Your Weekly News & Updates
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Q& A with CMHA, Dec. 18, 2020
At the end of the COVID-19 wellness series: building your team’s psychological PPE, there will be a Q&A session on Dec. 18. This will be a wrap up of the previous sessions and an opportunity for a live Q&A with CMHA staff around resources, supports and questions for staff mental health. Register here.
You can also still register for the sessions below:
Mental Health and Telecommuting, Dec 10, 2020 11:00 AM EDT
Register: Click here
Isolation and Loneliness, Dec 15, 2020 02:00 PM EDT
Register: Click here
Mindfulness at Work, Dec 17, 2020 1:00 PM EDT
Register: Click here
COVID-19 vaccine update
As you are aware, yesterday the government released a news release identifying the key groups for distribution of the COVID-19 vaccines. Aligned with the recommendations of the National Advisory Committee on Immunization, early vaccine doses will go to:
- Residents, staff, essential caregivers, and other employees of congregate living settings (e.g., long-term care homes and retirement homes) that provide care for seniors as they are at higher risk of infection and serious illness from COVID-19;
- Health care workers, including hospital employees, other staff who work or study in hospitals, and other health care personnel;
- Adults in Indigenous communities, including remote communities where risk of transmission is high; and
- Adult recipients of chronic home health care.
Our understanding is that the definition of health care workers is very broad and will include primary and community care providers though we continue to seek clarity on this.
To ensure there is a strong primary care voice to the COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Task Force led by General Rick Hillier, AFHTO has been working collaboratively with our primary care partners to advocate and provide solution-focused ideas so that primary care is at the forefront of the community vaccine deployment. The work is rapidly moving and ever changing but in the next few days we will be sharing some of the activities under way. Please stay tuned.
Hope for Christmas video
STAR FHT’s Dr. Sean Blaine has released his latest YouTube video There’s Hope for Christmas. With over 3400 views already, you may wish to share this with your patients through your social media channels.
Perkopolis for AFHTO members
While we certainly encourage you to #shoplocal for your everyday needs and holiday gifts, we would be remiss if we didn’t remind you AFHTO members are eligible to sign up for free access to over 5000 perks through Perkopolis. Get discounts on shopping, attractions and more.
EDs, if your team doesn’t have access yet, please email info@ahto.ca.
Resources for crisis and more
Recent updates include:
- Ontario Identifies Key Groups for Distribution of Initial COVID-19 Vaccines– Office of the Premier, Dec. 7, 2020
- List of resources for crisis– CMHA Ontario, Dec. 2020
- Updated guide for in-person care– OCFP, Dec. 2020
- Top 10 Questions about PPE/IPAC – OCFP, Dec. 4, 2020
- Ontario providing additional financial support for young learners– Office of the Premier, Nov. 30, 2020- please inform your patients
We continue to update several pages on our site with resources and news:
- Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Updates– the original page, with news and Ministry situation reports (please note that the Ministry Situation Reports on COVID-19 are posted daily so review them to better understand the provincial response)
- COVID-19 assessment centres in Ontario
- COVID-19 information for Patients, Caregivers and the Public
- Infection control resources and tools for primary care
- H+K Memos and Insight Notes on Government Press Releases
- Management and operations, human resources and COVID-19
- Mental health and wellness during COVID-19
- Providing Comprehensive Care During COVID-19
- Resources for Re-opening – NEW
- Virtual Care, Digital Health and COVID-19
Complicated grief and COVID-19: slides and videos
Espanola and Area FHT and Powassan and Area FHT organized mental health sessions for teams in the north east. The webinar series presents helpful and practical tools to use when patients are experiencing physical, emotional, and spiritual suffering as they cope with complicated grief. Special attention is directed to ways for health care providers to support themselves and coworkers during this pandemic.
The presentation decks and recordings available to date are on our site.
Access to clean drinking water to all First Nation and Inuit communities
The Alliance for Healthier Communities’ Board of Directors has issued a statement and written a letter to the Prime Minister calling for the government to hold itself accountable to its promise for clean drinking water to all First Nation and Inuit communities.
