Our Work

Shared Care initiatives have demonstrated positive results in improving the coordination of care between Family Physicians and Specialists, and other health professionals and partners. See below for a list of Shared Care’s current initiatives and who is participating:

CBT Spread Initiative

From 2015–2018, Shared Care funded a Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) Skills Group program with the Victoria Division of Family Practice, aiming to increase access to early, equitable, mental health support in primary care.

As communities around BC became interested in launching similar initiatives, the Shared Care Committee selected the program for provincial spread.

Child and Youth Mental Health and Substance Use Community of Practice

When the Child and Youth Mental Health and Substance Use (CYMHSU) Collaborative wrapped up in December 2017, a group of physicians established a CYMHSU Community of Practice. Their goal is to continue to work together to champion care, and to support improvements in mental health and substance use services for children and youth. More than 200 physicians are now involved.

Chronic Disease Community of Practice

Driven by a shared vision of chronic disease prevention and management that is patient- and family-centered, team-based, accessible and equitable, seamless, culturally safe, and integrated across the continuum of care, physicians and health care partners have committed to work in close collaboration to create a Chronic Disease Community of Practice (CoP). This group of health care providers, patients, families, and other partners who share a common interest in—and common concerns about—chronic disease issues, work together to address these interests and concerns by interacting on an ongoing basis. The CoP aims to centre around the following three priority areas:

Communication and connection
Education
Innovative approaches to chronic disease

Health System Redesign

The Health System Redesign (HSR) initiative was established to facilitate physician engagement and collaboration in the redesign and/or quality improvement of health services provided by the health authorities.

HSR is intended to provide unique opportunities to involve physicians in the planning, decision making and implementation of new or revised health services, in a manner that contributes to alignment across the health system and reflects the application of the IHI Triple Aim Improvement Framework.

Funding for the Health System Redesign initiative is provided by the JCCs: Specialist Services, Shared Care, and Family Practice Services Committees.

Partners in Care/Transitions in Care

The Partners in Care (PiC) and Transitions in Care (TiC) program supports Family Physician and Specialist-led improvement projects focused on local, regional and, in some cases, provincial issues. The projects encourage engagement, exploration of root issues, and stakeholder collaboration to improve the flow of care between providers and care settings.

Perinatal Community of Practice

Following the success of Shared Care's Maternity Spread Network in 2017, a need was identified to sustain and spread improvements, to expand efforts by including all perinatal care providers and broader system partners (at the community, regional, and provincial levels), and to engage Indigenous leaders in fostering relationships, addressing emerging priorities, and collaborating around the importance of perinatal care in our province. To address this need, the natural next step in the evolution of the work was to develop and implement a perinatal-focused community of practice bringing together health system partners to support the Maternity Services Strategy.