Ultimate Blogging Championship

Tag: Advocacy Tools

  • Election 2022: It Takes a Team!

    Click here for the recording and deck from the advocacy webinar with Enterprise Canada on April 6  

     

    Click here for AFHTO’s ranking of all parties’ election platforms

     

    The 2022 provincial election wrapped up on June 2, and AFHTO is looking forward to working with the new government. 

    The pandemic exposed many gaps and problems in our healthcare system, so it is no surprise that health care is a top issue for all parties. AFHTO members are leaders and providers in the healthcare sector, so candidates are looking to hear from you. Your voices are powerful.

    Teams reached out to candidates. Shared success stories to encourage investment, shared challenges and solutions, and encouraged team members, family, friends, and patients do the same. The most powerful thing in an election is candidates hearing the same thing over and over from voters. If the central party hears something from enough candidates, it can become something they speak to — and perhaps even commit to investing in.

    But this takes your voices.

    And no one knows better than you that for people to receive the best primary care, it takes a team.

    Below are tools to help you with your local advocacy. We encourage teams include physicians and IHPs in the meetings.  

    Campaign Material

    1. Advocacy Toolkit

    • Key messages
    • How to participate in campaigns
    • FAQs
    • Email templates

    2. One-pager on team-based primary care

    3. How to Organize a Town Hall – Toolkit

    4. Social media graphics

    • Include a graphic with a succinct sentence about successes
    • Please always use #ItTakesATeam on Twitter. Other good hashtags are #ONelection and #onpoli
    • Please tag @afhto and we’ll retweet you!
    • Consider finding your candidates’ handles and tag them as well

    5. Social media animations

    6. Voter card

    • Share this with team members, patients, friends, and family
    • People can leave this by their door/phone to ask when a candidate reaches out, or it can be used proactively!

    7. Patient story map

    • This is to support patients who may join meetings – it’s not to give to the candidate

    8. AFHTO pre-budget submission

    • This speaks to challenges and solution in the healthcare sector
    • Please leave this behind at meetings!

     

    You’ve all been on the ground throughout a pandemic. Your voices are critical. And powerful. This election is an opportunity to be heard. The pandemic has exposed the weaknesses in the healthcare system, and it needs to be built back better with a focus on equity and assurance that primary care is its foundation. Every party knows health care is the priority, and they know speaking to people in the sector who can offer solutions – and committing to delivering on those solutions – is key to being elected.

    Think about success stories from your team to share with candidates and speak to why the care you provide is important to have available to anyone who needs it!

    If you have questions or need support, please contact advocacy@afhto.ca
     

  • Election 2022: 52 days to go!

    Hi everyone,

    It’s exciting to be speaking with teams about their current advocacy and the work being planned for the coming two months as we head towards the June 2 provincial election! The election is expected to start on May 4. As you all know, though, parties are in full election mode now.

    To help make sure parties understand the importance of team-based primary care and how to address the crisis facing the healthcare sector, candidates need to hear about it – and solutions on how to fix it – from local stakeholders and voters. As healthcare leaders and providers, you are in an excellent position to do this and to encourage friends, family, and patients do as well.

    AFHTO held an advocacy webinar with our government relations firm, Enterprise Canada, last week to discuss advocacy and the tools we’ve developed to support you. The deck and recording are posted on our advocacy page.

    You’ll see the link to this at the top of the page. Underneath the webinar link, you’ll see links to the tools. They’ll be helpful in your work over the next two months.

    The following are posted:

    • Advocacy toolkit, which includes key messages, template letters, and FAQs
    • Toolkit on how to organise a townhall
    • One-pager to leave behind at meetings – or to mail or email to candidates
      • There is a standard version or a fillable version, where you can make edits to what team-based primary care is an investment in
    • Animations to use on social media
    • Social media graphics
    • Voter card with top questions to give to family, friends, team members, and patients to use either reactively when campaigns reach out, or proactively
    • Patient story map to support any patient who might join a meeting
    • Our 2022 pre-budget submission that speaks to key areas that need to be addressed

    We encourage candidate meetings by the end of April, if possible, before the election officially kicks off. It’s important that candidates know what team-based primary care is as they head into the election — and getting their time will be a bit more feasible now.

