Attachment Assessment Clinic and Patient Navigator are helping residents get connected to family doctors and health supports.
Residents of the Sunshine Coast who are looking for a family doctor and primary health care support have some options to get started.
The Sunshine Coast Division of Family Practice has been working with partners including Vancouver Coastal Health to help patients who want a family doctor to get one, and to link patients with other important health and social supports as well as information in the area. In addition to its work to recruit new doctors and enhance the efficiency of physician practices, the division has created:
A website called FETCH that provides information about health services in the area, as well as tips on how to further wellness, at http://sc.fetchbc.ca
A temporary Attac-h-ment Assessment Clinic serving both Gibsons and Sechelt, where people looking for a doctor can be assessed and placed on a list to be matched with a doctor when space becomes available.
A Patient Navigator to help people with complex health issues who need extra support to get attached to doctors, and connected with other health and social related services.
Attachment Assessment Clinic
Residents who want to find a family doctor can start the process at the Division’s Attachment Assessment Clinic. At the appointment, a nurse takes the individual’s medical history and assesses current health conditions in general, but does not provide treatment. After the appointment, some patients may be referred to a family doctor who is taking patients; or if there are no openings available at the time, patients are placed on a list and matched with a doctor when space opens up. It is important to note that the Attachment Assessment Clinic is not an emergency service or a walk-in clinic.
Since April of this year, the Division’s Attachment Assessment Clinic in Gibsons and Sechelt have helped more than 85 people with complex health care needs and 78 other patients get a regular family physician.
Patient Navigator
To support people who are having difficulty finding their way around the health care system, a social worker, Cayce Laviolette, is providing Patient Navigator services until the end of March 2016.
Laviolette travels between GPs’ offices and other locations to help patients coordinate follow-up care and connect with community and health-related services to support their medical and social needs. He also helps patients find assistance for daily living, complete documents, get transportation, and arrange family meetings.
Patients can make an appointment themselves or ask for a referral to the Patient Navigator from a doctor. Since the program started in April 2015, the Patient Navigator has helped more than 152 patients – 137 of them with complex health care issues – get connected with various health supports, and has helped 18 of them get a family doctor.
Laviolette reports that significant progress has been made for people who in the past have had a great deal of difficulty getting their health and social needs met due to the complexities of support systems, and are now benefitting from his assistance.
The Division is partnering with Vancouver Coastal Health on the Attachment Assessment Clinic and has received funding for the projects from A GP for Me, a provincial initiative of the Government of BC and Doctors of BC.
The Sunshine Coast Division of Family Practice is a community-based group of physicians who work collaboratively with Vancouver Coastal Health and other partners to strengthen local primary care. There are 35 Divisions of Family Practice in B.C. in more than 220 communities. More information: https://divisionsbc.ca/sunshine-coast
Patients can make appointments as follows:
Assessment and Attachment Clinic
Operating: Oct. 1 – Nov. 30, 2015 and Jan. 11 to 29, 2016
Call: 604-885-8644 between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Monday to Friday
Appointments are scheduled for Mondays and Fridays at:
Sechelt Home and Community Care Office at 5630 Inlet Avenue, Sechelt
Gibsons Health Unit at 494 South Fletcher Road, Gibsons
A health care card is needed.
Patient Navigator
Call: Cayce Laviolette at 604-741-3180
Email: [email protected]
Services are provided from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to Friday.
