Health is at the heart

HUNTSVILLE - Is it safe to say that you can judge a society by how it treats its poor? I’d like to think that we treat our poorer people with fairness and respect and on the whole, do everything in our power to lift our struggling fellow citizens out of poverty so that they have an adequate chance at a decent life. All too often, however, we find that poverty is a cycle that is incredibly hard to break. Nevertheless, to continue the habit of handing out a check every month once a fellow citizen has fallen far enough below the poverty line is doing many welfare recipients a disservice. I believe some partial solutions can be found but only if a proactive approach is taken.
In 2011 the federal government provided $6.6 billion to the provinces and territories for welfare and social programs. Statistics for the year indicate that 5.1 per cent of our population was on some form of welfare. Whether or not you have empathy for the welfare recipient, there is no doubt that reducing that number is in everyone’s interest.
Perhaps the most mutually beneficial approach to successful poverty reduction is to promote good health through education. There is an old Arabian proverb that says: “If you have good health you have hope, and if you have hope, you have everything.” A recent Ipsos Reid survey conducted for the Canadian Medical Association showed that only 39 per cent of those earning less than $30,000 a year described their health as very good or excellent compared to 68 per cent of those earning over $60,000. Now the latest buzz phrase is “wealth is health.” But maybe we have it backwards!
Just recently I heard this loud and clear. I was speaking to a member on a provincial social assistance appeal panel. This panel, whose members are generously compensated, hears appeals from welfare recipients who are about to lose their financial assistance from the province. I was genuinely surprised to learn that in all the cases brought before her panel, invariably, health issues were a dominant factor.
How is it that we as a society have not had the foresight to fully grasp this and have not placed more value on good health? Why has health education become virtually non-existent in our schools today? We all suffered through years of learning long division and who was responsible for WWI, not to mention what a frog’s insides look like or how long it would take to hit the pavement if you jumped from the Empire State Building. What we did not learn was how to cook healthy food for very little money, how vital it is to stay active on a daily basis, or how to identify, better understand, and cope with mental health issues. These topics, and there are many more, were either glossed over, or not touched on at all. A pamphlet in the guidance counselor’s office is hardly promoting good health.
A proper and complete health curriculum should be brought back into the school system and should be part of every school year right up to graduation. If students learn nothing else in school, at least they should know how to take better care of themselves, especially when money is tight. It’s amazing how much there is to learn about food alone: from pesticide content to understanding the labels on packaging to truly understanding how good nutrition translates into good health. We are seeing an epidemic of chronic yet preventable health problems among Canada’s poorest people, which indirectly lead to a cycle of unemployment and dependency on social safety nets, the medical system and ultimately translate into a drain on our economy.
Good health, both physical and mental, is needed to face the challenges of an ever-changing society. It is not easy and it does not happen overnight, but much like the concept of recycling or learning how to use the Internet, so often it is the kids who come home from school and teach the parents what they’ve learned. If a healthy lifestyle is strongly promoted throughout school the message will eventually make it back to the home and that is a means to breaking the cycle from within.
It is encouraging to have PROMPT, a poverty reduction strategy group based here in Muskoka host “Cooking on a Shoestring” - a four-week class that teaches individuals how to cook healthy and inexpensive meals. This program is a positive step in promoting resourcefulness, self-reliance, and good nutrition. It will not only lessen the strain on our social programs and health system but just might give some people a better chance to have money in their pockets at the end of each month. Surely this merits our support.
Jonathan Wiebe currently sits on Huntsville’s Community Services Committee and works as a carpenter and freelance writer. He also hosts TV Cogeco’s “Focus Huntsville” and is chair of the 55+ Ontario Winter Games Committee. Email: jwiebe326@gmail.com on twitter: @JonathanWiebe

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