Sandwich Community Health Centre Inc.

EnHANCE Ontario Project

The EnHANCE Ontario Project is a research and education project aimed at enhancing the capacity for collaborative care between primary care and community mental and addictions agencies in Ontario.

 

Enabling Collaboration in Primary & Mental Health Care & Addictions through Interprofessional Care & Education (EnHANCE) is conducting research on inter-organizational networks to identify the processes and structures that impact upon partnerships and interprofessional collaboration between primary care and community mental health and addictions. 

 

An environmental scan is underway to identify the current state of collaboration across the province between community mental health and addiction (MH&A) agencies and Family Health Teams (FHTs) or Community Health Centres (CHCs). As part of this phase of the research, surveys are being sent out to all FHTs and CHCs across the province. Once all existing partnerships have been identified, the researchers will examine the state of collaboration within these partnerships. Community MH&A agencies across the province that are currently involved in collaborative partnerships will be surveyed at this point as well as the FHTs and CHCs that they are connected to. Four networks (I believe we are one) involving community MH&A agencies and FHTs/CHCs are currently being selected as case studies. These networks will be studied in greater depth and will receive training in inter-organizational partnerships and interprofessional collaboration.

 

Staff from community MH&A agencies, FHTs and CHCs have been recruited to participate in workgroups that are responsible for developing the educational resources: two toolkits, a workshop, and a training program for coaches. A toolkit for administrators involved in developing collaborative arrangements, and one for front-line staff involved in collaborative service delivery will be developed and pilot tested with volunteers from the primary care and community MH&A sectors. Educational workshops and coaching training programs will be offered in the spring of 2010 for the case study networks.  A final phase of the research will involve an evaluation of the project activities and tools.

 

The project is funded by the HealthForceOntario 2008/09 Interprofessional Care / Education Fund. For more information and to stay informed about the project, visit www.enhanceontario.ca.

 

A case study workshop will be held on March 9, 2010 for the EnHANCE Ontario Project.  Staff from the following organizations will be attending the workshop:

 

Citizen Advocacy

CMHA Windsor Essex County Branch

Hotel Dieu Grace Hospital COAST Program

Hotel Dieu Grace Hospital Community Crisis Program

Mental Health Connections

Sandwich Community Health Centre/Teen Health Centre – we are the lead organization in the Erie St. Clair LHIN.

 

 

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