British Columbia

A group in British Columbia convened their own feasibility meeting in January 2008.  A Summit planning group was formed, and they held their Summit in Vancouver onNovember 25, 2008.  This was the first 60 Summits-affiliated event in Canada and one of the largest to date with more than 130 attendees. A follow-on action group has been formed in order to continue the work begun at the summit. They named themselves the BC Collaborative for Health, Productivity and Disability Prevention (known as the BCC).

The BCC has taken a highly strategic and political approach. Still an informal organization, they formed Task Groups to tackle a variety of themes for change in the disability system in BC, each with 2 co-chairs. Each group identified priorities for action, made preliminary plans, and identified resource requirements. Task groups are proceeding with in-kind resources but a BCC priority is to identify sustainable support for a small secretariat and ongoing funding for projects. The Business-Government Liaison Task Group took the lead to: consolidate business involvement through participation of established business / employer groups; gain access to relevant cross-ministry executive groups to influence provincial disability strategy, access provincial disability data, and secure government funding for the BCC and/or its projects; and determine the formal organizational structure of the BCC. Significant progress has been made on these objectives. The BCC Steering Committee will meet shortly to consider next steps.

The BC group is the first to have elected two physicians as co-chairs. One was at that time employed by an organization that manages health and disability benefits for the healthcare sector, and the other employed by the provincial workers' compensation fund.

Dr. T. Larry Myette, BSc (Pharm), MD, MPH, DABPM, CIME
Healthy Horizons
Corporate Health Consulting, Inc.
Cell: (250) 882-8065
Email: t_myette@telus.net

Dr. Celina Dunn, BSc, MD, CCFP
Manager, Medical Services
WorkSafeBC (the workers' compensation fund for all BC employers)
Website: www.worksafebc.com
Phone: 604-232-5825
Email: celina.dunn@worksafebc.com

If you are interested in participating in the Collaborative, please contact Dr. Myette or Dr. Dunn.

The group has a web site with detailed information about Collaborative's working groups and activities at www.cirpd.org/BC60Summit.

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