Community paramedicine
Helping residents before a situation turns into an emergency.
Their goal of community paramedicine is to reduce 911 calls and emergency room visits.
Wellness clinics
Peel Regional Paramedic Services runs wellness clinics for senior residents at 5 Peel Living buildings.
At these clinics, specially trained paramedics:
- Provide basic check ups.
- Assess health risks.
- Teach residents how to manage health issues.
- Connect residents to health care and community resources.
The clinics are part of a study with McMaster University. The goal is to see if a proactive and preventive approach to caring for seniors reduces trips to the hospital.
Since 2019, the Community Paramedicine team has:
- Connected residents with personal support workers, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, and TransHelp.
- Shared concerns with family doctors.
- Provided walkers and other mobility aids. This has reduced the number of falls in the buildings.
- Introduced resources on healthy eating. Some residents have lost more than 9 kg (20 lbs).
- Found family doctors for residents who needed one.
- Encouraged residents to quit smoking and cut back on alcohol and drugs.
- Supported residents in abusive situations.
Early findings of the study are promising. Email us to get more information.
Home visits
In 2020, we launched a home-visit pilot study with McMaster University. The 3-month study enabled paramedics to check in on frequent 911-callers. This program was put on hold due to COVID-19.
High Intensity Supports at Home program
Community paramedics provide in-home medical support to residents who:
- Are leaving the hospital and need help transitioning back home.
- Are on the wait list for a long term care centre or are eligible for long term care.
- Have chronic health conditions.
Participants of the program are identified by the Local Health Integration Network.
By providing residents with health care when and where they need it, we hope to:
- Prevent emergency visits.
- Keep residents in their homes for as long as possible.
- Improve residents’ quality of life.
Our role during COVID-19
Peel paramedics are playing an expanded role during the COVID-19 pandemic. In spring 2020, the Community Paramedicine team partnered with Peel Public Health to provide COVID-19 testing at:
- Peel’s homeless shelters.
- COVID-19 hotspots.
- Long term care and retirement homes.
We completed 13,000 tests in 8 months to help stop the spread of infection.
We also provided medical care to shelter residents recovering from COVID-19 at Peel’s isolation site.
In fall 2020, we started in-home testing for residents with symptoms of COVID-19 who could not access a testing centre.
Recently, we’ve been vaccinating residents at the Peel Public Health vaccine clinics, long term care centres, and retirement homes.
Contact us
We’re committed to supporting our most vulnerable residents throughout the pandemic. Email us to learn more about our community paramedicine programs, or call 905-791-7800 ext. 3951.
