How effective is our health care system? How much do we know about diagnosis and cures? This interactive workshop provided by the Reframing Academy, asked the audience several questions relating to percentage statistics, to find out how much they knew about common diseases, mental health illnesses, treatments and medicines.
By Natalja Heybroek
Everyone attending learnt something new. For example, of all new medicines that came to the market in 2017, only 4% could be labelled as an innovation and 96% were new versions of an existing medicine.
Mental Health-Care Statistics
The most surprising results related to mental health and the current health-care provided relating to this aspect of medicine. An astonishing 44% of the population will develop a mental condition during their lifetime. And if we zoom into this year, one in four people will be or are affected by a mental health condition. Whereas the current capacity of the Dutch health care system, is able to provide care for 7%, putting pressure on the national mental health care support. Though currently, many people find care from friends, family and alternative routes to treat themselves and do not go through the official support system.
Coloured caps divided the groups
A New Approach
The importance of considering new structures and new approaches were emphasised. Discussing the creation of structures for community support systems rather than the traditional approach of going through your GP. The focus would then lie on empowering ‘patients’ within their social network while utilising technology. For example, for ‘patients’ to come together and share stories within their community, to help their recovery.
However, it’s important to note that this can only be applied to those suffering who have a healthy social structure to support them. The underlying message of this workshop is to design new innovative ways to utilise the resources within the health-care system we have more effectively. To do that, we have to understand the problem.