Looking for 3 more NCDs years

Looking for 3 more NCDs years

Whoopee! Next month it’s my 67th birthday and this blog, #VixView, is my celebration of life. The goal is to stay alive for three more years. Why three years, I hear you ask?

 Dying early -the magic of 70

Let’s blame it on the United Nations and the Sustainable Development Goal number 3 target 3.4:  

By 2030 reduce by one-third pre-mature mortality from non-communicable diseases (NCDs) through prevention and treatment, and promote mental health and wellbeing

So if  I die between the ages of 30 and 70 years, it is too soon. Well not me specifically, but people who live with non-communicable diseases (NCDs). You get the drift – so I am hanging in for 3 more years. It sounds a bit like an electioneering slogan. But it isn’t. It’s deadly serious. Really.

An activist – why me?

Today I coexist with over 20 health conditions, all NCDs, with the first illness, psoriasis, starting in my first 500 days. I have a most productive and interesting life despite this seemingly woeful state of my health.

Being an NCDs activist gripped me tighter each time I survived another near-death experience (NDEs). Trust me, NDEs change one’s perspective, one’s way of being. I found that to live, I had to fight for my life. So that’s what I do and along the way, I do it for and with those who living with NCDs.  I learned radical self-care.

Note: Don’t scoff too much about NDEs.  Remember Angelo Agrizzi and what he did after his NDE?  

50 years on

If that isn’t enough, this is my 50th year as a health professional working in the health sector. It feels like an alien place. I have a 360º view through all the learning and experience. My beacon remains the Alma Ata vision of primary health care.

Today, with profound sadness, I see us facing many of the challenges from when I first began back in 1970.  I recognise that the health system in our noble land often fails us, its people, irrespective of where we get care: public or private. Evidence is all around. 

Travel with me

So join me and find out if I make it.  #VixView

 

Patient-centred cancer care (PCCC) 7 building blocks

7 PCCC building blocks revPatient- or person-centred care is the next paradigm shift in healthcare systems strengthening and it has the power to change lives. It shows the way to integrated NCDs care.

Understand more about PCCC by watching this series of 4 videos.

The 7 PCCC building blocks were developed by the LIVESTRONG Foundation has published the outcome of a symposium on patient-centred cancer care. It research list 7 key building block that can be utilised to deliver cancer care across a variety of settings.

Click here to download the PCCC report.