Changes to RISE activities due to COVID-19

Dear Ontario Health Teams, 

The RISE team would like to provide an update on changes to our scheduled events over the next few weeks given the weekend’s developments with respect to the COVID-19 pandemic.  We realize that this is an intense and stressful times for many OHT partner organizations, and have heard your need to be sensitive at this time due to the demands of this evolving situation. 

For this reason, we will be postponing many of our scheduled events, including webinars and calls that require participation from teams for at least the next two weeks and will reassess at the beginning of April. We will be proceeding with the virtual citizen panel on patient, family and caregiver involvement in OHTs scheduled for this Wednesday, and those involved have already received new instructions for participation. 

While we are pausing these events, we are committed to moving forward and continuing to support Ontario Health Teams. Ongoing engagement with teams through webinars and other types of outreach is a significant part of this work. However, it is critical to balance our desire to maintain momentum against the pressure that is being placed on health system partners and the need to focus their efforts on the pandemic.

We at RISE will use this time to develop new resources that can be used by teams when they are ready including two new rapid syntheses, a few new RISE briefs on priority topics, and health system partner briefs. Our full staff remains committed to supporting teams and are available at the RISE@mcmaster.ca email. Should you have any questions or needs for assistance over the coming weeks, please do not hesitate to get in contact.

Thank you very much for your understanding.