Member news: mental health resources, care coordination and more

AFHTO News

• Bill 41 update: now that this has passed, our advocacy continues to be driven by our recommendations, including those on embedding care coordination in primary care. Deputy Minister Dr. Bob Bell provided an update on the implementation of Bill 41 via webinar on December 12^th which can be accessed here.

• AFHTO welcomes our new CEO: Kavita Mehta has now taken over as our CEO.

Resources: Mental Health, Promotion and Patient Engagement

• Quality Standards: Health Quality Ontario (HQO) has recently introduced quality standards in Ontario starting with the launch of three related to schizophrenia, major depression and behavioural symptoms of dementia for health care professionals in primary and acute care settings.

• Improve access for mental health and addictions counselling services with Family Service Ontario (FSO): teams who need to expand access can contract a range of services with agencies across Ontario.

• thehealthline.ca Information Network: another way to make sure your team is on the map and to get accurate and up-to-date information about health services in your LHIN.

• Patient Engagement: Catalyzing Improvement and Innovation in Healthcare– collection of case studies recently released by Longwoods Publishing

• Looking for content for your newsletters? Promote your team’s use of digital health tools such as electronic medical records and Hospital Report Manager (HRM) with templated articles from OntarioMD that you can personalize for your team’s newsletter. Contact info@ontariomd.com to request one of OntarioMD’s articles.

• Petition for sick days: for those whose patients are unable to take time from work when ill, consider spreading the word on this petition from the Decent Work and Health Network.

Requests for Physician Input

• Needs assessment survey for a course on major depressive disorder and/or alcohol use disorder: short survey to help understand the primary care requirements for the development of an accredited course addressing their diagnosis and treatment, to be delivered through ECHO Ontario Mental Health.

• College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) Open Consultations: your feedback requested on policies, regulations, by-laws and other initiatives in development. These include Accepting New Patients, Ending the Physician-Patient Relationship, Applying the OHPIP Standards in Fertility Services Premises and Proposed Fee Increases. Deadlines Jan. 13 and Feb. 10.

Conferences and Events

• Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO) events:

o  Basics of Evaluation Workshop, Jan. 30, 2017: for nursing clinicians and practice leaders to gain an ability to conceptualize evaluation in relation to practice change

• Medication reconciliation webinar? If you want to hear how others are addressing this in their QIPs, click on this link. Depending on demand, we’ll set up a webinar.

• Respiratory Health Forum. Jan. 25-26, 2017, Toronto. More information here.