Centretown Community Health Centre: From vision to action, five years later

By Louise Rachlis

A client recently commented about Centretown Community Health Centre, “this centre is the best I have seen and I have moved 39 times in my life.”

Her positive comment is not unique. With all their programs, the Centretown Community Health Centre has received extremely encouraging feedback from clients, participants and community members.

About 98 per cent of clients rate their care and or services at Centretown Community Health Centre, 420 Cooper Street near Bank and Somerset, as “excellent” or “very good.”

The CCHC has existed since 1969 when it was established as a health clinic for hard to serve youth, in a broom closet in the downtown YMCA.

Now they have 130 staff offering health and community services to the residents of Centretown, Glebe and Old Ottawa South, in addition to serving all residents of the city of Ottawa through their Diabetes Education Program, Mental Health and Addictions Program for adults 55 plus, the Good Food Box and Mental Health Support for GLBT youth.

“The 2006-2011 Strategic Plan has guided the centre for the last five years,” says Simone Thibault, Executive Director of Centretown Community Health Centre. “It has guided us to new and innovative program delivery including the New Canadian Clinic and the Gay Zone Gaie, as well as encouraging us to be reflective on our own practices of interdisciplinary care and advocacy.”

The journey began in 2006, developing goals to guide the Centre. Those goals included “Excellent, Comprehensive, Integrated Primary Health Care”, “Responding to Community Needs”, Organizational Health and Capacity”, “Ensuring Accountability”, and “Health Systems and Policy Change.”

“We also set out a plan of action that identified individual and collective tasks for us to accomplish in key areas,” she says, “and we promised to monitor and report our progress to the community. Five years later, we are excited to tell everyone what we have achieved.”

When they committed to making the Centre more accessible to various populations, they monitored the number of non-English speaking clients there were serving. The number of clients who speak a language other than English grew from 695 in April 2006 to 2,027 in April, 2011.

They are also pleased that the effort put into programming groups to address chronic disease prevention and management are having an impact. “The information that was provided was so vital for me,” wrote one delighted client on a Diabetes Education Program. “Just following what I was taught, I lost more than 15 pounds in less than three months and my numbers for diabetes and cholesterol went way down. Even my doctor was amazed. A big thank you!”

Darlene Richardson, a participant in the Centretown Walking Group, wrote: “I ‘urban poled’ most days, at least five times a week. The route which I took was approximately 4,500 steps. An accomplishment for me. Thank you for the opportunity of learning about and trying out these poles. I am most grateful. I can also see a difference in my blood sugar when I walk. If only I could get my hubby to agree to eat some of those foods!”

And now the Centretown Community Health Centre is looking ahead to the next five years.

“We’re now consulting with the community to get input on our next strategic plan for 2012 to 2017,” says Ms. Thibault. “We want to hear from our community, including partners, residents, clients and volunteers. We invite them to go to our website at www.centretownchc.org and fill out the survey.”

She says that feedback will help the Centre establish its priorities for the next five years.