>IMPROVING HEALTH CARE ACCESS, PROVIDING BETTER CARE
PAUL GALLANT Earlier this year, Davenport Perth Neighbourhood and Community Health Centre surveyed 100 of its clients on their oral health and found that half of them weren’t receiving adequate care, even though most of them had some sort of health coverage. In fact, some clients were so desperate, they pulled out their own teeth. They just didn’t know how to find access to better care. “Somehow the information isn’t getting to folks,” says Rachel McGarry, who is near- ing the end of a one-year stint as interim director of community support services at DPNCHC. Although the centre hosts a multidisciplinary team of doctors, nurses, counsellors and dietitians, and offers skills development, settlement assistance and youth and seniors programming, it doesn’t offer dental services. But that doesn’t mean the centre doesn’t have a role to play in oral health. “You want every door to be the right door,” says McGarry, who received a TCF Vital People grant to help her step into the director’s shoes. “You walk into any community agency and you should be able to find an entry point into the system, whether it’s mental health services, primary care or child care. And you shouldn’t be repeating your story 17 times to 17 different people before you find the person who can help you.” McGarry’s wish: to see increased coordination and collaboration among service providers. Although Ontario has created Local Health Integration Networks to do just that, McGarry has experienced how it can all come together for clients when the front line workers communicate better. “I love to see us look at the whole person and not just separate out physical health, spiritual well-being, emotional health.” A more holistic approach not only reduces the number of people falling between the cracks, it can also help stretch tight budgets. “To work collaboratively takes a little more investment up front, but the kind of integrated approach that the Davenport Perth Neighbourhood and Community Health Centre is demonstrating will give us better services in the end,” says Rosalyn Morrison, vice-president of community initiatives at Toronto Community Foundation.