Balancing more and less: Who cares about the future of health care in Ontario?

TORONTO, Jan. 14, 2014 /CNW/ - Ontario's 14 Community Care Access Centres (CCACs) have released a four-part paper series entitled Health Comes Home: A Conversation about the Future of Care.  The series looks at the big questions that must be asked and discussed if Ontario is to serve the growing number of seniors and children with complex needs over the next two decades.

"There are more issues affecting the future of health care in Ontario than ever before, and less time and resources to address them," says Sandra Coleman, Board Chair of the Ontario Association of Community Care Access Centres (OACCAC).  "We need to start talking now, seriously and thoughtfully, about how to transform our health system to care for an aging and increasingly diverse population.  We produced these papers to spark that conversation."

Health Comes Home looks at how Ontario's health care system must evolve to meet the needs of seniors with complex health needs, people with chronic health care needs, people who need hospice palliative care, and children with complex health needs.

Four themes underlie the series: the evolving needs of Ontario's aging population, the changing expectations of patients, the opportunities for technology to fundamentally change the delivery of home and community care, and the need for greater clarity about what we should expect from our health care system and how we will pay for health services.

To start the conversation on how to tackle the coming challenges and harness the opportunities, Health Comes Home asks the questions: What should we expect from our health system?  How will we come together to meet the needs of patients? How will we pay for a transformed system?  How will we value and care for our informal caregivers?

"Patients with chronic or complex health conditions now make up five per cent of Ontario's population, but they use services that account for approximately two-thirds of Ontario's health care dollars, and their number is growing," says Catherine Brown, CEO of the OACCAC.  "Our system must change to serve the future needs of these and all Ontarians.  We invite patients, health care providers, thought leaders and everyone who cares about health care to join this important conversation about the future of care."

The papers are accessible at the interactive website http://moreandless.ca. The website provides a forum for people to focus on, consider, share and discuss the ideas, opportunities and challenges raised by Health Comes Home.

About Ontario's CCACs:
Ontario's 14 Community Care Access Centres (CCAC) get people the care they need in their homes and communities across the province.  CCACs provide a single point of access to a wide range of home and community services, enabling people to get the specialized blend of the health care services they need, when they need it.

In 2012-2013, CCACs served over 653,000 people, including:

• Seniors who want to stay in their homes independently
• Younger adults and children with health care issues or injuries, including people with chronic diseases and students who need health care at school
• Patients needing a family physician or nurse practitioner
• Patients whose needs are better met by community care than in hospital or long-term care.

SOURCE: Ontario Association of Community Care Access Centres

Andrea Concil
Senior Communications Advisor, OACCAC
416.750.1720 ext. 7313
[email protected]
oaccac.com