| 3A
- Breaking out of silos: The critical need for partnership
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Panelists
Amanuel
Melles
Director, Organizational Capacity Building, United
Way of Greater Toronto
Dr.
Ronald Colman
Founder and Executive Director, GPI Atlantic
"We
need to infiltrate the silos by holding governments accountable
and not only for manufacutred or produced capital but
equally for our human capital, our social capital and
our natural capital."
Carla Palmer
Executive Director, Barrie Community Health Centre
"For
enduring partnerships we need a managed approach based
on the balanced scorecard strategy mapping - we need resources,
we need learning and growth, we need internal processes
and a measurable statement of outcomes."
Session
summary
Carla Palmer said that partnerships are important, both
externally and within an organization, when one part of
the organization doesn't know what another part is doing.
Sometimes there can be a conflict in culture.
Balanced scorecard strategy mapping- need to assess
the right conditions for this. Ministry of Health and
LHINs are using this tool. Looks at learning and growth,
culture, values, internal processes and a measurable statement
of outcomes. In a subtle way, it can influence thinking.
Ronald Colman built on what Charles Pascal referred to
as two conditions facing our policy makers: "hardening
of the categories" and "short-termism'. Our political
structures foster silos through funding etc.
 On a deeper
level, how do we hold our governments accountable? Right
now, we only have one indicator: Is the economy growing
or not?
As long as we
keep our accounting on one sole indicator, we miss all
the other indicators of a healthy society: education,
social, environment.
He suggests 'infiltrating',
rather than actually 'busting' silos. Need to start where
people are at and infiltrate through influence; subversively.
Develop an integrated
series of accounts for population health: human capital,
social capital, natural capital
We need to use
this language with the Ministry of Finance. E.g.- In our
report of the cost of chronic disease in Nova Scotia,
we looked at the economic burden of disease and created
a database. In Nova Scotia, chronic disease costs the
economy $3 billion/year, 60% in loss productivity and
40% in direct health care costs.
Unpaid work counts
for nothing in our GDP (our measure of progress).
Using the language
of 'finance' and 'economics' to talk about society is
a tool or strategy. Otherwise, it could be dangerous if
our ideas were taken over by other agendas
Health care costs
are spiraling out of control. WE can make a business case
that not investing in health promotion is not good business…they
are suddenly interested.
Roy Romanow put
forward a formula for spending more money (supply side).
He didn't look at the demand side. We need to bust our
own silos. If we look at the demand side, they will be
interested.
"Health
Promotion is a wise investment" (the Minister of
Health Promotion said this last night).
Breaking out of our own silos:
This is the
scary part- you have to start measuring outside your comfort
zone, using numbers to state specifically how many are
affected.
Beginning with ourselves:
Change the dialogue, change the paradigm. You don't turn
the direction of a huge ocean liner very quickly, but you
can make small changes at one time and still find that you
are turning over time. Accountability is the tough part:
change the dialogue and shift the language!
Tips for working with the private sector:
Values are what unites us together. "Livelihood security",
'Clean air, clean water, healthy populations". Social
responsibility is very popular in the private sector today.
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