The collaboration between family medicine groups and the community organizations
of the region of Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean
principal Investigators
Marie-Eve Poitras,
Louis Gagnon,
Yoan Vaillancourt
Funding
$ 5,000
Discretionary funds of the associate dean of the University of Sherbrooke
Study setting
Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean
Themes
Interprofessional collaboration, primary care, FMG, community organizations, services
Why?
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Chronic illnesses secondary to the aging of the population, psychiatric conditions and psychosocial problems are constantly increasing. Many services are available to the people of Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean (SLSJ). Given the complex and multidimensional needs of the population, the objective would be to arrive at a practice of shared care and services. Therefore, front-line care professionals must collaborate more with stakeholders from various community organizations. However, a problem has been noted regarding communication between the two sectors of activity and the pooling of interventions offered. In 2019-2020, we conducted three focus groups with 24 community organizations and six primary care service managers to determine the current picture of collaboration between the community and medical sectors. You can learn more about the results of this work just here.
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What are our goals?
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Validate the interest of front-line professionals in developing a partnership with community organizations.
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Develop mechanisms for partners to get to know each other better
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Develop a practical and accessible collaboration process
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Ultimately, we want to improve access to services and the population's quality of life by allowing them to have the right professional at the right time, according to their needs.
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How?
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This project consists of participatory research with a descriptive bill of quantities. The study population includes physicians, nurse clinicians and specialized practitioners, social workers working in FMGs, and community workers. Four workshops will be held to identify collaboration challenges, take stock of barriers and facilitators, prioritize work targets and co-build an ideal world.
What results are we aiming for?
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Thanks to this project, we will co-construct with the stakeholders an intervention model that can be deployed in FMGs to improve communication and collaboration between the health professionals working there and the community organizations. We will also be able to issue recommendations to decision-makers to enhance this collaboration.