Food, Health & Consumer Products of Canada > Policy & Regulation

People are Canada's greatest healthcare resource, but their potential is too often underestimated and undervalued.

Self-care encompasses everything from making healthy lifestyle choices to treating minor health ailments, managing — or better yet preventing — chronic diseases, and more. As the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated, self-care also plays a vital role in public health emergency response.

Increasing Canadians' capacity to take care of themselves is inexpensive and will make individuals and the population healthier. Effective self-care support will also save time, money, and make our healthcare system more sustainable by complementing more expensive investments.

FHCP has been a leader in all things self-care for decades. As the representative of the global self-care movement in Canada, we work with national and international stakeholders to promote the economic and social value of self-care, and advocate for a national self-care strategy with Canadian decision makers.

The benefits of self-care

500,000 more Canadians could have access to a family doctor if 2% of patients who describe their cold symptoms as mild or minor implemented self-care.
$458 million in reduced cost of medicines, with the greatest savings for employer and government drug plans as well as the millions of individual Canadians without access to full coverage.
$290 million in reduced cost for doctor visits, with an estimated 6.6 million appointments freed up.
$290 million boost to Canada's workers and economy by increasing productivity at work and reducing absenteeism.

Self-care's seven pillars

The ability for individuals, families, and communities to engage is self-care is guided by seven pillars: health literacy, self-awareness, physical activity, healthy eating, risk avoidance, good hygiene, and optimal use of products and services.

Following the seven pillars of self-care leads to improved health, significant savings in healthcare costs, and enhanced productivity.

To learn more about the seven pillars, find resources on self-care, and information on Self-Care Day, please visit selfcare.ca.

Canadians support self-care

The 2022 Self-Care Readiness Index, released by the Global Self-Care Federation and the World Health Organization, revealed that Canadian consumers and health care practitioners are supportive of self-care, but highlighted the need for improved health literacy. Compared to its economic peers, Canada also lacks regulatory support for successful self-care.

Despite this increasing public recognition that supporting Canadians in playing a larger role in managing their health is critical to the long-term stability of our healthcare system, there is little federal acknowledgment or strategy for its implementation.

Blueprint for a National Self-Care Strategy

Canada's universal healthcare system is a cornerstone of our economy and identity, but its vulnerabilities have been starkly highlighted since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Pre-existing cracks have widened, sparking much-needed discussions on bolstering its resilience.

Strengthening our healthcare system demands multi-faceted solutions, ranging from primary to long-term care and encompassing public health and fiscal policies. Encouraging Canadians to play a greater role in managing their health should be among these solutions.

Read our Blueprint for a National Self-Care Strategy.

Regulation of self-care products

In our push for a National Self-Care Strategy, we're advocating for regulatory improvements to ensure Canadians have access to a variety of health management products, and to foster an innovative and competitive consumer health industry.

Central to this work is Health Canada's Self-Care Framework, launched in 2016 and intended to distinguish lower-risk products, like over-the-counter drugs and natural health products, from prescription drugs. However, progress in implementing consistent, risk-based and sustainabile regulatory framework for self-care products has been slow. Urgent regulatory reforms are essential to unlock self-care's full potential.

The Value of Self-Care