As summer is upon us, and many of us look forward to well-earned rest, what better time to take a moment to reflect on where we are, and where we are headed.

Our Ontario Health Team has really started to build momentum. I am excited for the future as we continue to work with our partners and community to build something special in Lanark, Leeds and Grenville.

Despite the ongoing pandemic, and the challenges we all face because of it, we have been keeping our eyes on the prize: creating a more integrated system and a better patient experience for the members of our community that need it most.

In our first year, that has meant focusing our efforts on the following priority projects:

Unattached residents:

This working group is focused on ensuring all residents of Lanark, Leeds and Grenville have access to a family doctor or primary care home. We’re proud to say that, so far, we have been able to find permanent primary care for more than 200 community members.

Connecting mental health and addictions to primary care

This working group is focused on designing a connected continuum of mental health and addiction services available within or through primary care settings. To date, this working group has surveyed over 400 health care providers and Lanark, Leeds and Grenville community members about their experiences with the health care system.

With the results in hand, they hosted a forum where they exchanged ideas on the most impactful steps that can be taken to improve the connection between mental health, and addictions and primary care.

They are also mapping the services available across various sectors of our Ontario Health Team. This will allow us to develop tools that will help primary care providers and community members access the mental health services that are available to them.

Building a primary care network

Primary care providers are the foundation of our local health system. That’s why we’ve set out to create an organized and integrated primary care network (PCN). Our PCN is co-facilitated by a Nurse Practitioner and a Primary Care Physician. This group is participating in various OHT projects. The PCN is actively encouraging primary care providers from across the region to join, so please reach out to us at info@llgoht.ca if you’re interested.

We are very excited about the work we have underway, and we will use this e-newsletter to keep you informed as things progress, and as we continue to grow.

LLG OHT wouldn’t be what it is without our partners, and I wanted to take this opportunity to sincerely thank each partner organization, and each person, who has committed time and energy to help us get to where we are today.

Special thanks to members of our Lived Experience Advisory Network (LEAN), a committee of patients, clients, care partners and families whose first-hand experience with the system is invaluable to us in shaping the future of health care delivery in the region.

On that note, we are always growing! If you are a health, community, or social service organization in Lanark, Leeds and Grenville that would like to join our Ontario Health Team, please reach out.

Thanks for reading, and until next time,

Sheyi Badmos, Executive Lead, Lanark, Leeds and Grenville Ontario Health Team