Interim Director, Community Engagement

**Home and Community Care Support Services Champlain** is one of 14 Home and Community Care Support Services organizations in Ontario. We are dedicated to ensuring our more than 64,000 patients annually receive the highest-quality health care and services at home. Our patient-care coordination teams help develop care plans for people of most ages, focused on maintaining each patient's independence and dignity. We also provide long-term care home placement services, and facilitate our patients’ access to the community-based services they need.

**Position Summary**:
Engaging and collaborating with patients, families, caregivers, service provider organizations, health system partners and diverse communities across the province is vital in developing equitable home and community care for all.

The Director, Community Engagement is responsible for providing province-wide leadership in the implementation of the organization’s patient engagement strategy, philosophy, programs and policies. The Director will work with patients, families, caregivers and key stakeholders (internal and external) to embed patient, caregiver and public engagement into various Home and Community Care Support Services (HCCSS) initiatives and its broader provincial mandate. The Director will also act as a key strategic advisor to the senior leadership team and HCCSS staff in ensuring that the patient, caregiver and public voice informs and impacts the quality of home and community care across the Province. The Director will be responsible for supporting the HCCSS Patient and Family Advisory framework and any broader Advisors Program.

The Director will also develop collaborative plans to help equip system partners, including patients and caregivers, with the tools to engage purposefully in improving the overall patient experience. The Director will be responsible for leading the creation of content and engagement opportunities for patients and providers to learn how to effectively engage with one another. This work will help patients, caregivers and members of the public, as well as health care organizations and professionals, across the continuum, to receive learning resources to help them fully embrace and engage patient-centered, system-level quality improvements. Through these activities, the Director will help further position HCCSS as an important provincial thought leader in this area.

**Primary Responsibilities**:
Strategy Design and Implementation
- Provide leadership in the design of the organization’s patient and caregiver engagement strategy, philosophy, programs and policies that capture patient, family and caregiver voices through in-person and virtual engagement sessions, surveys, embedding patient advisors in organizational projects and keeping two-way communication channels open.
- Develop engagement tools and opportunities where patients, caregivers, members of the public and health care providers and administrators can learn how to engage effectively with each other.
- Identify and execute best practices that inspire a culture of patient engagement excellence at Home and Community Care Support Services (HCCSS) and throughout the health system.
- Continually keep abreast of best practices in the field of patient engagement. Engage in discourse with the field and with engagement leaders across the province and country.
- Recruit, nurture and support the HCCSS Patient Family Advisory framework so that participants can effectively contribute to the various patient engagement opportunities at HCCSS.

Relationship Management and Partnership
- Build a provincial Patient, Family and Caregiver Advisory framework that includes a robust plan for ongoing engagement, to reflect the voices of our diverse communities.
- Support the HCCSS Patient, Family and Caregiver Advisory framework which informs the organization on how to incorporate the patient’s voice and participation into HCCSS strategic priorities and operations.
- Build and maintain strong relationships, both internal and external to the organization, with a number of stakeholders - including health care organizations, associations that represent health care professionals and organizations, patients, caregivers, and the public.
- Nurture relationships with external partners, including patients, caregivers, the public, health care organizations, and associations that represent health care professionals and organizations.
- Work with other provincial and regional agencies, and the Ministries of Health and Long-Term Care, on initiatives that support patient engagement.

Support Corporate and Stakeholder Activities
- Provide learning resources to patients, caregivers, members of the public and health care professionals and organizations, to help them effectively engage with each other.
- Foster recognition by health care providers, organizations, patients, families and members of the public of the importance and value in engaging with each other.
- Act as a key strategi