A strong primary care sector is critical to the health of populations and the success of the health care system overall. This system success depends substantially on a strong degree of trust from the community. The pressures of the pandemic have exacerbated the issues in primary care–and as primary care struggles, the downstream impacts are significant and costly for people and providers. As Ontario starts moving from COVID response to COVID recovery, we need to be proactively looking for ways to bolster an already overburdened sector that’s been hit by a shortage of family doctors. But how, when the same resource pressures continue to exist? Community Ambassadors can help.

With community voice and lived experience as a foundation, one of the projects we undertook for ourselves recently was the creation of a Theory of Change that both articulates our approach to the work we do and serves as a touchstone for this work going forward. Read it here!

Researchers of systemic and structural drivers of health have long been advocating for the collection of race-based and socio-demographic data in Canada to be able to better understand disparate health outcomes and barriers to equitable care at the population-level. Sociodemographic data collection is an important tool in challenging inequity linked to systemic racism, discrimination, and income inequality. Disaggregated data is considered vital for identifying disparities, monitoring the impact of interventions and advocating for policy change. It’s important that community members play an active role in this data collection.

COVID-19 testing rates in Ontario are down. Even for communities where the incidence of cases remains high and continues rising daily, like in Toronto’s North West and parts of Brampton, not as many people are getting tested. There’s no doubt that part of this effect is due to changing provincial criteria on who can get tested and general confusion on the part of the public of who needs to get tested. But what do we know about the reasons that people chose to get tested in the first place? If we know why people do or don’t seek testing, how can we modify our approaches to reach those who need it?

Published in the Toronto Star by Daniele Zanotti with contributions from Safia Ahmed and Sophia Ikura

Published by Priya Iyer for TVO

Published on Healthy Debate by Sophia Ikura, Kate Mulligan, and Safia Ahmed

Through the research and design process, we gained a better understanding of the importance of peer workers in different care settings and, in turn, helped the peer team better understand and support their clients. Peer workers’ human-centred, direct, relationship-based approach to daily care aligns closely with our research strategy. As a result, we were able to enhance the valuable work of peers and support their client-centred, needs-based approach through a client journey map and welcome letter tool.

At the end of February, before the world was forever changed, we hosted city officials, public health representatives, housing sector experts, and activists for a Dinner at the Commons. Focused on housing in Toronto, we connected experts from across fields to learn from and talk with Dr. Nonie Brennan, Senior Advisor and Collaborating Faculty at Institute of Global Homelessness.

Published in Healthy Debate by Sophia Ikura and Dr. Gillian Kolla

Published in Healthy Debate by Sophia Ikura and Dr. Jasmine Pawa

Don’t ignore the other curves that need to be flattened — unemployment, food insecurity, poor mental health, and housing instability

Working with the team behind Southlake@home has put the importance of partnerships in even sharper relief. This home care program has attracted attention across the province because of its success integrating care for high need patients and reducing ALC days. It is fast becoming a model for other OHTs and hospitals exploring bundled community care opportunities.

Health Commons collaborated with Southlake to capture and share their recipe for success, with an easy to use Guide that captures the what, why, and how behind the team’s experiences in their first year of operation.

Making the best use of health care resources involves planning that is informed by data. Local data at the neighbourhood level can tell users about the characteristics of a community, what shapes health care utilizations, and where the biggest opportunities exist for improving health outcomes. By looking at granular, neighbourhood-level data.