VON Canada selected as Regional Management Centre for the SMILE program (Seniors Managing Independent Living Easily)

February 26, 2008 (Ottawa, ON) – VON Canada - Ontario (Victorian Order of Nurses), through its local sites in Kingston and Trenton, has been selected, by the South East Local Health Integration Network (LHIN), as the Regional Management Centre for the SMILE program (Seniors Managing Independent Living Easily). The SMILE program will empower seniors and their caregivers in the South East to access home support services that are individualized to their specific needs.

According to VON President, Dr. Judith Shamian, this program is a collaborative initiative that focuses on empowering seniors by giving them new options to remain in their homes for as long as possible.

VON is responsible for ensuring equitable access to seniors across the region for selected traditional and non-traditional support services and resources (i.e. those that may come from a neighbour or friend, as well as established agencies), for developing and supporting the access portals, for providing service coordination, and for accountability for the performance of the SMILE program to the South East LHIN.

VON will administer the $9.7M program (over three years) in the region. The South East LHIN Board of Directors also approved the Victorian Order of Nurses as the program administrator. “We are very fortunate in the South East to have a network of terrific home-support care agencies and services.

VON will work with the community at large, its partner provider agencies, such as the South East Community Care Access Centre, and other agencies serving seniors to:
· Implement the SMILE functional program plan;
· Administer a system that allows an individualized service and delivery plan
for each senior on the SMILE program, and for accommodating the senior’s
choice in the level of assistance with service navigation;
· Establish service contracts with providers that include performance targets,
and for funding allocations; and,
· Manage or assist users in handling the transactions needed to pay for aging
at home services.

As the regional focal point for the program, the Regional Management Centre will play an integral role in facilitating the provision of comprehensive and standardized information related to the SMILE program and will work collaboratively with existing health service providers, associations and community groups to share information about health services already available in each community.