CMHA Ontario is pleased to announce a new online resource that will help community health organizations survive and thrive in the world of integration pressures and opportunities. Officially launched today, Integration Resources brings you up-to-date information on principles and practices that make or break integration initiatives. You can find research and case studies on the whole spectrum of integration, from informal coordination to mergers or amalgamations. All the relevant government directives related to integration, including federal statutes that guarantee linguistic and health care rights, are also included. To help you address the personal and organizational challenges of integration, the site also includes tools such as readiness surveys and checklists. We also welcome you to upload relevant and useful materials to Integration Resources so that others can learn from your experiences. Integration Resources is a joint creation of the Canadian Mental Health Association, Ontario and Community Health Ontario (CHO), working together to advocate for integration in keeping with community health values. CHO is an alliance between the Association of Ontario Health Centres, the Ontario Community Support Association and Addictions and Mental Health Ontario (formerly Ontario Federation of Community Mental Health and Addictions Programs and Addictions Ontario). CHO brings together the majority of community based primary care, mental health and home support services in Ontario.
We believe a significant goal in the community health sector should be an integrated, coordinated system which addresses the social determinants of health as the key to a healthy society. We are, however, critical of “quick fix” integration which does nothing of the sort. It’s our hope that through this site, organizations, agencies and people are able to navigate integration currents to achieve meaningful outcomes.
“The creation of a repository of information such as this one is long overdue and we are proud to play a significant role,” said Camille Quenneville, CEO of Canadian Mental Health Association, Ontario. “We encourage our partners to make full use of this resource so that together we can strengthen the community health sector.”
The Integration Resources (integrationresources.ca) website is component of Healthy Community Collaborations, a CHO project funded by the Trillium Foundation. The project’s aim is to support the community health sectors in their integration initiatives among themselves and with the broader health and social systems, in keeping with community health values such as person-centred, community-driven services, bottom-up processes, inter-professional collaboration, strong relationships among sectors and across sectors, and overarching concern with the social determinants of health. CHO thanks the Trillium Foundation for the funding which made Healthy Community Collaborations possible.