History
The Eastern Ontario Health Unit celebrated its 70th anniversary on May 28, 2005. The Health Unit was established in late 1934 as a pilot project under special grants from the Rockefeller Foundation and the Province of Ontario. It was to be a five-year pilot project. On January 10, 1935, the Eastern Ontario Health Unit opened its doors for the first time. This was the first county health unit in the province and it continued to operate as a pilot project until the end of 1939, when the agreement with the Rockefeller Foundation ended. It was obvious that the work accomplished during those five years was too important not to continue since the infant mortality rate dropped by 23% in Eastern Ontario. In the spring of 1940, the Ontario government passed special legislation creating Ontario’s first permanent Health Unit, serving the counties of Prescott, Russell, Glengarry and Stormont (excluding the City of Cornwall). In 1940, a new unit was formed. The United Counties of Stormont, Dundas, Glengarry joined with the City of Cornwall to form the St. Lawrence Valley Health Unit. In July 1946, the counties of Prescott and Russell organized and created their health unit under the name Outaouais Valley Health Unit, with its head office in Hawkesbury. In 1963, the head office moved from Hawkesbury to the county building office in L’Orignal. Both health units operated separately until January 1968 when they amalgamated to form the St. Lawrence and Outaouais Valleys Health Unit. In 1976, the name was changed to the Eastern Ontario Health Unit. From its very beginning, the Health Unit’s mandate was the delivery of public health programs under the Public Health Act, the Venereal Disease Act and a number of other Acts and regulations. In 1983, all of those were repeated and replaced by the Health Promotion and Protection Act and regulations passed thereunder.
In 1967, the Health Unit piloted a short term, acute home care program. With the creation of the Ministry of Health in 1972, the Home Care Program was legislated along with some 30 other programs across the province. In 1982, the Chronic Care Program was added, followed in 1984 by the School Care Program. These programs continued to be funded entirely by the Ministry. In 1987, the Integrated Homemaker Program, funded entirely by the Ministry of Community and Social Services, was established in Eastern Ontario. Its operations were integrated within the Home Care Program. By the end of 1996, the Community Care Access Centres (CCAC) were instituted and officially launched. The CCACs provided home care services, and were overseen by their own management and board.
In 1969, an Addiction Program was started and was expanded in 1985 to become the Drug and Alcohol Assessment and Referral Program. In May 1997, the Drug and Alcohol Assessment and Referral Program became an independent organization (Addiction Services of Eastern Ontario).
Over the years, the Health Unit has also benefited from a number of grants from various sources to develop specific projects. Examples are smoking prevention and cessation, healthy nutrition, and community development. Currently, the Health Unit is receiving special funding for Healthy Babies, Healthy Children, Heart Health, Baby’s Best Start and a pre-school speech and language program. Finally, the Health unit operates the Part VIII program of the Ontario Building Code on sewage systems on behalf of the municipalities in the five counties.
With a few exceptions, all public health programs are cost-shared between the Ministry of Health, the five counties and the City of Cornwall. The total Health Unit budget for the 2004 fiscal year is approximately 8.9 million dollars. From a total of 4 employees in 1936, the Health Unit has grown to employ approximately 150 people in its public health programs, for the equivalent of approximately 120 to 125 people on a full-time basis. With the evolution of management practices, the new definition of health, the holistic approach and changing health policies in the provision of health services, the Health Unit adopted an organizational structure based on a multi-disciplinary approach. This was developed and implemented in the public health sector in April 1990. The organization is flat, and interdisciplinary communication is encouraged and facilitated. Area offices are given much visibility and support to be close to the people they serve. Program services are decentralized, as are some administrative functions.
All our programs and services are available from local county offices: Alexandria, Hawkesbury, Winchester, Casselman, Rockland and Cornwall.
The decentralization is further exemplified by the delegation of program responsibilities to local office coordinators, and administrative responsibilities to local office managers. In most cases, one person is responsible for both functions.
Financial management, procurement, personnel administration and information systems management are centralized in our Cornwall office.
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