A funding boost for primary care in downtown Windsor.
Windsor-Tecumseh MPP Andrew Dowie has announced $2.1 million in provincial funding to help improve access to primary care for residents in the core.
The money is going to Windsor-Essex Community Health Centre (weCHC), Canadian Mental Health Association Windsor-Essex County Branch (CMHA-WECB), and Essex County Nurse Practitioner-Led Clinic.
The three organizations are working together to implement a coordinated, community-based model of care for high-need populations.
weCHC CEO Nancy Brockenshire says the money will be used to add health providers for the three organizations.
She says they're hoping to assist more than 6,200 individuals with primary care services.
Brockenshire says receiving this money is fantastic news for the community.
"It's about $2.1 million to add health providers to our system under these three organizations, ourselves, CMHA, and our NPLC nurse practitioner led clinic of Essex in Windsor-Essex," says Brockenshire. "So exciting to add with that money over 6,200 individuals that will now receive primary care."
She says they want to attach about 6,200 people to the three organizations by May 31, 2027.
"When you are attached to primary care, especially with our agencies because we're community-type centres and NPLC, nurse practitioner-led, we have services that they can refer within our community," she says. "So we have social work, we have mental health, and we have dietitians."
Brockenshire says they're hoping to have job descriptions up in May.
"Without this funding we could not add more people; we could not do more attachments," says Brockenshire. "So this allows our agencies to expand and grow and bring them into a full service that we're already offering."
In a release, the organizations say the initiative will establish a Coordinated Access and Attachment Network to connect unattached and high-need residents to primary care through a mobile, flexible, community-based model grounded in trust and accessibility.
The organizations also hope to expand after-hours access across clinic sites, deliver culturally and linguistically responsive care and integrate mental health, primary care, and social supports through a team-based model.