Lunch N' Learn: Community-driven primary care solutions

In this first session of Visions and Solutions, a BC Health Coalition Lunch n’ Learn series, we dig deep into the vision for community-governed primary care.

If you’ve ever felt powerless to improve primary care access in your community, then you have first-hand experience with a key gap in BC’s primary health care system. Many of us struggle to find timely access to a family doctor, nurse practitioner, or a primary care team. We also lack opportunities to improve care for our broader communities.

We talk with Tara Kiran from the OurCare project, a national conversation with people in Canada about the future of primary care, and learn why the public identified accountability to communities as one of six standards for primary care.

Then we learn about Community Health Centres, a model for impvoing community participation in primary care. We hear from Catherine Aw at the BC Association of Community Health Centres about the what makes CHCs unique and what the sector looks like in BC. 

We hear from Barbara Wood from the REACH Community Health Centre board and Masoud Rahmani from the Umbrella Multicultural Health Co-op who share some of their stories and learnings from their own involvement in community governed primary care. 

Watch the recording

Take action

Make a house call on behalf of primary care - Send a letter to your representatives and ask them to help make the OurCare Standard the standard of care across Canada. 

Learn more

Read the OurCare report: Primary Care needs OurCare - Policy decisions often remain distant from the people they serve and support. OurCare seeks to bridge the gap by hearing what people in Canada think, know, and need from primary care, and what they expect of it. The OurCare Standard and final report spell out the changes that need to be made to ensure that primary care works for everyone.

BC Association of Community Health Centres - Find out more about Community Health Centres and what the community-governed primary care sector currently looks like in BC. 

REACH Community Health Centre - Standing for Research, Education, and Action for Community Health, The REACH Centre was developed in 1969 by paediatrician Dr Roger Tonkin as a site for University of British Columbia Medical residents to gain practical medical experience in the community. Over the years the clinic has grown beyond its educational roots to a full health centre, with an increased focus on immigrants, reflecting the multicultural makeup of our community.

Umbrella Multicultural Health Co-op - As a cooperative community health centre, Umbrella is delivering culturally-appropriate health care to immigrants and newcomers in the Lower Mainland.