A health collective is gearing up to officially launch an interactive website that will help local youth get the health care they need in their hometowns.
The Be Well Community Collective was formed two years ago and is made up of a few local health organizations, including the Georgian Bay Family Health Team, the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit and the Town of Collingwood.
The collective was assembled to try to address a gap in services for youth in the area.
“This is one of the initiatives that grew out of the partnerships that are already in Collingwood that are supporting child health and well-being,” said Jennifer Parker, with the parks, recreation and culture department with the Town of Collingwood. “We’ve been working specifically for children 0 to 12, but the collective has broadened that scope to both children and youth.”
“Our physicians were finding there weren’t a lot of programs or services where they could refer younger patients to,” said Jennifer McMaster, a community health planner with the Georgian Bay Family Health Team.
Currently, there are 52 family physicians in the area that service approximately 60,000 patients.
The first project undertaken by the collective was the development of a youth health screening tool in partnership with local physicians. Now, this tool is used by 23 local family physicians.
“When patients come in now that are in that age bracket, they can ask them a series of health behaviour questions and connect them with services in the community,” said McMaster, adding that new programming has also been developed to address some of the under-serviced aspects of health such as amounts of sleep, diet, exercise, mental health, gender and sexuality, family dynamics and financial circumstances.
“Our messaging is just normalizing all these different determinants of health. It’s not just about eating well and moving. There’s so many other underlying factors,” said McMaster.
Now that the screening tool is being used across the area, the collective has turned their attention to their new website launch.
“It’s getting finalized at this point. We’ve spend a lot of time developing that with youth. They developed the content,” said Parker. “A big part of that website development was connecting youth with 211 (Community Connection).”
The website has two sides: one for parents getting information, and the other for youth who want to get information for themselves.
“There are a lot of web pages out there,” concedes Parker. “But one of the gaps for youth was (difficulty) accessing information about what’s available locally.”
“For example, what are the resources available in my community, and who do I contact when I’m in crisis?” she said. “It’s also all together. So, instead of going to one website for drugs and alcohol, another website for gender and sexuality... it’s all here and the youth can navigate.”
The website also boasts an interactive map designed by a local artist to show where all the services are located in proximity to each other. The project was funded by the CGMH Wellness Innovation Fund with a $10,000 grant. This project was the first recipient of the fund.
While the website has been soft launched and is available for viewing now, there are still small changes and tweaks to be made with a bigger launch date planned for the future. One of the elements on the website intended to appeal to youth is a chat box that can connect users to 211 instantly in the event of a crisis.
“All of this is meant to come from an empowerment position,” said Ruth McArthur, a registered nurse with the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit. “This way, people can make choices that fit for them.”
“It’s safe and legitimate information too,” said Parker. “There are a lot of websites out there. Anything on here is solid content.”
Overall, the collective hopes that their efforts have made it easier for young people in the Collingwood area to access health services.
“I think the main focus is working together collectively to support our families, our kids and our youth so they can have access to services and we can meet some of those needs and identify some of those gaps,” said Parker. “This has been one of many successes along the journey. This is another element of a great initiative.”
To visit the Be Well Community Collective’s website, click here
