November is COPD Awareness Month, a critical time for healthcare providers and organizations to raise awareness about chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and the challenges faced by those living with it.

On October 7th, Archipel hosted its 2024 All Partner Assembly, bringing together 70 participants from Ottawa East and Prescott-Russell. The event was an important step in advancing the conversation on creating a more inclusive and equitable health system.

A program that can save lives

Who do you call when someone is going through a mental health or substance-related crisis? Starting August 15, 2024 at 7:00 a.m., you can call 2-1-1 to reach the ANCHOR program if you are in Ottawa Centretown or West Centertown. About ANCHOR The Alternate Neighbourhood Crisis Response (ANCHOR) is a new mobile crisis response initiative available 24/7 in Ottawa. The program provides free, compassionate and confidential in-person support for people aged 16 and older. The mobile crisis team workers will get to the person where they are at in the service area—whether on the sidewalk, at home, in a shelter, a park or elsewhere—and either on foot or with a vehicle.

On June 20th, members of the Archipel Best Practice Spotlight Organization (BPSO) attended the Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario (RNAO) Annual General Meeting in Toronto to receive the long-awaited official designation. Thanks to their dedication, Archipel is now an Ontario Health Team that holds Best Practice Spotlight Organization designation! Achieving the RNAO's BPSO designation is the result of the Archipel BPSO Task Force member organizations' quest for excellence and demonstrates their commitment to continuous improvement. Proud of our partners We are beyond proud of our partners - Hôpital Montfort, Montfort Renaissance (MRI), Canadian Mental Health Association Ottawa (CMHA-O), and Ottawa Public Health (OPH) - for meeting the requirements of BPSO OHT designation by implementing and evaluating BPSO’s best practice guidelines.

Since last fall, people in Eastern Ontario have access to a new free virtual care clinic offered by Nurse Practitioners (NP) in both official languages. The clinic is intended for individuals with a health problem that requires immediate medical attention but is not life-threatening. The clinic accepts people living in Eastern Ontario, with or without a health card, and whether they have a family doctor or not. In Ontario, Nurse Practitioners can provide comprehensive care, including making diagnoses, prescribing medication and ordering diagnostic tests such as X-rays and blood tests. They can also advise patients on the management of chronic diseases and refer to medical specialists.

Winning strategies to help all health service providers improve the QUALITY and ACCESS to French-language services. The protocol brings together a set of winning strategies and the tools to implement them.

In June 2023, the Archipel Ontario Health Team launched a project to facilitate the implementation of online appointment booking (OAB) systems for health service providers. The project is led in collaboration with Ontario Health and members of the Archipel Primary Care Network. Seven primary care clinics in Ottawa East are participating, and five of them have gone live with their systems.

Since September 2023, Reconsolidation Therapy TM is offered to Montfort’s emergency room patients who are experiencing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or who are at risk of being affected by it. The aim is to match these clients with appropriate and free mental health services through the Access MHA platform before they leave Montfort’s emergency department. This new service is the result of a collaborative initiative of Archipel’s Mental Health and Addictions (MHA) working group. The multisectoral group brings together client partners, the Eastern Ottawa community family health team, Centre médical Sainte-Anne, Montfort Renaissance, Ottawa Salus, Le CAP and Hôpital Montfort to find ways to reduce recurrent consultations for mental health reasons in emergency departments, while better helping people in need.