A Vision for Get Well Family Health Team
[2025.Apr.20]
This painting by local artist, Gene Tempelmeyer, portrays a 'River of Life Flowing Down Yonge Street'.
When our communities are healed, sharing life with each other in a city. Our relationship with the land and it's people restored, like a river of life flowing down the middle, providing water to nourish the soul. With rising trees and plants on each river banks, giving shelter and medicine to the nations of the world.
This river of life, at the heart of North York, evokes emotions and beliefs that align with the vision we have for our proposed neighbourhood Get Well Family Health Team (FHT):
- A FHT that harnesses the power of our collective community care organizations, that builds bridges across communities, over the Yonge Street divide.
- A FHT that is founded on values and spirituality based on 'compassionate North York', or 'love your neighbour'; where your people are my people.
- A FHT that uses a wholistic approach to wellness and healthcare, where we can be well and live life.
- A FHT that is for equity and justice, 'health for all'.
Historical Context:
Did you know that there are ancient lost rivers in North York? The Indigenous peoples, including the Huron-Wendat, the Haudenosaunee, Mississaugas of the Credit, and the Anishinaabe, who lived and travelled in this garden more than a millennia before the first European settlers arrived will remember these streams, rivers and creeks. Over time, colonialism took their land away, governments broke their treaties, and as urban development proceeded, these waterways were artificially redirected or buried underground. However, if you walk in a park, you may sometimes see hints of these ancient streams.
Toronto is one of the most diverse multicultural cities in the world where we all share a common place we call home in Tkarón:to, Onitariio, Kanata. Toronto's many neighbourhoods have their own identities, cultures, and faiths.
Sadly, the patterns of inequity and division of old continue to exist today in the provision of health care to residents of North York where 10% of residents do not have a family doctor or a primary care nurse practitioner. This equates to 48,624 people in Ontario Health's priority postal codes: M2N, M3H, M2M, M2R, M2J, who do not have a primary care provider.
Even if you have a family doctor in North York, over 80% of us do not have access to a primary care team of interprofessional health providers working in a Family Health Team (FHT).
We hope to address these inequities and restore a healthy community system in central North York through the creation of Get Well Family Health Team.
With faith, hope, and love,
Dr. Kevin Lai and the team at Get Well Clinic.
