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VICTORIA – Beginning in early April 2009, a new $1.17-million pilot program will provide general practitioners in the central Vancouver Island region with easy access to information on mental health and addictions resources and practitioners through a secure web-based directory, Health Services Minister George Abbott announced today.
The Community Healthcare and Resource Directory (CHARD) is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Health Services, the BC Medical Association and HealthLink BC. CHARD will be operated by HealthLink BC and builds on the directory of health services already accessible to the public through 8-1-1 and HealthLink BC’s web-based navigation service.
“We are committed to ensuring that B.C.’s physicians have access to the tools they need to provide the best services to their patients,” said Abbott. “CHARD will allow doctors to find up-to-date practitioner and community resource information and help them identify the most appropriate mental health referrals for their patients. The development of this directory moves us forward in our throne speech commitment to establish a specialist referral service in this province.”
As part of the pilot program, physicians will be able to search CHARD for information on both public and private mental health and addictions resources as well as detailed information on five types of practitioner: occupational therapists, psychiatrists, psychologists, clinical counsellors, and pharmacies that dispense methadone. CHARD will include listings for practitioners and resources from across Vancouver Island.
“Referring patients to the proper health-care practitioner is an important element of any family physician’s practice,” said Dr. Bill Mackie, president of the BC Medical Association. “Having an accurate, up-to-date and relevant directory at our fingertips will allow physicians to more efficiently provide timely and appropriate care to our patients.”
The directory consists of a searchable database that will allow physicians to find a range of information, from a practitioner’s hours of operation to more specific information, including languages spoken, research interests, referral procedures, and whether a practitioner is accepting new patients. The information contained in CHARD will only be available to participating physicians and will require users to enter a username and password in order to access data.
“VIHA is proud to be the first health authority in B.C. to pilot this important initiative to support family doctors,” said Victoria Power, director of primary health care and chronic disease management for the Vancouver Island Health Authority (VIHA). “When VIHA developed its primary health-care strategy, family doctors clearly told us that their top priority was for additional tools to help connect mental health and addictions patients with additional community-based services. VIHA is confident this new resource will lead to better care and outcomes for patients living with mental health and addictions issues and other health conditions.”
The CHARD pilot will be available to over 300 general practitioners and their medical office assistants in the central Vancouver Island region. Once the pilot is complete and feedback from participating physicians is analyzed, the Province and the BCMA will examine the feasibility of expanding the program to include more specialty areas and other regions of B.C.
In November 2008, B.C. launched the expanded HealthLink BC service, which assists the public and health professionals in finding and accessing appropriate health resources in, or close to, their home communities. HealthLink BC services include the 24/7 non-emergency telephone service 8-1-1 and a comprehensive web-based health system navigation service, www.healthlinkbc.ca.
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Contact: |
Bernadette Murphy Media Relations Manager Ministry of Health Service 250 952-1887 (media line) 250 213-9590 (cell) |
Sharon Shore Senior Manager of Communications BC Medical Association 604 638-2832 604 306-1866 (pager) |
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For more information on government services or to subscribe to the Province’s news feeds using RSS, visit the Province’s website at www.gov.bc.ca. |
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