K.I.G. Benson

K.I.G. Benson

A Forward-Looking Vision of Public Health in British Columbia

Dr. K.I.G. Benson immigrated to Canada from Scotland in 1956 and served as Medical Officer of Health in various cities in Ontario and British Columbia. In 1973, he became BC’s Associate Deputy Minister of Public Health Programs. During his years in public health, Dr. Benson served as Chair of the National Task Force on Costs of Public Health Services, Chair of CPHA’s Committee on Royal College Qualifications for Public Health Physicians, Chair of the Public Health Practices Committee for Canada, and represented CPHA on the Department of National Health and Welfare’s Accreditation of Health Units Committee. In the 1960s he published a series of articles in the Canadian Journal of Public Health in which he described the roles of medical officers of health and public health nurses, and the need for school health programs, home care programs, and pre-school health services. These articles, based on early efforts to promote province-wide programs in British Columbia, were considered to be “forward-looking and imaginative.” He was a Past President of CPHA’s Executive Board and in 1979, was given CPHA’s highest honour, the R.D. Defries Award, for his vision for public health.

(CPHA Health Digest, Vol. 3, No. 3, May–June 1979)