    You can find your candidates and how to reach them here:

    PC candidates
    Liberal candidates
    NDP candidates

    If no one is listed for your riding, the candidate is not yet nominated. Please keep checking these links for updates.

    Your voices are critical. And powerful. Let’s speak to our solutions together, and ensure they are heard. Elections are a great opportunity for influence and health care is a top priority for all parties, so don’t forget the influence you have.

    Please reach out to advocacy@afhto.ca if you have any questions.

    52 days to go!

    Yours in good health

    The AFHTO Team

     

  • Election 2022 – it Takes a Team – Social Graphics

    Election 2022 – it Takes a Team – Social Graphics

    For the 2022 election, here are graphics that you can use for social media to help with local advocacy!

    There are seven images. You can right click on any image you’d like to use and save it to your desktop.

    If you have any questions or need support, please email advocacy@afhto.ca

     

     

  • Follow-up on ED check-in calls – and additional tools and resources

    Dear triad members,

    We had our regional ED check-in calls on November 17 and 18. This is a follow-up communique with the material promised on the calls, and some additional reminders, tools, and resources.

    Mental health and wellbeing

    • We are pleased to share that the federal government is providing one-time mental health and addictions funding to help alleviate the increase in demand and a backlog of services due to COVID-19. Approximately $3 million will be distributed to interprofessional primary care teams, including AHACs, CHCs, FHTs, and NPLCs, to increase access to mental health and addictions supports for patients in Q4.
      • All FHTs will receive a minimum of $5,000, with a top-up based on roster size, to be used in Q4. Funding distribution is in the final stages of approval, and we expect teams to receive it by end of year. Teams can choose to pool this funding within regions to target areas in greatest need.
    • We continue to post resources on our mental health and wellbeing page. Please check them out and encourage your staff do so as well. These are very challenging times, and we hope these resources give a bit of guidance and support.

    AFHTO’s OHT and KTE supports

    • AFHTO conducted seven polls on the calls to get a sense of work on the ground and where supports are needed or should focus. The results of the polls can be seen here.
    • AFHTO heard loud and clear that a webinar series on OHTs would be helpful! We will organize these now and kick them off in the new year. Please email topic suggestions to Bryn Hamilton.
    • We will also begin organizing KTE webinars based on your poll feedback. The top four areas of interest were patient/caregiver engagement, mental health, digital equity, and social determinants of health. If you have ideas for KTE topics, please send them to Sandeep Gill.

    #PrimaryCareAlwaysThere

    • We are speaking up against the narrative that primary care was or is closed during the pandemic. This includes communicating the benefits of virtual and in-person care – and that virtual care is care.
    • The Twitter campaign is #PrimaryCareAlwaysThere. We encourage you share stories about how your teams supported your patients and communities and use the hashtag. Let us also know so we can share your examples with our ministry and OH colleagues during our discussions.
    • Thank you to all who participated in our summer research about how primary care stepped up. Taking what we learned, we created Crossing Chasms: Primary Care Teams’ Response to COVID-19 to show the great work done by our teams. We also created a video. Please share this widely, and keep letting us know how you are supporting your communities so we can continue to highlight how pivotal primary care is in the pandemic response.

    Microsoft Teams discount

    • AFHTO has been exploring a group purchase of Microsoft Teams for a member discount. We have learned that the summer survey AFHTO conducted has indicated that the number of users was not enough for us to qualify for Microsoft Canada’s affiliate program.
    • Ontario Health, as part of their digital strategy, is in negotiations with Microsoft Canada on an agreement to offer Microsoft 365 (which includes Teams) at a discount to healthcare providers and organizations. The discount will be extended to the broader healthcare sector, and AFHTO has initiated conversations with Ontario Health about offering this discount to AFHTO members. An update will be provided in January.

    QSC patient advisor application

    • AFHTO is recruiting a patient advisor representative for the AFHTO quality steering committee (QSC). Our hope is for the advisor to be a patient of one of our teams!
    • More information is here. Please consider speaking with patients who you think may be interested and circulating this across your team.

