THE FHT INITIATIVE

Family Health Teams are locally driven organizations whose main purpose is to deliver improved access to primary health care services in Ontario. They may include family physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, and a range of other allied health professionals who are committed to working together collaboratively to provide comprehensive, accessible, coordinated health care to their patient population. The team benefits by practicing together in a positive environment that best utilizes their complementary skills.

Family Health Teams will serve as a focus for chronic disease management and community based health promotion and disease prevention activities. Each Team will be unique to the community it serves. They will be designed as a result of community consultation and provider input and they will be developed to meet the specific needs of their communities. As a part of this process the patient will become more involved in their own care and well-being. The patient is a key member of the Team and uses both the information and support of the other Team members to make informed decisions on how to manage his/her self-care needs.

Family Health Teams are the navigator of the health care system. They will provide the delivery of a variety of health care services as close to home as possible thereby helping to relieve some of the load on our emergency room services. They will offer an improved access to allied providers at the local level, at a local location, which will help to deliver improved continuity of care.

There will be 150 Family Health teams throughout Ontario by 2007. These Teams are in various stages of implementation. For more information please visit the Ministry website at http://www.health.gov.on.ca/transformation/fht/fht.mn.html