Health care leaders from across Ontario will learn about Guelph’s approach to wellbeing as Guelph’s Mayor, Chief of Police, and the Executive Director of the Guelph Family Health Team participate in a panel at the Health Quality Transformation conference today in Toronto.
The panel session, entitled Collaboration, Engagement, and the Promotion of Community Wellbeing, will highlight how Guelph is using a collaborative approach to use community resources more efficiently, foster connections between health and non-health sectors, provide more coordinated care, and achieve better outcomes for individuals, families and the community.
Mayor Farbridge will give a presentation on the Community Wellbeing Initiative, which aims to align community resources to address escalating service delivery costs while achieving better results. The Executive Director of the Guelph Family Health Team, Ross Kirkconnell, will speak about the local Health Links pilot, which seeks to improve coordination of care for high needs patients. Guelph is one of the first communities in the province to adopt the Health Links model. Guelph Police Chief Bryan Larkin will highlight local opportunities to adopt the Community Mobilization project, a preventative approach to complex social issues that has been implemented in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. A consultant from the Prince Albert project will also participate on the panel.
The projects featured in the panel discussion all support the goals and principles of the Community Wellbeing Initiative that is currently underway, and Chief Larkin and Mr. Kirkconnell are both active members of the Wellbeing Initiative’s Leadership Group chaired by Mayor Farbridge.
“This is not about incremental change, but fundamental transformation of our systems,” said Mayor Farbridge. “I am thrilled that we were invited to share Guelph’s experiences, because our community is recognized as one of Ontario’s leaders in this area.”
The Health Quality Transformation 2013 conference is hosted by Health Quality Ontario, an arms length agency of the Ontario government. Attendees will include representatives from Ontario hospitals, long-term care and primary care sectors, governments, health care agencies, universities and research institutes. It takes place today at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.