    Primary care patient/client and provider virtual care experience surveys

    • In August, we launched the Primary Care Patient/Client Virtual Care Experience Survey for teams to capture the patient experience with virtual care. AFHTO is collecting teams’ aggregate responses to create a narrative of how virtual care could be permanently included in the patient care journey – click here to submit your data!
    • There is also a patient/client survey created by Women’s College Hospital Institute of Health Systems Solutions and Virtual Care (WIHV), who is conducting a third-party evaluation of virtual care in the COVID-19 era on behalf of the ministry. You can provide the survey link to patients.
    • WIHV is also conducting a third-party evaluation of virtual care in the COVID-19 era on behalf of the ministry to measure the provider experience on virtual care. Please share this short 10-15 minute online survey with all providers on your team.
    • Both WIHV surveys include the opportunity to enter a draw to win one of four $50 gift cards to the Bay, Shoppers Drug Mart, or Amazon. Your participation will remain anonymous and confidential.
      • If you have any questions or would like to share your current virtual patient/client survey results with WIHV, please email rebecca.liu@wchospital.ca.
      • Please reach out to jamie.fujioka@wchospital.ca if you have any questions or concerns about the provider experience survey.
    • This research is important as the ministry looks at the future of virtual care – please spread the word, and we encourage you to participate!

    Friendly reminders

    • A new agency called Supply Ontario has been created to centralize government procurement, including stabilizing access to PPE for the long term. The goal is to have the inaugural board in place early in the new year. In the meantime, a reminder that primary care can access the provincial stockpile. Even if you have more than 7 days of stock, you can access the pandemic PPE transitional support and send any questions to your regional supply chain lead.
    • The Physiotherapy Clinical Education Team at Queen’s is coordinating clinical placements for 2021. If any teams have a PT in place and would be able to supervise a student, please email Melanie Law at lawm@queensu.ca.
    • Please send your AOP to the ministry as soon as able. While there is no set deadline on it, we encourage teams aim to submit in before the end of the year.

    This was our last round of ED check-in calls for 2020, and we look forward to connecting in the new year.

    We thank and applaud you for your persistence and commitment to delivering the best quality primary care during very trying times. We hope you, your staff, and your friends and families find some down time next month to rest.

    Please reach any time with questions or suggestions on how we can continue to support you.

    Stay well,

    Your AFHTO team 

  • MPP Meetings – Advocacy Tools & Resources

    A new government and many new Members of Provincial Parliament (MPP) were elected in June 2018. AFHTO members are encouraged to meet with  their local MPP.

    Establishing a relationship with new MPPs – or building on existing relationships with longer-serving MPPs – and communicating the value of team-based primary care is key to helping see MPPs do two things:

    • Advocate for investments in team-based care, and
    • Understand the value of team-based care for their constituents, so they can speak to it as the new government undertakes primary care reform.

    It’s important to include primary care providers and, where possible, a patient in these meetings. These are people the government is especially interested in hearing from. Where there is more than one team in an MPP’s riding, we encourage teams coordinate one meeting together, if possible.

    Working with Hill+Knowlton Strategies, our government relations firm, the following tools have been prepared to help with local advocacy:

    It’s important that teams across the province are consistent in saying why team-based care matters. The key messages are the main points to communicate, with proof points to back you up, but the document is not intended to be left with the MPP. The slide deck summarises the key messages, and it’s what can be left behind after the meeting.

    In the deck, be sure to add a couple success stories and accomplishments where patients – the MPP’s constituents – benefitted because of team-based care.

    Other tools, resources and references

    If you have any questions, please contact Beth MacKinnon (Program Associate, Policy, Leadership and Strategic Communications) at beth.mackinnon@afhto.ca or 647-234-8605 x206.

