Interim Co-Executive Directors Hired at Peterborough Community Health Centre Hires to Spearhead Establishment of New Community Health Centre

The Board of Directors of the Peterborough Community Health Centre (CHC) has appointed David Jeffery and Christine Brander as Interim Co-Executive Directors, announced on Wednesday.

JOHNATHAN BENNETT, CHC DIRECTOR AND CHAIR IS PART OF FOUR BOARD OF DIRECTOR MEMBERS. PHOTO BY DAVID TUAN BUI.

“David Jeffery is renowned for his decade-long leadership at Chigamik Community Health Centre, and brings a wealth of experience in establishing inclusive and culturally sensitive healthcare environments,” said Jonathan Bennett, Peterborough CHC’s board chair. “Under his guidance, Chigamik CHC evolved into a bilingual and Indigenous-focused healthcare facility, catering to the diverse needs of communities in North Simcoe Muskoka. We are so pleased that he and Christine will join us to lead the establishment of our CHC.”

Jeffery's dedication to inclusivity and accessibility makes him a natural leader who can guide the Peterborough CHC toward its mission of promoting community well-being according to a press release.

“I am honoured to collaborate with Christine Brander in leading the establishment of the Peterborough Community Health Centre,” said Jeffery. “Together, we are poised to create a healthcare model prioritizing inclusivity, accessibility, and community empowerment.”

Brander has over two decades of healthcare expertise across various domains which include acute care and primary care settings. With a Bachelor of Commerce in Finance and Management, Brander’s extensive background encompasses medical education, hospice palliative care and health system planning.

She had a recent tenure with the Ontario Health Central Region System Strategy, Planning, Design and Implementation team.

“I am thrilled to join the Peterborough Community Health Centre as Co-Executive Director and contribute to positive changes in healthcare delivery," said Brander. “With a focus on collaboration and innovation, we will strive to enhance accessibility and effectiveness in delivering healthcare solutions that make a meaningful difference in people's lives.”

Newly funded, which was sought on Feb. 16 last year, the Peterborough CHC is positioned to address the region's pressing healthcare needs while focusing on social determinants of health and supporting vulnerable populations as stated in a press release.

The CHC’s key initiatives are attracting new family doctors and nurse practitioners, reducing pressure on hospitals, attaching thousands of patients to healthcare providers, serving as a hub for social services, and promoting a healthier, safer downtown community.

The Peterborough CHC's programs and services will encompass comprehensive primary care, mental health services, chronic disease management and culturally appropriate care facilitated by Indigenous Traditional Healers. Additionally, the centre will be pivotal in coordinating social services and collaborating with Indigenous partners.

The next phase of the Peterborough CHC initiative involves securing an interim location and commencing client services by the end of the calendar year.

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Peterborough Community Rallies For a Community Health Centre

Peterborough patients, providers and community leaders rally for the Ontario government to support a local proposal to build a Community Health Centre that meets the City’s needs.

stock photo.

Community members, including patients, health leaders, retired and current physicians, and concerned local residents crowded today into a community hall to hear about a proposal being put forth to bring a Community Health Centre (CHC) to Peterborough. The local-based coalition, which involves a broad range of voices, including Indigenous leaders, is highly organized, with a volunteer community board already in place, and an existing 100+ page detailed proposal to draw from during the Ontario government’s current period of “expressions of interest” to allocate new funds for inter-professional primary health care team expansions.

“I have benefited from having so many resources in one place. The staff always welcomes me. When a community is able to connect this way, it restores one's faith in health care. They have helped me tremendously in moving forward in my life,” says Michelle Carr a patient at a nearby CHC in Port Hope, credits the judgement-free health care she received there with changing her life.

Speakers noted that Peterborough is one of the only communities in Ontario without a CHC to support its health needs. They added that a CHC would help enable clinicians and other health and social services providers to work across organizations and sectors to better provide health care to people who are marginalized by homelessness, mental health issues, including the opioid poisoning crisis, among other socio-economic factors.

A CHC would be able to better coordinate existing care and services, and provide much-needed capacity through programs  such as outreach, warm handoffs with acute care, system navigation for socially and medically complex clients, and support for the community’s family physicians and nurse practitioners in the areas of trans care and shared training, programs, and administrative functions.

