Centre Communitaire Francophone de Sarnia-Lambton has launched a new program.
A ribbon cutting ceremony for the Acces Franco-Sante, which is a multi-agency hub that aims to provide health and social services in French, was held last month.
The hub will help inform, navigate and coordinate services.
"A patient can come in maybe request assistance with Alzheimer's, maybe it's an adult child needing help with their parents and then we're able to facilitate the integration and navigation into the health care system in French," said President Tanya Tamilio.
She said it is not easy getting access to some of these services in French.
"It's not every agency that has capacity to offer these services in French but there's definitely many agencies that have the want to offer services it's just a lack of bilingual resources available in our area right now," Tamilio said.
She added this program will not only benefit the community but benefit the organization.
Patients can be referred to these organizations virtually and physically.
Tamilio said there was a similar program in London that they used where their main focus was mental health services.
"We also added a whole component, yes mental health services but also assistance for other services. Health services for an example, a nurse might be present where someone might want to come in on a regular basis and get their pressure checked or maybe their oxygen levels, maybe they have questions about their medications and why they're not feeling so good," she said.
The decision to start this program came after reaching out to the Francophone community and finding out their needs.
According to Tamilio, one of the largest asks was to have a doctor that speaks in French.
She said the launch was an amazing moment.
"I was proud of the work that the team has done, the board of directors went through to help with the community," Tamilio said. "We sat there and there were over 70 people present and there was over 24 agencies present that either are current partners right now or are wanting to become partners."
Tamilio said the program was made possible through the Ministry of Health through the Canada Ontario Agreement.
"We received $100,000 per year for a period of four years," she said.
The program officially launched on March 20.
Community members wanting to get involved can contact the centre at 519-541-0207 or ccfsarnia@gmail.com.
