A goal of the Southern Alberta Child & Youth Health Network (the Network) is to optimize the experience of care for children and families by providing health services as close to home as possible.
Outreach is one strategy used by the Network to meet this goal. At the request of partnering regions or other child serving sectors, clinical outreach is provided by health professionals from the Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary or by community paediatricians and other providers. Services are provided through telehealth or face-to-face at various locations in southern Alberta minimizing the amount of family travel required.
Outreach services are developed within an Outreach Services Framework which:
- incorporates principles to guide outreach services
- defines levels of outreach
- outlines processes for determining needs and identifying resource requirements
- clarifies roles and responsibilities
- provides a template for an Outreach Services Agreement
- establishes evaluation expectations
Expected outcomes of outreach are:
- Enhanced implementation of family-centred care practice concepts by:
- recognizing that travel is very disruptive and costly to families
- providing care closer to home to meet needs expressed by families
- recognizing that the family is the constant in a child's life, while the service and personnel within the health care system fluctuate
- improved access to consultation and/or treatment
- recognizing that travel is very disruptive and costly to families
- Enhanced continuity of care and partnership among parents and professionals.
- Increased professional knowledge and capacity regarding child and youth health.
- Efficient use of resources to meet an identified need or gap.
For evaluation reports and other documents related to Outreach please see the Publications page.
For information regarding outreach, please contact:
Catherine Morrison, Acting Outreach Services Manager
Phone: (403) 955-2297
Email: catherine.morrison@albertahealthservices.ca
Telehealth or Videoconferencing
Telehealth, or videoconferencing, describes a technology in use in over 200 health care facilities across Alberta. It is also available across Canada and internationally. This technology is used to connect families to professionals in real time on screen without the requirement of travel.
The long term vision of the Network is to use this technology to it’s fullest capacity to connect families with many providers across the child serving sectors and to reduce the need for travel, which currently proves challenging for many families needing to access specialized resources.
Telehealth is used for clinical and educational activities. To review locations in Alberta, Saskatchewan and interior British Columbia where telehealth is available, please click here.
For more information related to the clinical use of telehealth for children and youth (Calgary only) please contact:
Bonnie Roberge, Outreach Services Coordinator
Phone: (403) 955-7185
Email: bonnie.roberge@albertahealthservices.ca
For more information regarding education being provided via telehealth, see the Education Calendar.
