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New partnership to improve health-care access for Perth County's vulnerable

Perth County council has approved a partnership between the Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance and Perth County Paramedics to improve access to health care for homeless people with mental-health and addiction issues and seniors with complex health needs.

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A new partnership between the Perth County’s hospital group and local paramedics is improving access to health care for homeless people with mental-health and addiction issues and seniors with complex health needs.

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Perth County council officially approved the partnership between the Huron-Perth Hospital Alliance’s nurse practitioner outreach program and the Perth County Paramedic Service’s mobile integrated health team Thursday following $35,000 in funding from the Southwest Local Health Integration Network.

“I think any time you can identify a population that’s at risk and you can ensure the services and the supports that they need are available to them is just improving quality of life for everybody,” said Andrew Williams, the hospital group’s CEO. “So this, to me, is a wonderful example of the types of initiatives that we need to see expand across our region. … I think if we can work together and support particular groups, it’s just a wonderful addition to our local health system.”

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From that funding, roughly $10,000 will be used to provide health care to those in the county who have difficulty accessing primary care, specifically the homeless and those struggling with mental-health and addiction issues. The program will use the paramedic service’s existing relationships with at-risk residents across the county to set up community clinics that can provide the primary health-care services those residents need.

“That aligns nicely to some of the work we’re trying to do with respect to mental wellness in our community, and also goes back to the report that we received on Feb. 4 from (University of Guelph researcher) Dr. (Leith) Deacon regarding the rural response to COVID-19,” Mike Adair, Perth County’s chief paramedic, told council.

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The second program, part of the LHIN’s Frail Seniors’ Strategy, will use the remaining $25,000, along with other high-intensity health-care funding previously provided to both the hospital group and the paramedic service, to support seniors with complex health needs by providing in-home medical assessments and monitoring to reduce or prevent relapse and repeat emergency room visits or readmission to hospital.

“So much of what people present to hospital with could be, with the appropriate supports at home, addressed that way,” Williams said. “So having the community paramedicine program, having members of our team and others who are focusing on direct service in the home or virtual-care support … just provides more timely access to care, more responsible access to care, (and) more … patient-centred access to care because it is in their environment.”

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Since the $10,000 for the clinics providing primary care for the homeless is only meant to last until the end of March, Adair said he is eagerly awaiting word from the province about additional funding to potentially continue that program long term.

“The province’s fiscal year ends at the end of March, so it will be interesting to learn what may end up happening in April,” Adair said. “Our opportunity here lies in trying some of these things, seeing what the impacts are in the community, and we want to be nimble enough that we can scale it up. … It goes back to county Coun. (Daryl) Herlick’s comment … about mental wellness and (how) we need to do something, and this is one of those moments in time where we have an opportunity.”

Williams said the healthcare alliance will continue to seek out partnerships with front-line services and other organizations across the county in an effort to ensure all residents, no matter their circumstance, have access to the health care they need.

gsimmons@postmedia.com

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