Centretown community health centres are touting the conclusions of a new report that echoes their argument in favour of more connected and better-funded community health care.
Released late last month, the report published by the Canadian Index of Wellbeing affirms that the long-term health of Canadians would improve with the expansion of the community health centre model.
For officials with the Centretown and the Somerset West community health centres, the report promotes their citizen-driven design and brings a hope for increased financial support. While the Centretown Community Health Centre on Cooper Street recently received nearly $800,000 from the Ontario government to deliver a new diabetes-prevention program, it and the Somerset West Community Health Centre on Eccles Street in Chinatown have both been seeking more resources to sustain and expand their services.
The Canadian Index of Wellbeing report “helps us make our case to the people who fund us,” says Christina Marchant, director of community health promotion and early years at the Centretown centre.
The report praises Canadian community health centres for addressing a range of determinants of health – factors such as education, housing, and language barriers – that limit citizens’ access to health care.
Instead of just caring for the sick, community health centres aim to prevent illnesses through building communities and educating them about their health.
Earlier research done by organizations such as the Bruyere Research Institute also promotes the strategy as an effective, all-encompassing approach to health care.
“The secret to success is, in a nutshell, combining primary care with health promotion and community development services,” says Mary MacNutt, manager of policy and communications at the Association of Ontario Health Centres, which represents community health centres provincially.
For the Somerset centre, this means tailoring health services to meet the needs of a community of newcomers. According to the centre’s executive director, Jack McCarthy, visitors in Centretown’s Chinatown neighbourhood can now receive flu shots from Mandarin-speaking health workers.
To keep such centres running at their full potential, the Canadian Index of Wellbeing report calls for more federal and provincial funding.
Marchant says that although financial support has been stable for existing health centres, there is always more to be done.
Right now, the Centretown Community Health Centre is struggling with space, she says. They often hold group programming off-site, because “there is just no room.”
The report also draws attention to the need for more community health centres.
There are 73 centres in Ontario, with six operating in Ottawa. Still, this means only about four per cent of the provincial population is receiving services, MacNutt says.
“Because there are not that many of them in Ontario,” she says, “not many people know about it, so they don’t even know to ask for them.”
Reports like this one help to get the word out, she says.
McCarthy is not anticipating a “surge of funding,” but he says he is comforted by the recognition the centres are receiving.
Bay Coun. Mark Taylor, chair of the city’s community and protective services committee, remains hopeful about the provincial government’s response to the report.
With Ontario in the midst of choosing of a new premier, he says, there are bound to be new priorities.
“[It’s] not a bad time to get (the report) out in front of the …decision-makers provincially to have them take a look at it…and think about what it potentially could mean for them as they start to formulate their budget.”