THUNDER BAY, ON,----- November 17, 2010 ---- Childhood obesity is a little
more complex than what we are being told ,and I want to say thanks to
the countless of contacts and volunteers, who have supported Obesity
Thunder Bay. We have a food environmental crisis and the time for
action,real action, is upon us.At some point and time we need to
support mainstream media to get off of the couch potato
myth.Currently, we have six month old babies that are overweight. Is
this due to too much TV ? I am calling on others to get involved, and
I want to say a big thank you to the many many readers . Thunder Bay
,and Northwestern Ontario is my home, and I think we have a community
driven action plan and somebody needs to raise awareness on the notion
of health prevention.
Canada’s health care system is worse off than it was ten years ago. This is due
to longer wait times, increased demand on services and very little
dollars allocated for prevention. Our food system has been altered and
fresh produce continues to be beyond the reach of our citizens. Food
costs continue rise and some argue that healthy fresh produce is beyond
the reach of many low-income Canadians. Many individuals do not even
have a doctor, and northern regions continue to struggle to keep
doctors. Adding to the problem includes area hospitals doing less and
less for their communities, and thus adding to the demand on services
in many hospitals.
Services that use to be offered by area hospitals have been severely cut. These
include delivering babies, and because of these cutbacks the demand has
increased on centralized hospitals such as the Thunder Bay Regional
Hospital. Many citizens in Northern Ontario do not have a doctor,
causing prevention to be missed. Patients are facing longer and longer
wait times and some have resorted to private health care agencies. Our
public dollars continue to be severely restricted and money for
prevention is virtually non-existent. An example of this
is the confounding and confusing work plans that funded groups continue to
misinform our citizens with, as it relates to the problem. According to
many we have an inactivity crisis, and the issue of chronic illnesses
continues to get worse. Who is funding the inactivity crisis?
Our health care system in Canada needs to be improved. When Ontario
spends 47 cents out of every dollar for health care today, the need for
change is far beyond critical. Now is the time for real accountability.
The notion of shared accountability just might create the change
needed. Perhaps we could create a food system that supports food
security by offering food affordibility, for all Canadians. Chronic
illnesses such as childhood obesity continue to grow. The economic down
turn and more low paying jobs continue to add to the overall problem.
Our health care system continues to fail to address preventable and
very complex health issues due to a lack of prevention efforts. Our
health care system continues to be reactive in nature, and the concept
of supporting funding prevention type models continue to be missed.
This lack of vision continues to overburden our health care service
providers. Pay now, or pay later.
Obesity Thunder Bay is 100 % not for profit.
Paul Murphy
For Lake Superior News
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