Grant: IPPH Travel Awards - CPHA Annual Conference

Thunder Bay's Joint-Mobile Crisis Response Team (JMCRT) is an innovative partnership between CMHA-Thunder Bay, Thunder Bay Police Service (TBPS), and Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre (TBRHSC) where crisis workers partner with police to respond to mental health-related crisis calls. The JMCRT is intended to direct people in crisis to appropriate community services and to avoid unnecessary Emergency Department (ED) visits and police apprehensions ("Right Care, Right Place, Right Time"). Our project uses JMCRT administrative data to describe the processes, preliminary outcomes, and costs associated with the first ten months of the program. Administrative data were collected and analyzed before the program (June 1, 2017-May 31, 2018) and during its first ten months (June 1, 2018-March 31, 2019). JMCRT exceeded service delivery targets in its first 10 months. During that time, hundreds of people have been routed to appropriate, less restrictive services, reducing burden on ED and police. This model shows potential for improving the quality of care for people with mental health needs. Patients with cancer and other chronic conditions (i.e., "complex" cancer; CC) face unique barriers to comprehensive, quality health care because they require services crossing multiple, siloed care systems. To assess the impact of care system changes on CC care, researchers need QoL measures that are appropriate for CC patients. While many QoL assessments are available, no extant QoL measure systematically addresses the unique circumstances of people with CC. The aim of this study is to better define QoL for people with CC so that we can more meaningfully assess the impact of healthcare systems on CC patient care.