Collaboration between Family Medicine Groups and community organizations in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region

Why?

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Chronic illnesses secondary to the aging of the population, psychiatric illnesses, as well as psychosocial issues are constantly increasing. Many services are available to the population 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. It is therefore important that primary care professionals collaborate more with those working in various community organizations. However, a problem is noted in terms of communication between the two sectors of activity and the pooling of the interventions offered. In 2019-2020, we conducted three focus groups with 24 community organizations and 6 primary care service managers to determine the current portrait of collaboration between the community and medical sectors. You can learn more about the results of this work  here .

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What are our goals?

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1. Validate the interest of front-line professionals in developing a partnership with community organizations

2. Develop mechanisms for partners to get to know each other better

3. Develop an efficient and accessible collaboration process

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Ultimately, we want to improve access to services and the quality of life of the population by allowing them to have the right professional at the right time according to their needs.

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How? 'Or' What?

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This project consists of participatory research, with a descriptive quantitative estimate. The study population includes doctors, registered nurses, specialist practitioners and social workers working in FMGs, as well as community workers. Four workshops will be held in order to identify the challenges of collaboration, take stock of the barriers and facilitators, prioritize work targets and co-construct an ideal world.

What results are we aiming for?

In addition to this, you will need to know more about it.

Thanks to this project, we will co-build with stakeholders an intervention model that can be deployed in FMGs in order to improve communication and collaboration between health professionals working there and community organizations. We will also be able to issue recommendations to decision-makers in order to enhance this collaboration.