Pilot program launching at four Ontario CHCs to improve primary care for refugees
Ontario Health's new initiative to pilot a 3-year, one-time funded program to improve primary care for refugees with complex needs is a much-needed step in the right direction.
The Specialized Refugee Health Complex Care program will launch April 1, 2024, in four Ontario Community Health Centres; London InterCommunity Health Centre, Somerset West Community Health Centre (in Ottawa), The Canadian Centre for Refugee & Immigrant Health Care (Scarborough), and Community Healthcaring Kitchener-Waterloo, which have been chosen in part, based on their patients, locations, expertise and past advocacy for refugee populations.
At the heart of this program is an Integrated Care Team model, which Community Healthcaring K–W and community partner Centre for Family Medicine have been piloting for the past 18 months. Over 1000 refugee patients and families have been successfully transitioned to community-based primary care providers. This model for complex refugee care includes wrap-around services that allow community primary care providers and solo practitioners to access an interdisciplinary team including service navigation, counseling supports, interpretation, and a comprehensive plan to ensure a successful and caring transition to Canada. The pilot aims to intake and discharge approximately 3600 patients over the next three years.
This funding will allow Community Healthcaring K–W to continue attaching clients to community based providers with team-based support, allowing for the further intake of new refugee clients into our CHC. With the number of government-assisted refugees (GARs) coming to K–W projected to grow by 227% over the next four years, the need to proactively implement appropriate healthcare supports is more important than ever.
With the standardized assessment, discharge, and interpretation processes and frameworks currently under development, the long-term view is to move this model out into all CHCs serving refugee populations. This initiative is critical in making sure the health needs of refugees arriving in our province are met, and that we build relationships and pathways to community based primary care providers once they have stabilized and can independently navigate our healthcare system.
Community Healthcaring K–W supports the health and wellness of over 20,000 members of our community, and we work in unity with our partners to provide caring and integrated services. Founded by the Kitchener Downtown Community Health Centre and Sanctuary Refugee Health Centre, we respond to your individual health goals and work to create healthy communities. We offer evidence-informed, innovative healthcaring for anyone facing barriers to services, including people who are newcomers, refugees, experiencing homelessness or housing precarity and who are challenged by other social determinants of health in the Kitchener–Waterloo region.
Tara Groves-Taylor is the Chief Executive Officer of Community Healthcaring Kitchener–Waterloo.