Building Healthier, More Equitable Communities: Symposium Presentations
This symposium had been presented by Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU), Carefirst Seniors and Community Services Association, the Master of Health Administration (Community Care) program at TMU, the Ontario Community Support Association (OCSA), AdvantAge Ontario, and Health System Performance Network (HSPN), offering crucial learnings from Ontario’s ground-breaking High Priority Communities Strategy (HPCS).
Announced in 2020, HPCS had used an innovative “lead agency” model — where one organization took responsibility for engaging and enabling others — to create fully functional, collaborative networks in 17 of Ontario’s most diverse communities that were hard-hit by the pandemic.
During the pandemic, HPCS networks had delivered hundreds of thousands of culturally-appropriate COVID-related health and social supports to individuals and families including outreach through Community Ambassadors, education, test kits, PPE, vaccinations, and coordinated “wrap-around” care including food, transportation, income security, and primary care.
As the pandemic waned, these networks were pivoting to take on persistent population health and health equity issues including preventive women’s health (e.g., mobile mammogram clinics, pap smears), mental health (e.g., referrals and services), and connecting Ontarians to primary care.
What lessons could policy-makers and communities have learned from the HPCS?