Editor: In as much as I am delighted with the news of the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance receiving a $4.2-million boost from the Ontario government, I am equally disappointed in a trend – a lack of equal level of investment in enhancing the community’s capacity in maintaining our health in Chatham-Kent and in the rest of the Province of Ontario.
There is no doubt that the non-profit public hospitals, which provide medical services (acute-care treatments, surgeries etc.,) need more funding in keeping up with an ever-increasing cost of operation. Their needs are a priority also.
As a senior citizen of Chatham-Kent, I appreciate and support CKHA. And as a satisfied patient, I attest to the fact that CKHA provides a quality of medical services.
However, since there is more to health care than hospital-based care, I believe that any investment in this area does not necessarily translate into enhancing the community’s capacity, as far as our overall health is concerned. Misunderstanding between the overall health with acute care happens when we assume “health” with the “acute care/treatments in the hospital.”
When I advocate on behalf of the community-based resources, I mean investing in all those factors which enhance our overall health, factors which promote prevention, after-care and all the emotional and social supports which we need to remain healthy and keep ourselves out of the hospitals.
I believe that any investment in health should include a fully funded strategy in the development of an alternate level of care to support a transition of acute care services to the community. This will require much greater levels of collaborations within the various departments of the Ministry of Health and among the various ministries as well.
The fact remains that the community-based health resources remain an orphan child of the health-care system in Ontario. In my experience, successive governments over the years have not recognized the value of the community, as much as they should have, in the delivery of overall health services.
I strongly suggest that we continue to preserve hospital resources for those who really need them, but at the same time, enhance the community’s capacity to receive services and supports closer to our homes and families/friends.They who take on the burden of providing informal supports at a significant cost to their lives. Their sacrifices reduce the cost of acute care in the hospitals. Family/friends too need supports in supporting their sick relatives.
Evidence substantiates the fact that by providing necessary services and supports within the community allows people to receive linguistically and culturally appropriate services that meet the needs of diverse, multicultural communities, including Aboriginal peoples.
Sufficient research data indicates a reduction in overall costs in the institutional care (hospitals and jails) when investments are made in the community-based resources, i.e., prevention, health promotion, psycho-social supports, home care, supportive housing, family supports, supported employment, drop-ins, peer supports self-help, etc. The “medical model of care” doesn’t necessarily provide the same benefits in the community when compared with the psych-social model of care and supports.
Let’s not repeat the same mistakes of the past where institution-based services were reduced but sufficient resources were not invested in the community to respond to the new demands created by the deinstitutionalization. We must strengthen the linkages between the hospitals and the community-based care, as well as address the regional differences such as transportation issues from the isolated rural communities to the resource rich urban centers.
Let’s learn from the past mistakes as we address the pressures related to the health-care. Funding must be tied with the expected results, and those who can demonstrate through their outcomes must be rewarded. This means, developing comprehensive outcome measurements and applying it to all the service providers equally. Even the community-based services and supports must go through an accreditation process to justify their funding and their quality of services.
We don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Enhancing the community’s capacity in taking care of its citizens in a cost-effective manner is the only answer as we struggle with the defined resources.
Naresh James
Chatham
