Health and social services organisation

In Québec, an integrated health and social services centre (a Centre intégré de santé et de services sociaux CISSS) or an integrated university health and social services centre (a Centre intégré universitaire de santé et de services sociaux – CIUSSS), along with its area network (réseau territorial de services – RTS) partners, is responsible for improving and maintaining the health of the population it serves. It must offer the best possible services to the clients who consult with it and, at the same time, anticipate problems relating to health and well-being. For that reason, it is called on to play a role in addressing several health determinants, including housing conditions, education, social support, access to employment, etc.

Community development support is an essential response measure in doing so. In addition to helping a CISSS/CIUSSS carry out its mission, community development support encourages CISSS/CIUSSS stakeholders to adopt practices that reflect populatio…

For the 20% of Québec's population whose mother tongue is not French, communication in this language can create difficulties when dealing with the health and social services system. The presence of linguistic barriers in available services can have major negative repercussions on the health of patients. To ensure that anglophones and other linguistic minorities have access to services in their mother tongue, Québec health care facilities may use bilingual or translated documents, hire bilingual employees, offer second language courses to health professionals, or use interpretation services.

While bilingual or translated documents can make it easier to ask questions in another language, they do not ensure that the answers will necessarily be understood. Moreover, in Québec, documents translated into English may not be relevant in communications with allophone or aboriginal clienteles.

The use of bilingual employees has many benefits in terms of communication quality.…

This document summarizes the main observations delivered by the experts on the implementation processes involved for RSIPAs, thus constituting a part of the expedited knowledge synthesis we realised on this subject. We grouped the comments under six themes: a general appreciation of the model (even if this aspects extended beyond the object of the synthesis), questions related to the general governing of the system (at the ministerial level), those concerning appropriation at the local level, special considerations implied by the function of case manager, incentives to consider and the various elements to take into account in monitoring implementation.

This summary report aims to describe the reform-related changes observed between 2005 and 2010 in primary care organizations in Montréal. Findings are reported first on changes in number of medical clinics between 2005 to 2010, and then on an analysis of the modifications in clinic characteristics over this period. The findings are presented for the region as a whole and for each CSSS territory in the region.

• In the region, we observe a decline in the number of primary care medical clinics between 2005 and 2010; this decrease, mostly due to small (mostly solo) clinics closures, was compensated by merges and the spread of larger clinics, and especially by the marked increase in FMG, NC and FMG-NC.
• There was also significant improvement in the index of conformity to organizational ideal type (ICIT) between 2005 and 2010.
• This improvement is due mostly to the implementation of FMG and NC in existing clinics.
• Given the nature of these changes,…

This summary includes highlights of the population survey results on services utilization by the Montréal population, unmet service needs and the assessments of care experiences of respondents who have a regular source of primary care. Moreover, the values obtained in 2010 are compared with those for 2005.

This summary includes highlights of the population survey results on services utilization by people living in Montérégie, unmet service needs and the assessments of care experiences of respondents who have a regular source of primary care. Moreover, the values obtained in 2010 are compared with those for 2005.

In 2005, the Population Health and Health Services team, a joint team from Direction de santé publique de l'Agence de la santé et des services sociaux de Montréal and Institut national de santé publique du Québec, conducted a study in the two most populated regions of Québec (Montréal and Montérégie) to evaluate the association between primary care organizational models existing at that time and the population's care experiences. A second study was undertaken in 2010 to understand the evolution of primary care organizational models and how they have performed during the healthcare reform process, and to evaluate the organizational and contextual factors associated with these changes.

The study consists of three interrelated and hierarchically nested surveys:

• A population survey of adults randomly selected among the population of both regions to assess patient affiliation with primary care organizations, use of services, various attributes of patient care experie…

Some Canadian regional health authorities have fully committed to partnerships with not-for-profit (NFP) organizations for the purpose of promoting healthy public policy. Some are seeking to go further in this direction and others have not yet embarked on this course. This document is part of a series of texts documenting existing partnership practices and analyzing their contributions in terms of public health. The aim is to allow authorities to weigh the benefits of such partnerships for the health of the populations under their responsibility and to determine the conditions for implementing such action.

Specifically, this document describes how the establishment of partnerships between the Vancouver regional health authority and an NFP organization delivering “low-threshold services” made it possible to reach people living with mental illness or substance abuse problems, while at the same time acting on the social and public policy context that, in part, determined their…

In Canada, everyone has the right to receive health and social services in the language of their choice—English or French (Official Languages Act, 1985). In Québec, health and social services legislation affirms English speakers’ right to receive health and social services in English.

From this perspective, it will be instructive to analyze whether healthcare providers communicate in the minority official language, i.e., English in Québec. Using the 2001 and 2006 censuses, Statistics Canada drew a picture of official-language knowledge among healthcare professionals, and we have examined that data to assess the situation in Québec. The province was divided into five (5) geographic regions that can be linked to Québec’s health and social services regions.

A number of linguistic variables are available from the census, including native language, language spoken at home, knowledge of official languages, and the derived “first official language spoken” (FOLS) variable2.…

Highlights

• Overall, individuals’ assessment of their health care experiences with their regular source of primary care is favourable. These observations are similar to the results of international studies on health care user satisfaction. However, the population is clearly less appreciative of geographical and organisational accessibility.
• Appreciation of care experience varies greatly among territories of the health and social service centres (HSSC) in the two regions under study. The population’s perception of the primary care experience is generally better in Montérégie than in Montréal.
• The contrasts characterizing the population’s care experience is brought to light when CSSS territories are grouped by context. Urban territories described as affluent commerçant and characterised by the density of their populations and the wide diversity and quantity of health care resources obtain the lowest scores for both aggregate index of care experience and…