Earlier this year, I had the pleasure of attending the International Conference for Integrated Care in Ireland. It was such a great opportunity to participate in, and help create, international partnerships and information exchange. It was an experience that brought home the point that when we break down silos and barriers between countries and jurisdictions, then what’s happening on one side of the world can be put into practice on the other. That’s how change is made.
It’s what I look forward to doing a lot more of in my new role as Senior Associate of the International Foundation for Integrated Care.
Through our work first with the PATH project, and now Changing CARE, The Change Foundation has worked, and is working, with multiple sectors and organizations to improve health care, and support integration, in Ontario.
Our past work, which focused on improving the experiences for patients and family caregivers as they move about Ontario’s health care system, led us to the vital yet often unrecognized role of informal or family caregivers in the system (referred to as carers in the UK). As an independent health policy think-tank that works to inform positive change in Ontario’s health care system, we’ve been able to identify what some of the most pressing needs are, and I look forward to travelling the world with what we’ve learned, and an open mind, in tow.
I look forward to working with IFIC to advance the exchange of knowledge, information and practice to improve the caregiver experience globally, and to building and co-developing new lines of work related to a focus on patients and caregivers as partners with health service providers to advance integration.
I am proud that The Change Foundation’s groundbreaking work will serve as a model for others overseas. Just as importantly, I embrace the opportunity to learn from others and bring some ideas home with me, to keep The Change Foundation at the forefront of caregiver integration in Ontario’s health care system.
In my first opportunity in my new role, I will be supporting the November 6 AsiaPacific Conference on Integrated Care, being held in Brisbane, Australia, by helping to review abstract submissions and to select presenters that reflect patients, caregivers, health service providers, planners, policy makers, funders and researchers.
I look forward to the opportunity to learn and build new bridges as I collaborate with my new colleagues at IFIC.
Jodeme Goldhar
Executive Lead,
Strategy & Innovation
The Change Foundation