Community Health Centre Moves Ahead

COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTRE MOVES AHEAD

WOODSTOCK May 9, 2007: In November 2005, the McGuinty government announced plans to open 39 new Community Health Centres and satellite Community Health Centres with an investment of $74.6 million by March 2008. Over the course of the summer and fall of 2006, several public forums and service provider information gathering sessions were held in Woodstock, Ingersoll and Tillsonburg. On April 13, 2007 MPP Sandra Pupatello, on behalf of Minister of Health and Long-Term Care George Smitherman, announced that the steering committee had been chosen as the sponsoring organization for the center. Since then, members of the steering have been working to bring the Community Health Centre (or CHC) closer to reality.

The following are remarks of the Chair of the Woodstock and Area Communities Health Centre at the launch held this afternoon in Woodstock.

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On behalf of the Steering Committee for the newly appointed Woodstock and area community health center, I would like to welcome all of you.

My name is Mark Innes, and I am the chair of the committee.

I would like to introduce you to the members of the Steering Committee. Ronald Fraser, Chief of Oxford Community Police Service (Woodstock), is the Vice Chair. The Secretary Treasurer is Lynn Buchner (Tillsonburg). Gordon Adam (Ingersoll), Fraser De La Plante (Tillsonburg), Rosemary George (Woodstock), Jason Smith (Ingersoll) and Carolyn Streefkerk (Tillsonburg) round out the committee.

All members of the committee are volunteers. The members of the committee will form the first Board of Directors for the CHC we will be creating. These local people will be responsible for both governing the CHC and operating it.

Though new to this area, CHCs are not new to the province.

Each CHC in the Province provides different services depending on the population groups served and the specific needs of the community. Community health centres have proven successful in other communities across the Province by focusing on residents who do not or cannot gain access to health care solutions due to various barriers, such as language, culture, physical and mental disability, homelessness, poverty and geographic isolation, as well as by focusing on individuals who are at a higher risk of developing health problems than the general population.

Given that our area has been identified as severely under-serviced by family physicians, it is hoped that the CHC will assist in addressing the needs of health care for some of our seniors and some of our less fortunate citizens in our communities. For those with significant access barriers, this approach, while improving care, also strives to reduce the burden on other health care service providers. It is our hope that having a CHC in our area may provide improved cost efficiencies to our overall health system.

We have chosen the name of our CHC. It is the Woodstock and Area Communities Health Centre. The name recognizes the importance of helping not only those in Woodstock, but of reaching beyond where we can. The name also recognizes that we will be striving to identify and serve various members of communities in our area who can benefit from what a CHC can offer, those persons who do not or cannot access health care solutions due to barriers, barriers due to physical and mental disability, barriers due to culture, barriers due to homelessness and due to poverty.

Getting to this stage is an important step. There have been several people and groups who have been supportive of the planning process, who have seen the fit between the needs in this area and what a CHC has to offer, and how the community overall will benefit. Mayor of Woodstock Michael Harding is one of those individuals, as is Fern Woolcott from the South-West Local Health Integration Network. Groups that have been instrumental are the Canadian Mental Health Association, the Women's Emergency Services, the United Way and the Ontario Provincial Police. To those individuals and groups, and to all others who have played a role in the process, thank you.

Yet while getting to this stage is an accomplishment, there is still obviously much more to do. Over the next few months, members of the committee will be determining the priority population groups the CHC is to serve based on statistical evidence showing need. We will be developing a governance structure. We will be completing a business and operational plan. We will be determining the programs, the services and the staffing required to meet the identified needs of the priority population groups. There will be hard work and challenges, but we look forward to the task and meeting those challenges.

The CHC model is a real success in other communities across Ontario. We want to bring that successful model here and make it work. We will be working with community stakeholders, service providers, the South-West Local Health Integration Network and the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care to accomplish that task, and to improve access to community-based health care and social service solutions.

Contact:

Mark Innes

Chair,

Woodstock and Area Communities Health Centre

Phone: (519) 537-4818

Email: mark.innes@sympatico.ca

Mayor Michael Harding
City of Woodstock
Phone (519) 539-2382 x 2100
E-mail mayor@city.woodstock.on.ca