About Community Health Centres
Health People, Healthy Communities (2019)
Canada’s first Community Health Centre (CHC), Mount Carmel Clinic, was established in Winnipeg in 1926. CHCs are often known by different names across Canada, but they all have several essential attributes. CHCs are multi-sector, not-for-profit organizations which have several core attributes. Learn more below and access our latest infographic about CHCs.
In contrast to solo practitioner models, Community Health Centres offer high-quality primary care through a collaborative team approach. Social workers, family physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, dietitians, chiropodists, dental hygienists, therapists and other clinicians provide services in a team environment, based on patient needs.
Community Health Centres integrate team-based primary care with health promotion programs, illness prevention programs, community health initiatives and social services focused on housing food security and other inputs for health. This reduces silos and makes services more accessible. CHCs exemplify the World Health Organization’s definition and recommendations for “primary health care”.
Factors affecting health and healthcare vary from community to community. That’s why CHCs focus on the most appropriate services and programs for the local community they serve -whether that means a geographical catchment or a community of individuals with common characteristics. CHCs engage members of the community in helping to identify priorities and strategies for services. This includes community needs assessments; client surveys; community advisory groups; and in many instances, a volunteer Board of Directors comprised of community members.
As part of their integrated, comprehensive approach, CHCs support individuals, families and communities to achieve health by actively addressing “social determinants of health” such as poverty, access to shelter/housing, education, language barriers and other factors that have a direct impact on health, including access to appropriate healthcare services. In this way, CHCs help tackle the root causes of illness, working from an “upstream” approach to prevent illness and progression of illness.
CHCs recognize that many differences in health status among segments of the population are socially and institutionally structured. As such, these differences are avoidable and unfair. CHCs work to eliminate these health inequities. CHCs are also committed to social justice, meaning the fair and compassionate distribution of the fruits of economic growth. CHCs advocate for these principles to be embedded within the institutions of society such as taxation, social insurance, public healthcare, public schooling, public services, labour law, and the regulation of markets.
Research from many jurisdictions demonstrates that Community Health Centres provide effective and cost-effective care, achieving important outcomes in improving health and reducing health system costs.
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