The first openly gay president of the Canadian Medical Association (CMA), Dr Anna Reid, visited Ottawa’s Centretown Community Health Centre (CCHC) March 11 to tour the facility and discuss the community-health-centre model.
Reid says she is impressed with the CCHC team and the work they are doing.
Jenny Buckley, research specialist at the Public Health Group, Health Research and Policy Directorate at the CMA, and Jane Maloney, Canadian Association of Community Health Centres board chair, joined Reid on the tour.
Reid met with representatives from CCHC’s mental-health and early-childhood divisions in addition to doctors and nurses. She singled out CCHC executive director Simone Thibault as being “enlightened in her leadership.”
“It was great to see not only a multidisciplinary team, but one that is addressing the health and equity social determinates,” Reid says.
With their Gay Zone, Trans Health Connection and Senior Pride Network programs, CCHC maintains a strong focus on serving Ottawa’s queer community. Reid says the centre’s programming aimed at the gay, lesbian and trans population is unique.
Reid and CCHC president Jeff Morrison discussed the future of the Canadian healthcare system.
“We talked about how members of the CMA and doctors who are community-health-centres doctors could better promote the CCHC model with doctors in a hospital setting,” Morrison says.
“Hospitalization actually represents a failure of the health system,” Morrison says, citing one of his favourite quotes from Reid. He says it’s an idea all Canadian healthcare professionals should embrace.
Reid believes prevention is key.
In addition to being the first lesbian head of the CMA, Reid is also the first doctor from the Northwest Territories to hold the position.
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