Women's Health Planning Project

Public involvement is one of the guiding principles of the
Vancouver/Richmond Health Board. To act upon this principle, it has created
fifteen Public Advisory Committees comprising geographic Community Health
Committees and population specific Population Health Advisory Committees.
The role of these committees is to bring the public's perspective to policy
development and health and health services planning for the region.

A Women's Health Planning Project was undertaken, by the Vancouver/Richmond
Health Board and the Women's Advisory Committee under the direction of the
BC's Women's Hospital and Health Centre. The Project employed a unique
structure and process involving women from the community as equal partners
with a broad range of acute and community sector service providers, policy
makers and researchers.

At the beginning of the project, a Foundation Document- Conceptual Planning
Framework was prepared based on research into past work in women's health.
This document broadened the definition of health to include the social
determinants of health, and set down the guiding principles and assumptions
for the Project.

A participatory evaluation of the project structure and process was
conducted during the Project. The Evaluation Report provides insight into
the challenge of including many different perspectives.

The Project report contains community profiles that combine traditional
health status indicators with key social determinants and thereby provides a
snapshot of the health and lives of women in specific geographic areas. In
addition, while emphasising the need to collect and analyse gendered data,
the project report provides a comprehensive profile with recommendations on
three key areas of women's health: violence, mental health and heart health.

In order to make the health system more responsive to the needs of women, a
Framework for Women Centered Health was developed for use by women,
community groups, service providers, policy makers and planners. The
Framework is meant to be informative and flexible. It contains practical
suggestions and can be adapted to respond to specific situations across the
broad spectrum of health services. The Vancouver/Richmond Health Board
adopted this Framework for Women Centered Health as policy to guide its
policies, programs, services and structures -existing and new - in the
region. It also identified women's health as a priority area and voted to
ensure that gender is considered in future funding allocations.

The work of the Women's Health Project is ongoing. A Women's Health Planning
Project Task Force has been created to expedite implementation of Project
recommendations. An outgrowth of the Project has been the creation of the
Vancouver/Richmond Women's Health Network. The network meetings provide a
way for women to meet and share information and concern about Women's health
and health services. They also help the Women's Advisory Committee to
communicate with women and service providers in order to ensure a continuing
voice for the many perspectives in planning for women's health.

The Women's Health Planning Project Report with Supplementary Appendices
including the Foundation Document: Conceptual Planning Framework is
available on our web site http://www.vcn.bc.ca/vrhb . For more information contact
Ellen Le Fevre, Community Developer, mailto:[log in to unmask] / (604)709-6484 ).

Please let us know if you would like us to present an overview of the
Women's Health Planning Project, lead an in-depth discussion of the
Framework for Women Centered Health, and/or describe the development of the
Vancouver/Richmond Women's Health Network.