  • 2017 Compensation Campaign: Electronic Letter to key Cabinet Ministers

     
     

  • 2017 Compensation Campaign: Sample Tweets

    Take action on social media. You can use the sample tweets below or send your own. Make sure you include: @DrEricHoskins   #investinprimarycare

    • Strengthen #primarycare as the foundation of the healthcare system for true transformation @DrEricHoskins  #investinprimarycare
    • Interprofessional primary health care delivers better outcomes for people and better value for money @DrEricHoskins #investinprimarycare
    • Putting #PatientsFirst requires an investment at the first point of contact for patients: #primarycare @DrEricHoskins  #investinprimarycare
    • This is about equity & fairness- to put #PatientsFirst invest in the people providing care in our teams @DrEricHoskins  
    • We can’t build a great health system on a crumbling foundation – #investinprimarycare to fortify & improve the foundation @DrEricHoskins
    • To put #PatientsFirst, we need to invest in interprofessional #primarycare – a strong health care system needs a strong foundation
    • Or send your own tweets but make sure you include in your message:  @DrEricHoskins  #investinprimarycare

  • 2017 Compensation Campaign: Getting to the 2012 Rates

    2017 COMPENSATION CAMPAIGN

    “Investing in Interprofessional Primary Care Teams”

    We continue to call on the Ontario government to support primary health care interprofessional teams by investing an additional $130 million annually to bring our team members to the 2012 recommended wage rates. This figure is in addition to the current investments of $31.7 million annualized, to be shared among more than 7500 FTEs in over 400 organizations. To support this call, AFHTO, AOHC and NPAO are launching a compensation advocacy campaign, targeted at key political decision makers who are currently working on the provincial budget. Our objective? To secure a commitment in the 2017/18 provincial budget for $130 million annualized with implementation plan over 2 years to ensure interprofessional primary care teams can effectively retain and recruit staff.

    But to get there we need your voices NOW!

    We’ve told the government repeatedly you have difficulty recruiting and retaining staff at these low compensation rates. A number of our member FHTs and NPLCs have already sent letters to their MPPs and the Minister expressing their disappointment and anger about the funding amounts they received. Now we need more evidence. Tell your own stories. If you are a Board member or interprofessional health care provider, tell the government how you’ve been impacted by your current salary rate. What you can do:

    What we will do

    • Share your stories in AFHTO Communiques so other FHTs/NPLCs are motivated by your action.
    • Compile them and use it for further action in March to keep the pressure on.
    • Use them to prepare for further meetings or formulate a media strategy if necessary.

    Why this matters For the Ministry to achieve its ambitious health system transformation goals outlined in the Patients First Act, the government needs to focus on strengthening primary care as the foundation. This means supporting teams in their ongoing challenge to recruit and retain qualified healthcare providers who provide exceptional primary care to their patients and communities. Make your voices heard so that on Budget Day we’ll all have cause for celebration. As always, if you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us at any time. Relevant Links

    Engagement in this campaign and use of the tools provided are governed by the policies of each organization and AFHTO recommends before participating in this campaign, these policies are reviewed and discussed with the leadership of your organization as needed.

  • Building Political Support Webinar held on April 15, 2014

    The Political Action webinar was held on Tuesday, April 15, 4:00 – 5:00 PM Eastern time. Public Affairs consultant Patrick Nelson joined AFHTO President Keri Selkirk and ED Angie Heydon to:

    • Give an overview of the current political landscape as it relates to primary care;
    • Review AFHTO’s political action activities and responses to date;
    • Share tips and techniques for making the most of your meetings with MPPs and candidates;
    • Answer your questions and ensure you receive the support you need for your meetings

    AFHTO’s advocacy campaign – “Better Care. Healthier Families. Best Value.” – is reinforcing the message across the full political spectrum.  The call to “enable recruitment” is one of three key messages in campaign. Kicked off in the Legislature on the 10th Anniversary of the announcement of Family Health Teams, the campaign brochure has been mailed to all MPPs and AFHTO’s President and ED have met with the opposition health critics. We need your help to keep up the momentum.  We encourage you to book a meeting with your local MPP and election candidates as soon as possible. To make it as easy as possible, we’ve prepared a number of materials to support your efforts:

    • A slide presentation that you can use to guide your meeting. (Note that we’ve left space for you to insert local successes and challenges).
    • A PDF of the campaign brochure that you can print to use in your meetings or in other ways appropriate to your community.
    • A key messages document and spreadsheet with riding and MPP contact information for each AFHTO member was e-mailed to you at the end of March.