North East LHIN

The Community Care Information Management (CCIM) program’s HRIS project team at the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care has launched a new HRIS Quadrant Software Webinar for Community Mental Health and Addictions (CMH&A) and Community Support Services (CSS) organizations across the province.

The webinar reviews how to:

• implement the Quadrant (HR, Payroll, Scheduling and Self Service) software

• streamline back-office processes

• meet Ontario Healthcare Reporting Standards requirements

The North East LHIN Integrated Health Service Plan (IHSP) for 2010-2013 identifies nine interconnecting priorities for the next three years:

• Aboriginal / First Nations / Métis Health Services
• Addiction and Mental Health Services
• Aging at Home
• Alternate Level of Care Strategies and Solutions
• Diabetes Care
• Emergency Department Wait Times
• French Language Health Services – An Integrated Approach
• Health Human Resources
• Optimize Surgical Services.

The Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care recently released the LHIN Guide to Good Governance as a resource to provide guidance based on leading practices to LHIN Board members and other stakeholders.

The Guide reviews five topic areas:

• Leading practices in board governance
• Board member roles and responsibilities
• Board scenarios
• Board evaluations
• Checklists and policy documents

The Métis Nation of Ontario (MNO) is renewing its landmark agreement with Queen's University and leading health care provider Providence Care, which specializes in mental health. The agreement expands the MNO's mental health resources, training and resource capacity across the province through a partnership with Kingston-based Providence Care and the Centre for Health Services and Research Policy at Queen's.

"The health and well-being of our citizens is a priority," said MNO President Gary Lipinski. "By working with Providence Care and Queen's we are able to bring valuable and much-needed resources into our communities. As well we are able to build capacity at the community level by training our own health care providers according to the most current standards." Under the agreement, Providence Care will provide training and certification for all MNO health care workers, including annual certification in Applied Suicide Intervention Skills and Non Violent Crisis Intervention training. The MNO will also receive additional access to clinical training and mental health expertise via videoconferencing. This agreement builds on the initial two-year agreement between the MNO, Queen's and Providence Care which was signed in 2007

On May 5th, seven community mental health organizations kicked off the OCAN Training of North East LHIN Ontario Common Assessment of Need (OCAN) implementation pilot. OCAN Coordinators and their “back-ups” attended the session designed to give an overview and introduction to the OCAN tool.

The NE LHIN and North East Mental Health Centre (NEMHC) are partnering to develop a Regional Advisory Panel (RAP) for Mental Health and Additions. The RAP will build upon existing mental health and addiction structures and include a broad membership of stakeholders from Mental Health and Addictions, French Language Services, First Nations, Aboriginal and Métis, and Long-Term Care and Community Support Services.

The RAP will provide authoritative and informed advice to the LHIN on regional services and issues. Six Task Forces will be created by the RAP to address the following issues:

The Community Mental Health Common Assessment Project (CMH CAP) has published the first issue of "The Northeasterly," a monthly newsletter dedicated to the North East LHIN Pilot. The pilot is a LHIN-wide project to implement the Ontario Common Assessment of Need (OCAN), the standardized, consumer-led decision making tool that allows key information to be electronically gathered in a secure and efficient manner. The NE LHIN pilot is conducted by the CMH CAP and sponsored by the NE LHIN.

The North East LHIN has launched an online forum for residents of North East LHIN to comment upon their health care priorities and needs. The online forum is part of Engage 2009, the LHIN's community engagement process to refresh their Integrated Health Service Plan (IHSP) for 2010-2013. Residents and service providers in the LHIN are invited to post comments and engage in online discussions.

North East LHIN integration strategy directs health service providers to develop integration plans

The North East Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) has released its integration strategy. The document describes how the LHIN defines integration and its expectations of local health service providers. Health service providers are expected to develop integration plans in partnership with others. These integration plans will be incorporated into the 2009-2010 accountability agreement between the LHIN and each health service provider.