The vice-chair of Peterborough CHC’s Board of Directors, Dawn Lavell Harvard, spoke to the paradox that the city’s most socially and medically vulnerable are the people most likely to not have access to a primary care provider. “There are so many in our community whose only response to a mental health crisis or health challenge is the emergency department. And the poorer and less healthy you are, the more like that is to be the case. This impacts us all, in terms of wait times, poor health outcomes, and costs. A CHC in Peterborough is an investment that will be less expensive overall.”

CHCs are cited as a proven model – to meet the needs of complex patients marginalized in various ways across the health system – and also to better integrate primary health care and social services across the community. Examples of CHCs innovating to integrate services better to serve patients more seamlessly abound, from food security initiatives in Guelph, to programs to integrate services for mental health and addressing opioids in Kingston, to innovative programs to address homelessness and its impacts on health in Hamilton and Durham.

The system impacts of CHCs are considerable – more people attached to primary health care services, better health outcomes, and for every place in Ontario these days – reduced usage and burden on local emergency departments and hospital services.

“CHCs across Ontario are constantly working with their patients and communities to co-design programs and services that have a profound impact on people’s lives, which result in better health outcomes,” said Sarah Hobbs, CEO, Alliance for Healthier Communities, which represents Community Health Centres, among other comprehensive primary health care providers across Ontario. “Peterborough’s movement has been created through broad community involvement and consultation. They are ready to tailor this organization to the community’s needs and strengths, to better leverage all the existing services and resources. A CHC’s support to address marginalization and inequities through health system integration is invaluable – for patients, providers and everyone in a community like Peterborough.”

“An early-career family physician spoke to her conviction that a CHC would help recruit new doctors and nurse practitioners to offer primary care in Peterborough. “I know for a fact that there are family doctors in Peterborough who wish to serve our large population of marginalized people in need of care, but currently there is no system in which they can function sustainably.” said Dr. Jaclyn Vanek.

Dr. Vanek resides in Peterborough but often works elsewhere since she prefers to work in team-based, salaried models.

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Peterborough Seeking Approval For $8.2 Million Community Health Centre From Provincial Government

Community leaders have proposed an $8.2 million community health centre (CHC) has been to help 6,000 marginalized people announced at the YMCA of Central East Ontario on Wednesday.

Johnathan Bennett, CHC director and chair is part of four board of director members spearheading the porposed centre. Photo by David Tuan Bui.

The centre is set to offer on-site laboratory services, pharmacy, access to social work, peer navigation, physiotherapy, parenting supports and specialist support for mental health and addictions according to Jonathan Bennett, Peterborough CHC’s board chair.

“A community health centre essentially asks that family physicians become employees,” he explained. “They're salary so it tends to attract different kinds of a physician to work and surround that position to help more complex issues (usually marginalized folk) that take longer to receive the care that they need.”

The proposal was first made to the Ministry of Health by the Peterborough Ontario Health Team on Aug. 5.

“Peterborough has the fourth highest level of marginalization among 42 Ontario Health Team regions yet we don’t have the health care model that is designed and resourced to serve more complex patients,” said Dr. Dawn Lavell-Harvard, CHC vice chair.

Peterborough-Kawartha MPP Dave Smith joined the announcement showing his support for the centre.

“More than 60 per cent of new medical graduates want a salaried position with flexibility to explore many challenges in healthcare,” he said. “The community health centre would provide that attractive option to entice new physicians to our area in a way we have not had in the past. It will integrate into our existing healthcare options to help reduce hallway healthcare, reduce demand on the emergency room and provide the right care where it is needed most.”

He also added that the closest CHCs are in Lindsay and Cobourg which are too far away from anyone living in Peterborough especially if they need care and have no vehicle.

“It’s 49 kilometres from the edge of Lindsay to the edge of Peterborough. How many individuals, who don’t have access to a car, are going to walk to Lindsay? How many individuals are going to walk to Cobourg?” said Smith. “The answer is historically none.”

Bennett and Lavell-Harvard make up two CHC board of director members (chair and vice chair respectively) with Sarah Budd (treasurer) and James Shipley (director) who are spearheading the proposal.

A location has yet to be determined for the new proposed centre.

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