and CBC Radio columnist.
In her new book, Health Hacks: How You Can Get Good Health Care in Nova Scotia (Formac Publishing Company), Hampton provides readers with a practical toolkit for dealing with health professionals and institutions and offers ideas on how the province’s healthcare system could work better for patients.
“To be an informed patient, to feel that you actually have some power in the process of obtaining health care, there are some things you need to know. There are some questions you need to ask every time, there are expectations you should have that should be upheld,” she said during a recent interview.
Hampton’s guide, which includes helpful forms and checklists, provides readers with 73 health hacks or tips ranging from gender bias in health care and being your own fiercest advocate to how to best explain your symptoms to your doctor. Hampton’s tips include: use your own words to describe your symptoms; don’t let your care provider put words in your mouth; be as descriptive as you can and include when you have your symptoms, how often and in what situations.
The majority of the tips in the book are in response to questions that friends and CBC listeners asked Hampton to explore in trying to navigate the healthcare system. In 2019, she began her weekly radio column on CBC’S Information Morning to offer suggestions and insights to help the public understand how the system works and ways to improve the patient experience.
“There is nothing in the Canadian healthcare system that is actually set up that would be intended to give the patient superb experience,” Hampton said.
“Every point of access should either solve your problem or give you a seamless step to the place where your problem can be solved. I doubt that is how most people would describe their experience through the health system.”
Hampton, whose father is a medical doctor, acknowledges that the healthcare system is struggling and is in the difficult process of reinventing itself. Despite its serious problems and inadequacies, she remains a passionate defender of a comprehensive and publicly funded healthcare system. She encourages readers to empower themselves instead of losing hope.
“If you get nothing else from this collection of tips and insider knowledge, I hope you learned this: you don’t have to be patient while being a patient. You have to be smart about how to get all the parts of a chaotic system working for you,” she writes. “In the meantime, if you’re sitting in a waiting room feeling scared, or anxious, or frustrated, or overwhelmed, look around you. Every clinician, every staff member, every volunteer you see came to work because they want to help people. We should all remember that.”
THE OLD MOON IN HER ARMS
In her new book The Old Moon in Her Arms: Women I Have Known and Been (Nimbus Publishing), author and former Halifax poet laureate Lorri Neilsen Glenn weaves together, in lyrical prose, fragments, pivotal moments and images from the making of her life.
“Time can create distance, even from ourselves; no straight line connects then and now. This collection is a kind of ana, a collage of story, anecdote, and reflection that gathers up a woman’s life to try to make sense of it. What and who matters? Why? Here the reader will find a kaleidoscope of prose pieces, mixtapes and mash-ups of earlier writing, journals, letters, online conversations, and more,” she writes in the book’s prologue.
“Like both memory and the moon, what’s written here aims to shed what light it can, bringing it home to now.”
Guiding her exploration is the Cree concept of wahkohtowin, the kinship in all of creation, and the elliptical path of the moon. Neilsen Glenn celebrates connection, wonder, and curiosity in her new book.
“Each morning I carry into the day ancestors, my birth and immediate families, friends and acquaintances, those who taught me, loved me, pushed me, hurt me, inspired me. I carry my strengths and sorrows, faults and quirks. If I knocked on your door today, you wouldn’t believe
how many women would be standing there. And tomorrow? A slightly different group,” she writes.
“As for me, I want to take stock: Who and what have created the person I am? What learning awaits? And so I write. If writing is a long goodbye, it’s also where I often find the answer to “what’s next?”
THE LUNENBURG FARMERS’ MARKET COOKBOOK
In their new book, The Lunenburg Farmers’ Market Cookbook: Homegrown Recipes for Every Month of the Year (Nimbus Publishing), food and gardening writer Elisabeth Bailey shares the joys of using local ingredients and the strong sense of community they find at their local farmers’ market.
Bailey and their family live in Lunenburg and attend the market that started in 1984. Drawing inspiration from the long-time market, Bailey brings together more than 60 seasonally inspired recipes and celebrates the delicious food available year-round in Nova Scotia.
With photos by food stylist Alyssa Valletta, the monthby-month cookbook features profiles of Nova Scotian farmers and suppliers and advice on how to create a good farmers’ market experience.
The cookbook offers reimagined classic Nova Scotian recipes such as sesame soy scallops and Lunenburg market chowder as well as dishes inspired by international cuisine, such as Indonesian goat curry. Bailey also provides vegetarian dish recipes including mushroom and caramelized onion pie, and a variety of desserts from no-churn raspberry ice cream to chocolate rum bites.
BOOKMARKS
■ Join author Alex Pugsley on May 1 at 6 p.m. at The Local on Halifax’s Gottingen Street for the launch of his new book, The Education of
Aubrey Mckee (Biblioasis). Pugsley will speak with CBC Ideas producer Mary Lynk. Jazz music will follow after the book launch.
■ Congratulations to Nova Scotia illustrator Sydney Smith. He won the 2024 Hans Christian Andersen Award for illustration, making him the first Canadian winner. The biannual award, presented by the International Board of Books for Young People, is the highest international recognition for authors and illustrators of children’s books.
■ Celebrate Canadian Children’s Book Week from April 28 to May 4. For more information visit: bookcentre. ca/book-week. The shortlists for the 2024 Atlantic Book Awards and 2024 Nova Scotia Book Awards were jointly announced earlier this month. For more information about the wonderful books on the shortlists visit: writers.ns.ca/ award-news/book-awardsshortlists-2024/.
■ Afterwords Literary Festival will host a provocative talk exploring the life, times, and legacy of 2024 Nova Scotia Heritage Day honoree William Hall on May 9 at 6:30 p.m. at the Halifax Central Library.
Dalhousie University professor Asha Jeffers will moderate the conversation with special guests Sylvia D. Hamilton, Jacob Sampson, and Ajay Parasram. They will discuss the complexity of a Black war hero fighting for British colonialism and delve into difficult questions: How do we celebrate and honour war heroes in the 21st century? How should we think about marginalized people fighting on behalf of colonialism? Graphic illustrator Bria Miller will capture the conversation in images in front of the audience.
The event is free, but registration is encouraged for those attending: https:// www.canadahelps.org/ en/charities/afterwordsliterary-festival-organisation/ events/i-will-take-the-chanceexploring-the-life-of-williamhall-vc/.
Read between the lines with journalist and author Allison Lawlor as she explores the Nova Scotia book scene and chats with local authors in her biweekly column.