It's a challenge to speak so quickly on an issue of such importance, but I'll do my best.
I'm involved in a project called “Sustaining an Allied Health Workforce”. It's a constituency that gets very little attention because the attention focuses more on physician and nursing education. But the diagnostic and therapeutic activity within the system is critical in this workforce.
What we're looking at is demand and supply and trying to get a handle on the issues that are involved here. This is an area in the country that we don't have a good handle on in terms of numbers. We're hoping to promote a pan-Canadian approach to sustain supply, to identify and promote innovative practices. We're going to do this by developing a blueprint and policy statement in consultation with all stakeholders: provincial, professional, and educational.
Our working group consists of 14 to 16 members, uniquely representing educators, professions, regulators, employers, and creditors. Our blueprint activity will be beginning shortly. The innovative activity will focus on six regions in the country and will try to address and evaluate innovations that can be of use to the colleges that are doing about 70%-plus of the training.
The colleges I represent participate both in the collaborative forum, which involves educators, professions, and regulators, as well as the allied health programs and the deans of allied health.