Engagement tool wins international award

The North West LHIN has received international recognition for an online community engagement initiative aimed at soliciting input for its second Integrated Health Services Plan.

The LHIN received a technology innovation award from the International Association of Public Participation in San Diego, California, September 22, for its ambitious Share Your Story, Shape Your Care online community engagement exercise.

A total of 806 people participated in the initiative between January 12 and the end of February.

The online tool offered participants an opportunity to learn more about health-care challenges facing the northwest. They were able to identify their health-care priorities, comment on possible measures under consideration by the LHIN and propose new ways to address the challenges.

Seventy per cent of the participants were health-care consumers, while 30 per cent were regulated health-care professionals, said Kristin Shields, the North West LHIN's senior consultant for planning and community engagement.

"We were able to get a lot of good information and validate the priorities we heard about through the first Integrated Health Services Plan, but the biggest benefit was hearing stories from people about what was working well for them and what wasn't working well."

The LHIN's Integrated Health Services Plan for 2010 to 2013 is due to be approved by the board before the end of October.

There may be some small changes, but most of the priorities from the first plan will remain in place, including access to primary and specialty care, chronic disease prevention and management and mental health and addiction services.

One thousand participants would be a good response rate for a national survey, said Gwen Dubois-Wing, CEO of the North West LHIN. "We have a population of 234,600 people in the northwest, so getting 800 people is a pretty phenomenal response, and it really indicates to us that people are very interested in talking about the health-care system in the northwest.

"It wasn't only the content and the stories, which I thought were really compelling, but it was the excitement it generated. A whole group of people mobilized to work with us on this. Everybody got on board." n

www.northwestlhin.on.ca 

NORTHERNERS TELL THEIR STORIES

stories submitted by health-care consumers and professionals participating in the North West LHIN's Share Your Story, Shape Your Care initiative.

WHERE HAVE ALL THE DOCTORS GONE?

It's very scary being a Northerner these days!

Red Lake is down to 2-1/2 doctors and we are booming! We do not have special emergency room doctors or walk-in clinics. The same doctors look after it all.

We have been put in a position that we must compete with our neighbouring communities and all of Ontario by offering bonuses to doctors to CHOOSE US!

We just don't have the funding for lakefront houses and cash bonuses. The Ministry of Health needs to step in and assist small communities. Perhaps the same model the OPP uses (housing allowances, northern placements). This model could be used for doctors trained out of country. Our community has a lot of young families.

Imagine having to pack up and move to Thunder Bay or Winnipeg while you wait for your baby to be born. We need help and we need a change!


Shocked by the fact my family physician retired this past December and I am abandoned

I have had no complaints with health care (i.e. physicians availability) for decades.

However, when my doctor retired in December, I was told that none of the doctors at that clinic were taking on new patients. Also, their walk-in clinic was only available to clients of the clinic who had a doctor there.

I have been making inquiries through Nurses Registry, Medical School, Physicians & Surgeons, family and friends & associates, so far to no avail.

EMERGENCY CARE

Recently, I slipped and broke my ankle.

I entered the ER where I was seen immediately and treated very well.
Nurses and doctors alike were courteous and helpful and I felt like I was their priority.

The following morning the orthopedic surgeon was called and I was immediately considered a priority and within 40 minutes of seeing him I was in the OR having surgery.

The entire time I was well taken care of by everyone, including nurses, doctors, RTs, and cleaning staff. I am happy to say I am on the mend and I feel my recovery is due to great emergency care and a thorough and professional surgeon.
Keep it up!

Improving access to primary health care

Utilize health professionals to their full scope of practice to ensure that clients can access primary health care services in a timely matter.
Continue to expand family health teams and NP-run clinics to help alleviate the physician shortages in rural northern communities.


 
FASD IS IGNORED IN ONTARIO, ESPECIALLY IN THE NORTH

I have been working in the social work field for 13 years and am appalled that the Ministry of Health, along with all the other ministries in Ontario, continues to ignore the issues of people living with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.

People with FASD have brain damage, but because their disability is not recognized by the services designed to help them, they are treated like criminals. They are punished for being "bad" children, suspended from school, labelled lazy and non-compliant and receive services consistently from the justice system. There are no diagnostic services available in the North and the ones that can be accessed in southern Ontario (Sick Kids, St. Michael's) are so complicated that you would need a Ph.D. to navigate the system.

The assessments that are required for an FASD assessment should be done in the home community of the patient, and they are not available in this community, let alone in the Far North. Preliminary screening at our agency indicates that over 60 per cent of the children in foster care may be living with FASD, yet since the Sioux Lookout FASD diagnostic clinic closed, not one client has been able to have a full assessment completed. Diagnosis is crucial if this disability is to be recognized and services put in place so that the client does not develop serious secondary disabilities, yet nothing happens.

The Western provinces take very good care for their individuals with FASD. Our province needs to get it together and our ministries need to work together in order to better meet the needs of individuals with FASD. The Ministry of Health must take the lead.


RESIDENTIAL HOSPICE - A HOME-LIKE SETTING FOR THE DYING

Thunder Bay and region are without a residential hospice - a home-like setting for dying patients to be supported and provided with medical, social and emotional care as they spend their final days with family members and friends.

The opportunity we have is to provide patients and families with a facility offering all the necessary medical and social supports so the dying can spend their final days in as much comfort as can be provided, with privacy and with the supports to ensure patients can end their lives in a manner affording personal dignity and total care.

The Kin Loch Manor initiative, now in the care of St. Joseph's Care Group, has been in development for several years. I am recommending this initiative be made an immediate priority.

Costs for hospice care are well below that of acute care. By building and operating Kin Loch Manor Hospice, we will be freeing hospitals of serving the dying with acute care beds adding to the acute care capacity of the hospitals; and the dying would receive the kind of care they need most - professional residential hospice care.

The region needs Kin Loch Manor Hospice to be built and operated to address the very special needs of the dying and to more effectively invest our limited health-care dollars. n

Additional stories are available for viewing  at www.northwestlhin.on.ca.