Dietitians in the Right Place at the Right Time For Primary Health Care

Abstract

Dietitians have always seen beyond the disease, whether it is diabetes, hyperlipidemia, or a host of other conditions, to the entire person with all the interrelated health issues and interrelated conditions that lead to those issues, to the complex world in which people exist and where they must deal with all of their health and other concerns. Primary health care is an emerging area in which dietitians may continue with client-centred practice, along with family physicians and a number of other health professionals. The papers in this supplement provide a short overview of a tremendous amount of work done by many people over the past few years. The goals of the work were to understand the new initiative of the federal government to change primary health care, to participate in the preliminary work on this change and to identify, study and support the role of the registered dietitian (RD) in the new primary health care model. At the June Dietitians of Canada (DC) Annual Meeting in Halifax, Dr. Paula Brauer presented an overview of a project that integrated nutrition services into primary care settings in Ontario. A series of webcasts from DC also made the information available across the country. Each of the articles in this supplement provides further valuable information for all dietitians, whatever their area of practice. The provision of websites for many supporting documents will greatly assist those wanting more information.