With the advent of precision health, there has been a rapid increase in the utilization of genetic and genomic testing across all medical specialties and a consequent increased demand for genetic counselling services. This has resulted in unacceptably long (>year) wait times. Strengthening the healthcare workforce by integrating genetic counsellors where they do not currently practice and providing genetic counselling supports through innovative methods will contribute to cost efficiencies and improve access to genetic counselling services. We will take a multi-stream, multi-partner, and multi-site approach to deploy and deliver optimal clinical genetic healthcare to Canadians.
Program: CIHR Strengthening the Health Workforce Team Grants
Capacity Building in the Pediatric Eating Disorders Workforce: System Transformation to Improve the Continuum of Care
New eating disorders presentations surged during the COVID-19 pandemic, intensified by challenges with clinician availability and training in eating disorders. To address the workforce challenge, our team will study the roll-out of a Provincial Training Hub, which will build capacity in clinicians treating children and youth with eating disorders in BC and the Yukon. We will demonstrate the impact of training and consultation in evidence-based approaches for pediatric eating disorders, improve cultural responsiveness in training, and develop a strategy for national training. Our goal is to improve clinician well-being, and availability of quality evidence-based care for pediatric eating disorders.
Building capacity for a sustainable and equitable healthcare workforce in rural, remote and Indigenous communities by implementing innovative team-based hybrid care
Healthcare provider shortages in rural, remote, and Indigenous (RRI) communities are an important problem. In British Columbia, ‘hybrid care’ programs link health professionals through technology to treat patients (virtual care) alongside local providers (in-person care), bridging service gaps when providers are unavailable and supporting local providers. However, not all RRI communities have embraced such programs. We seek to understand the complexities of implementing ‘hybrid care’, how to make this approach culturally safe and adaptable to unique community needs, while improving healthcare workforce sustainability. Our learnings will be applied to developing service delivery guidelines and ‘hybrid care’ policy scalable across Canada.