Continuing with its development of the Integrated Health Service Plan 2013-2016, the Central East Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) has invited Entité 4 [Entity # 4] – one of six French Language Health Planning Entities – to join its staff in order to launch a series of Francophone community engagement initiatives regarding the Central-East LHIN Integrated Health Strategic Plan. This plan seeks to prioritize issues of mental health and addictions, diabetes and vascular health, palliative and end of life care, as well as creating a system of care for frail seniors.
Three focus groups were hosted in August and September 2012 consisting of Francophone residents and organizations in Scarborough, Peterborough and the Durham Region in order to contribute to the development of this Strategic Plan by providing their insights. In addition, an online survey was made available in French and was actively promoted by the LHIN and Entité 4. The Central-East LHIN’s comprehensive Integrated Health Strategic Plan document was then launched on its website in both English and French.
Moving forward, the Central-East LHIN is committed to working together with Entité 4 throughout the duration of its Integrated Health Strategic Plan over the next few years to develop a joint action plan which will focus on the Central-East LHIN’s strategic aims and priorities that benefit the Francophone community throughout the next three years. This is certainly a promising effort that should prove to be constructive for all the parties involved.
With this blog post, I am concluding the series of 15 honourable mentions blog posts. If you haven’t had a chance to read the other posts that are part of the series, be sure to check out the full list of honourable mentions from my 2012-2013 Annual Report.
The Waterloo Wellington LHIN recommended to Dr. Madan to contact the French Language Services Coordinator for the region who assisted him with his application by engaging the Francophone community to write letters of support as well as contributing a report regarding the Francophone community in Waterloo Wellington.
In 2011, Dr. Madan received approval of the Ministry to proceed with the development of the Family Health Team and the approval was very much conditional on the provision of French services. In order to provide mental health services, a partnership was created with Trellis who by then had developed a French telemedicine mental health program and all clients of the Family Health Team had access to this service.
Since then, the Mango Tree Family Health Team has expended and a new Kitchener based satellite has opened in the summer. This location will be staffed with a French-speaking physician as well as a French-speaking nurse practitioner.
I wish to congratulate all those who contributed to this great success. Although Waterloo-Wellington is not a designated area under the French Language Services Act, it is of course excellent news that Francophones in the region can now count on dynamic teams to offer them the French-language health services they need.
The Honourable Mentions Series is a series of 15 blog posts that the Commissioner is releasing to individually highlight initiatives by government ministries and agencies that demonstrate efforts to expand the delivery of high-quality French-language services, as listed in his 2012-2013 Annual Report. The full list of honourable mentions and the relevant blog posts are available here.
In an effort to rethink the way that it serves the needs of young drivers, the Ministry of Transportation produced a series of four videos entitled “Getting Your Ontario Driver’s Licence.” These videos, available on YouTube, explain the different requirements of each level of graduated licensing, and effectively offer the information in a more appealing way for those who prefer videos to reading plain text. Over 40 Francophone public service volunteers and road safety partners were part of the collaboration effort to produce the video series, and they certainly had a significant impact on the quality and diversity of these products, as they are well adapted to the needs of a growing young Francophone audience.
With more than half of all new drivers being 25 years or under, developing these online products was a logical way to enhance our young drivers’ level of understanding, not to mention an effective way to cater to the technophile generation! Well done!
The Honourable Mentions Series is a series of 15 blog posts that the Commissioner is releasing to individually highlight initiatives by government ministries and agencies that demonstrate efforts to expand the delivery of high-quality French-language services, as listed in his 2012-2013 Annual Report. The full list of honourable mentions and the relevant blog posts are available here.
On February 27, 2013, the French-Language, Aboriginal Learning and Research Division and the Early Learning Division of the Ministry of Education invited 12 French-language school board system leaders to attend a meeting in Toronto on the topic of Full-Day Kindergarten. The meeting was co-chaired by Assistant Deputy Ministers Janine Griffore and Jim Grieve, as they sought to provide school board leaders with the chance to discuss the vision of early learning and how senior leaders are vitally important to making the vision a reality.
Staff from the French Language Education Policy and Programs Branch as well as from the Early Learning Division worked together to provide informative presentations and activities to participants which would enable school boards to reflect on the vision of early learning.
I am glad to hear that the French-language school boards are collaborating, and I look forward to seeing the progress resulting from these types of mobilizing meetings.
The Honourable Mentions Series is a series of 15 blog posts that the Commissioner is releasing to individually highlight initiatives by government ministries and agencies that demonstrate efforts to expand the delivery of high-quality French-language services, as listed in his 2012-2013 Annual Report. The full list of honourable mentions and the relevant blog posts are available here.
As part of its commitment to providing Ontarians with excellent service, ServiceOntario and the Ministry of Government Services have developed an e-learning tool on the active offer of services in French for ServiceOntario staff. The training was scheduled to be completed by all the ServiceOntario staff in the divisions of Customer Care, Business Development, Central Services, Service Delivery Strategy and Business Improvement.
This excellent initiative focuses on providing support and enabling ServiceOntario staff to comply with the active offer of services in French. The e-learning tool uses an interactive approach and consists of three modules, each one approximately 15 minutes in length. The individual modules target front line ministry staff, analyst roles, and third party service providers, and is designed to address the specific needs of each of those roles based on their unique functions.
The Honourable Mentions Series is a series of 15 blog posts that the Commissioner is releasing to individually highlight initiatives by government ministries and agencies that demonstrate efforts to expand the delivery of high-quality French-language services, as listed in his 2012-2013 Annual Report. The full list of honourable mentions and the relevant blog posts are available here.
The Erie St. Clair Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) allocated funds to the Chatham-Kent Community Health Centres to provide primary care services to elderly citizens in French. The funds cover the cost of one full-time French-speaking nurse practitioner who will be based in Pain Court and who will provide primary care services to senior Francophones in their homes in an effort to prevent ER visits, while increasing their well-being and satisfaction.
The goal of this project is to maximize the use of existing French-speaking resources through partnerships with other community health centres and primary care providers, while leveraging the Ontario Telemedicine Network to facilitate access to specialty services in French. Although the project provides funding for only one nurse practitioner, the region being covered is feasible, and the efficient use of the resources should significantly improve the care that Francophone seniors in Pain Court will receive, without having to worry about language barriers.
As I wrote in my post of December 18, I had the opportunity to meet Ms. Renée Moison, the nurse practitioner in this new role. Under her leadership, the community of Pain Court will be well served because she has a stong vision and no shortage of ideas!
The Honourable Mentions Series is a series of 15 blog posts that the Commissioner is releasing to individually highlight initiatives by government ministries and agencies that demonstrate efforts to expand the delivery of high-quality French-language services, as listed in his 2012-2013 Annual Report. The full list of honourable mentions and the relevant blog posts are available here.
