Rachelle Ashcroft and co-authors publish “5 principles for action on primary health-care teams”

Associate Professor Rachelle Ashcroft co-authored a piece for The Conversation that outlines “5 principles for action on primary health-care teams.” Her co-authors include Jennifer Lake from U of T’s Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, Catherine Donnelly and Jordan Miller from Queen’s University’s School of Rehabilitation Therapy, and Clare Cruickshank, Patient Advisor, Ontario Health INSPIRE-PHC, Patient Expertise in Research Collaboration.

As the number of Canadians without a primary health-care provider grows, social workers, pharmacists, physicians, nurses and other health care professionals have come together to advocate for the development of primary health-care teams, which include professionals from different disciplines collaborating to provide patients with more comprehensive care. A team-based approach can also reduce the administrative burden on family doctors and others.

From the article in The Conversation:

Primary care is in crisis. Recent estimates indicate 6.5 million Canadians, including 2.5 million Ontarians, do not have a primary care provider.

Interprofessional primary care teams include a range of health professionals in addition to a family doctor or nurse practitioner, and are a key solution to improve access to primary care.

As of Dec. 1, 2024 family physician and former federal cabinet minister Jane Philpott is leading Ontario’s new Primary Care Action Team. Philpott states, “Our goal will be for 100 percent of Ontarians to be attached to a family doctor or nurse practitioner working in a publicly funded team, where they receive ongoing, comprehensive care.”

Her book Health for All articulates a vision of primary care, or what is being described as a “health home,” which would guarantee every person access to a primary care team close to where they live. The Primary Care Action Team has announced its plans to achieve this goal within five years.

A health home is the front door to the health system and includes a team of primary care providers that supports an individual’s health and wellness; co-ordinating care across the system and through every stage of their lives. Each health home would ensure you could receive primary care services based on where you live; ensuring that if you move to a new city you would have access to your local health home, just as you would have access to your local school.

Principles are needed to achieve these goals. These principles should build on successes and address historical challenges. Our team, comprised of primary care researchers and a community partner, has focused our work on understanding how primary care teams can support access and better outcomes.

Collectively we propose the following five principles for the Primary Care Action Team to consider, which emerged from our panel discussion at the 2024 Trillium Primary Care Research Day on Oct. 25, 2024.

Read the full article in The Conversation.

In addition to her role as Assistant Professor at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, Rachelle Ashcroft is chair of U of T’s InterFaculty Curriculum Committee, which is responsible for the University of Toronto’s Interprofessional Education (IPE) Curriculum, in partnership with the Toronto Academic Health Science Network, inclusive of 14 hospitals and 12 health and social care professional training programs.

Keith Adamson and Rachelle Ashcroft

Ashcroft is also involved in a Canada-wide strategy to accelerate transformative change in the way that primary health-care practitioners work together. In 2024, she and FIFSW Associate Professor Keith Adamson, in partnership with the Canadian Association of Social Workers (CASW), assembled a group of social work leaders to develop a national vision for social work in primary care. Together, they are not only charting a path for social work’s role in primary care, but also ensuring that the valuable skills and expertise that accredited social workers offer are recognized as integral to the system.

In September 2024, CASW published the report “Social Work and Primary Care: A Vision for the Path Forward.” Click here to read the full landmark report on social work and primary care.

Ashcroft, Adamson and colleagues have also launched a free, six-module e-learning program for social workers in primary care, and social work learners considering a future practice in primary care. The programs may also be used by health professionals and trainees from other disciplines to learn more about social workers’ roles in primary care.

Access the e-learning Social Work in Primary Care modules here!