Paths to prosperity

Our encounters with health care can be the most joyful and the most sorrowful of our lives – the birth of a child, the death of a parent, a diagnosis of cancer or the news of a complete recovery. [...] The truth is that for many decades, and especially in the last 30 years, the cost of our health system has been But overall, all of this extra health care isn’t making the growing much faster than our ability to pay. [...] We rightly rely on family doctors to be the gateway to the This offers an encouraging opportunity because health system, but for the one to two per cent of patients there is considerable evidence already that for people with the most complex needs, a family doctor without with chronic health conditions, the best care is often additional support often doesn’t have the resources significantly less e [...] These range from the needs of dual diagnosis patients – people with developmental We have a wealth of knowledge and experience in challenges and mental illness – to those of people the field of mental health and addictions in Ontario, managing addictions or specific challenges like eating “ One of the main problems in Ontario’s mental health and addictions system is that there is, in fact, no cohe [...] Patient-centred health care more in OHIP funding for these services, yet must strain recognizes that the people with serious physical health their own family budgets to pay tens of thousands of conditions like cancer and heart disease are the most dollars in additional costs for the services and to send likely to face mental health challenges like depression their children out of the country.