OHT-N welcomes first County-wide patient and caregiver council and next leadership

NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY, Monday, July 26, 2021 – Local health and community care providers were reminded of just how important partnerships are through the COVID-19 pandemic.

From testing to collaborative (virtual) primary care support, mass and mobile vaccination efforts and much more, the Ontario Health Team of Northumberland (OHT-N) never intended to have COVID-19 as a priority focus when it launched in December 2019. Looking back on the past year and a half, the partners agree: OHT-N relationships enabled a faster and more comprehensive response to COVID-19 across Northumberland, and a more positive outcome for all.

Now, as Ontario begins to see light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, the OHT-N—a County-wide collaboration of patients, caregivers, health and community care providers working together to improve patient, caregiver and provider experience—is excited to be able to accelerate the three priority projects intended as its focus, prior to COVID-19:

  • Volunteer Peer Support - This initiative will match trained volunteers with people in our community who require informal support, broadening their social network and assisting them to navigate and access the health care services they need. Learn more about the Volunteer Peer Support program.
  • Community Paramedicine - Leveraging the skills and training of Northumberland Paramedics, this initiative is providing proactive services for patients who use 9-1-1 services due to system gaps/challenges/ access to community care. This includes remote monitoring for appropriate patients. Learn more about the Community Paramedicine Program.
  • Rural Outreach Clinics - Multiple OHT-N partners will bring services to rural community locations to reduce barriers to care experienced by patients in small, rural areas, such as access, transportation and outreach challenges. The OHT-N’s first Rural Outreach Clinic opened in Colborne in April, 2021. Learn more about the services available at the Colborne Rural Outreach Clinic.

Helping to drive this work forward in partnership with local patients and caregivers with lived experience is the OHT-N’s newly formed Experience Partner Council.

Recruited from the network of patients and caregivers already serving in advisory roles with various OHT-N partners, the inaugural Experience Partner Council is comprised of eight volunteers from across Northumberland County: Kaye Jackson (Co-Chair); Scott Macpherson (Co-Chair); Gwen Barnes; Susan Fedorka; Howard Goodfellow; Edna McKim; William Prawecki; and Lisa van der Vinne.

Unique in that it is the first opportunity for direct patient and caregiver engagement across the local health and community care system, the Experience Partner Council is working together with service provider partners to help transform the delivery of local health and community care through the Ontario Health Team model.

With active representation across all the OHT-N’s governance, planning and project team structures, Experience Partner Council volunteers are committed to ensuring patients and caregivers have a clear and equal voice in advancing local priorities for health and community care services and bringing to life Ontario’s Patient Declaration of Values here in Northumberland. For more about the Experience Partner Council, including information on its members, please visit www.ohtnorthumberland.ca/en/ohtn/oht-n-experience-partner-council.aspx

“It has been exciting to see active patient and caregiver engagement grow as the OHT-N matures,” said Scott Macpherson and Kaye Jackson, Experience Partner Council co-chairs. “We had the opportunity to be at the OHT-N planning table from its inception. Most of the organizations around the table had experience at varying degrees with patient and family advisory councils and committees, but the engagement was really happening in silos. The OHT has offered an opportunity for us to now take this engagement across our local health and community care system, all the way to true patient and caregiver partnership. Our OHT-N Patient/Caregiver Partnership and Community Engagement Framework is our blueprint – it maps out what we want patient partnership and broader community engagement to become, and the benefits we believe we will achieve if we do it right. It also articulates the values that will guide us, and it recognizes that meaningful engagement is done through solid and diverse relationships, built over time, across a spectrum—from informing, to involving and, ultimately, empowering (through the Experience Partner Council).”

The first full-time OHT-N resource has also been recruited to coordinate OHT-N operations and advance the work of the priority projects. Marley Budreau, OHT-N Director, was recruited by the OHT-N partners from the Region of Peel, where she has most recently worked as Manager, Strategic Initiatives, leading the development and implementation of Peel’s Community Safety and Well-being Plan as well as leading vaccination efforts through primary care as part of Peel’s mass vaccination team.

Before beginning her new position with the OHT-N this month, Marley was part of the secretariat responsible for supporting the development of the Brampton Etobicoke Ontario Health Team (OHT). Marley has also held senior roles at the Central East Local Health Integration Network, having worked to implement programs such as Behavioural Supports Ontario and Health Links.
Marley’s passion lies in the development of integrated and coordinated models of care that aim to put the patient and caregiver voice at the centre of planning and implementation efforts while ensuring meaningful collaboration. Raised and currently residing in Northumberland County, Marley is excited to reconnect with OHT-N partners as the team works to better connect local patients and providers to improve patient outcomes.

“Northumberland has very unique experiences with patient and caregiver engagement, a commitment to joint health service planning and evaluation, and a local culture of creativity and innovation,” said Budreau. “I am thrilled to be joining the OHT-N at this point in its evolution, and I look forward to supporting its current and future priority projects to improve care here in my own home community.”

Adrienne Bell-Smith and Trish Baird, Executive Directors of the Northumberland Family Health Team and Community Care Northumberland, respectively, have recently accepted co-leadership roles for the OHT-N, taking over this role from NHH President and CEO Linda Davis, a driving force in the establishment of the OHT-N model in the County, who will retire at the end of this month.
“We are excited to co-Chair the OHT-N, following the exceptional leadership of Linda Davis, who was a driving force in helping move this partnership forward,” said Adrienne Bell-Smith and Trish Baird, OHT-N co-chairs. “The members representing the partnership of the OHT-N are a collaborative and innovative group, deeply committed to creating meaningful improvements in health services within Northumberland. We are thankful for the confidence and support that the Ministry of Health and our local MPP David Piccini continue to show for the OHT-N. The last 16 months have shown the resiliency of this team. We work well together and support each other in helping to make health care services more accessible to our community. We look forward to bringing our projects to full operation in partnership with our Experience Partners and the community at large.”

Looking for more information about the OHT-N?
Please visit the OHT-N websiteemail the team or reach out by phone care of the contacts below.

Media contacts:

Jennifer Gillard
Senior Director, Public Affairs and Strategic Partnerships
Northumberland Hills Hospital
905-377-7757
Email Jennifer

Kate Campbell
Director, Communications 
Northumberland County 
905-372-3329, ext. 2335 
Email Kate