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2019 is coming to a close, and we’re amazed by how quickly the year went by! As the holidays approach, it’s time for our annual reflection on our evolution over the past year and the meaningful role our patient and health care partners have had in improving BC’s health care system.
We’re looking forward to evaluating the impact of all the engagements that took place around the province. While we work on finishing our annual report, we’d like to share some exciting numbers with you.
In 2019:
- We welcomed 336 new patient partners, and 177 of them have already completed their orientation session.
- 596 patient partners participated in 165 engagement opportunities.
- We offered 20 learning opportunities and events to our patient partners, such as workshops and the San’yas Cultural Training.
- Our membership became even more diverse, with 42% of our new members being under 50 years old, 14% being Indigenous and 6% belonging to the LGBTQIA2S+ community.
It was amazing to see so many people of different backgrounds sharing their experiences and working together, and we were happy to reach some of the goals listed in our 2017-2020 Strategic Plan. We’ll tell you all about them in the annual report we’ll release in early 2020!
In 2019 we launched new educational resources like our Guide to Patient Engagement, the Advisory Committee Guidelines for Health Care Providers, and the 10 Tips for Closing the Loop. We also hosted informational webinars such as Applying Cultural Safety & Humility in Patient Engagement, in partnership with the First Nations Health Authority, and a new episode of the Patient Engagement Learning Series, and an update on the evolution of primary care in BC.
In our blog, you read about patient partners’ experiences at Quality Forum 2019 and BC Patient Safety & Quality Council workshops, as well as moving stories about the results of asking “What Matters to You?”, successful partnerships in health research, and tips to approach person- and family-centred care in health practices from a patient’s perspective. We were excited to see how interested everyone was in acquiring new skills to make their engagements even more impactful, and how eager our patient and health care partners were to share their knowledge and experiences with the network!
You followed all these updates and opportunities through our weekly Engagement Opportunities newsletter and bi-weekly Patient Voice Mail, as well as on our Twitter and Facebook profiles. And we loved hearing from you and getting your feedback, either on social media or via email.
Now it’s time to take a short break to enjoy the holiday season and re-energize for more exciting activities in 2020. Thank you for your continued commitment and passion. Happy holidays, and a wonderful new year to you and your loved ones. See you in 2020!