If you wish to participate in this call to action, you can use this letter template (in English and French). You can tailor it and use it to send letters to your MPs to urge the government to accelerate the work on this issue and provide clear timelines and funding commitments.
Reminder- IHP experience during COVID study
We are now six months since the initial restrictions of COVID-19 and we are interested in hearing about your experiences working in Family Health Teams during this time. You’re invited to participate in a brief web-based survey to understand the evolving experiences of interprofessional health care providers in Family Health Teams in Ontario during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Click on the link here to complete the web-based survey.
This research is being led by Drs. Catherine Donnelly (Associate Professor, Queen’s University) and Jordan Miller (Assistant Professor, Queen’s University). If you have any questions, please contact Dr. Catherine Donnelly at catherine.donnelly@queensu.ca.
Systems navigator graduate certificate student placement request
To be eligible for admission, students must possess a bachelor’s degree, advanced diploma or diploma in health, or social/community or other health-related or human services field.
Humber College students are prepared to work across various health/community service systems to guide and assist patients, clients and families through complex health and social care systems. Placement runs from May 3rd – June 11th, 2021 and students are to complete 240 hours (full-time, 8hrs/day for 6 weeks) of unpaid internship. Should you be interested, email Stephanie.Montemarano@humber.ca by no later than Feb 15, 2021.
OTF resilient communities fund- update on eligibility
We regret to inform our members that we’ve recently been notified FHTs are in fact not eligible to apply for the OTF Resilient Communities Fund. Although we had originally been informed that our teams could qualify, upon further investigation Section 3.3 of the document states that “subsidization of government mandated positions or activities” is considered ineligible, and it appears that is where they see FHTs fitting.
There is nothing in the online eligibility criteria list that directly excludes FHTs like it does call out hospitals, municipalities, etc., and we have engaged in lengthy conversations to determine if there is any way to make FHTs eligible but unfortunately, we have not been successful in these discussions. This is obviously very disappointing and frustrating for all of us. We sincerely apologize for acting on bad information and for creating any unnecessary workload for our members. If you have any questions or would like chat further, please contact Bryn.Hamilton@afhto.ca.
Provincial Primary Care and Cancer Network newsletter available
Every month, Ontario Health’s (Cancer Care Ontario) Provincial Primary Care and Cancer Network (PPCCN) sends out an electronic newsletter to any interested primary care provider in Ontario. The electronic newsletter provides regular prevention and cancer screening updates on topics such as the fecal immunochemical test, upcoming educational opportunities, and regional activities which may be relevant to you or your staff.
Here is a copy of the most recent newsletter.
If interested in receiving the monthly newsletter, please contact the Primary Care and Lung Screening team at Ontario Health (Cancer Care Ontario) to subscribe: PrimaryCareInquiries@ontariohealth.ca.
SDOH tools from PHO
- Health Equity and COVID-19
- Includes Health Equity Impact Assessment Course
- Offer Tools
- Provide supports for data collection
- Introduction to race, income, and language data collection-June webinar with slides
Study: RD beliefs and behaviours on physical activity counselling
“Registered dietitians’ beliefs and behaviours related to counselling patients on physical activity and sedentary behaviour from a theory of planned behaviour perspective”- BMC Nutrition article by University of Guelph researchers on Nov. 30
Coping with the Holidays: A Family Survival Guide, Dec. 14, 2020
Caregivers of someone living with mental health issues are invited to this webinar held by IAM.
Click here to learn more
ECHO Pain, Liver and Rheumatology, Jan. 07 – Dec. 09, 2021
View the newest ECHO offerings starting in January at UHN.
Register here.
Morning Rounds and Lunch & Learns with ECHO Child Youth Mental Health, Jan. 12 – Jan. 14, 2021
From depression, anxiety and parent-child relationships in toddlers, children or adolescents- join the CHEO as they cover it all in these sessions.
Learn more here.
ECHO Ontario Conference, Jan. 29, 2021
Registration is open for Improving Access and Equity in Healthcare through the ECHO Model. See agenda and details here.
