Health support services to get $24-million boost

Funding part of $260M package promised in provincial budget

Area health officials will announce a $24-million spending program Friday to beef up community support services.

The cash — the first injection of new annual base funding from the province — will be distributed by the Champlain Local Health Integration Network (LHIN), which oversees public health providers in the Ottawa region.

LHIN chief Chantale LeClerc told the Citizen on Wednesday that all the money will go to a variety of non-hospital services, including home care, community health centres, mental health and addiction centres.

The money is part of a $260-million package promised for this financial year in May’s Ontario government budget.

Part of the provincial government’s health-care strategy is to free up much-needed hospital beds by spending more on home care — especially for seniors who are admitted and regularly readmitted to hospital.

This will likely mean an increase in personal-support workers and other in-home help for the ill and infirm.

The community initiative will also target people who find themselves outside the conventional healthcare system, by increasing access to community health services, offered in Ottawa at several existing centres.

The province has also promised to focus on education and other preventive measures to improve the overall health of Ontarians with the goal of keeping more people out of the health-care system.