Of 140 people that registered, nearly everyone participated in a free webinar recently about a new online repository that might help them overcome challenges when it comes to the world of integration. The goal of the webinar – hosted by Community Health Ontario (a partnership between Addictions and Mental Health Ontario, the Association of Ontario Health Centres and the Ontario Community Support Association), and CMHA Ontario – was to introduce integrationresources.ca as a tool that community organizations can turn to as they delve into the often-complex and at times misunderstood perceptions of integration.
Integrationresources.ca can offer:
- Support for personal and organizational challenges related to integration
- Offer practical insight into case studies and examples of what worked and lessons learned
- Provide products and tools for:
- Assessing Readiness
- Implementation
- Checklists
- Ease the process and improve the outcomes of a variety of integration types for community-based organizations
The webinar included a practical demonstration on how to navigate the site and a discussion on current “hot topics.” For example, it was pointed out that some LHINs and health care sectors are very focused on structural integration, such as mergers and amalgamations. Similarly, the webinar illustrated the resources available on the website for another hot topic: Health Links.
Next Steps
The webinar’s presenters stressed that frequent updating is crucial to the success of the online repository.
The popularity of the webinar indicates interest in having online resources that can help in integration efforts. However, integrationresources.ca is user-driven and relies on active contributions of fresh resource materials. The webinar’s presenters stressed that frequent updating is crucial to the success of the online repository.
Webinar participants were invited to contribute materials and to also encourage others within their respective spheres to post resources. Materials for submission must be:
- clearly relevant to the goals of the website and community health
- accurate
- authored by credible sources
- free of any offensive, libelous, or false information
- in general, authored within the last ten years, with the exception of earlier documents with continuing relevance
- copyright-cleared for inclusion on the website (This will be undertaken where not already the case.)
- 4MB at most
For those who missed the webinar, a recording and slide deck is available.