here. - Canadian Women's Health Network

■essential needs for shelter, privacy andsecurity met.Develop long-term strategies toprevent hunger in Canada... 82The ACPH identified “Renewing andReorienting the Health Sector” as anotherof its priorities for action and called uponthe health services system to:Initiate dialogue with other healthdeterminingsectors about thehealth impacts of policies insectors outside health andabout collective actions thatcan be taken.The Report stated:Addressing the root causes ofpoor health will mean workingwith other sectors to ensure thatthe general conditions withinsociety support health. This reportsuggests that there is a need toinitiate dialogue with other healthdeterminingsectors, particularlythose in the socioeconomic domain,about the health impacts of policiesin sectors outside health andcollective strategies that canbe adopted.The ideal outcome of thesecollaborations will be healthypublic policies in a variety ofhealth-determining sectors,particularly those in the socioeconomicdomain. The healthsector cannot do it all, nor canit impose its agenda on othersectors. It can, however, initiatedialogue and act as a catalystfor change. 83 (emphasis added)2. Interventions to PromoteHealthier Public PolicyWomen, Income andHealth in Manitoba50There are three broad types of issuesabout which equity-seeking groups couldintervene to promote healthier public policyfor women. These are:1. Income Issues, for example, theminimum wage, social assistancerates and Employment Insuranceissues.2. Expenditure Issues, for example,telephone and utility rates, child carecosts, pharmacare deductibles andthe increasing costs to consumersof purchasing health care servicesno longer provided through thepublic system;3. Health Services Issues, includingworking with Manitoba’s RegionalHealth Authorities (RHAs) to helpthem become advocates for healthierpublic policy, working with the RHAsin developing and delivering serviceswhich are sensitive both to genderand to socioeconomic status,delivering their own exemplaryprograms and providing trainingto health services professionals.Additionally, on any and all of these issues,groups could work with women living inpoverty, to help them develop the skills inneeds assessment, planning, negotiationand self-advocacy, to positively influencethe development of public policies whichmeet their needs and to provide them withthe necessary resources to help them toreach these goals.It is important to acknowledge that thepoints for potential involvement are vastand range from the wage gap betweenwomen and men, to issues of women’slabour market attachment, includingpension issues for older women, to federaland provincial income tax issues, violence