The pilot project A GP for Me has been deemed a success on the Coast since it launched in April – and now governments and organizations are being asked for their support to keep at least part of it going when funding dries up in March of next year.
At a stakeholders meeting Nov. 17, Dr. Jane Bishop told government, RCMP and community organization representatives that approximately $100,000 is needed annually to keep patient navigator Cayce Laviolette working after the funding for A GP for Me runs out.
Laviolette acts as a mobile healthcare social worker, meeting one on one with patients where they are, assessing their needs and connecting them to the proper supports, medical or otherwise.
He related one success story from his recent work that started with a patient who was unemployed, homeless and hurting and ended with that patient in stable housing, working and feeling much better both physically and mentally.
“I think what’s exciting about this project is that not only can I help give people direction and advise them on different resources that are out there, but I can go to them and I can follow them over the course of days or weeks or months, in some cases, until they’re sufficiently connected with supports that exist here,” Laviolette said.
Since Laviolette started in April he’s had more than 200 patients referred to him.
Referrals can come from patients themselves, doctors, members of the RCMP, community groups, family or friends.
Dr. Simon Reznick noted several Coast doctors have been referring patients to Laviolette, rather than trying to support complex patients themselves, which takes a lot of extra time.
The help from the patient navigator has allowed some doctors to start taking on new patients, said Wendy Griffin, executive director with the Sunshine Coast Division of Family Practice.
The addition of two new doctors, one in Wilson Creek and one in Gibsons, has also helped patients without physicians connect to one over the past few months, and there’s another doctor slated to start in Sechelt in January, Griffin said.
Bishop, who’s the lead doctor with the Sunshine Coast Division of Family Practice, which houses the A GP for Me initiative, said her group plans to share some of Laviolette’s success stories with the province in the hopes of obtaining more funding, but she was unsure what the outcome would be.
“What we really need from today is to ask all of you if you can help us figure out how to make this sustainable and how to change this project into a program,” Bishop said, noting the Division of Family Practice might not be the best umbrella organization going forward.
“Although we do need, desperately, to be involved.”
Sunshine Coast Regional District board chair Garry Nohr suggested talking to the provincial health minister one on one about the need, saying he’d accompany anyone who wanted to make a pitch. Bishop said she’d take him up on the offer.
There was some talk about finding money in the traffic fine revenues paid by the Sunshine Coast RCMP to the District of Sechelt. Sechelt councillors in attendance said they’d take the suggestion back to council for more discussion.
A GP for Me project manager Eleonora Molnar said she would coordinate an advocacy group going forward to keep everyone up to date and working toward the common goal of keeping the patient navigator position on the Coast.
In addition to the patient navigator, A GP for Me also features an attachment assessment clinic, which has the role of connecting patients who want doctors with doctors who are taking patients. While good work is being done at the attachment assessment clinic, Bishop focused on keeping the patient navigator role running in the future.
She said her group would be interested in keeping the attachment assessment clinic going as well if there was money available.
“They can go together and they have been a package deal so far.”
If you would like to help or learn more, contact Molnar at [email protected]
