Our mission

"To support the implementation and growth of FHTs across Ontario through: advocacy and promotion, undertaking research  projects, disseminating best practices, sharing lessons learned, and providing relevant products and services."

AFHTO's mandate

• Provide a forum through website, meetings, newsletters, etc., for FHTs to learn from each others experiences, thereby:
• Reducing/avoiding duplication of effort
• Facilitating consistent approaches
• Sharing successes as well as pitfalls to avoid
• Providing a centralized vehicle through which the ministry can dialogue with all FHTs
• Review proposed policies, directives, guidelines and other ministry materials
• Receive information and data of interest such as benchmarks that may not be collected directly by the ministry, but which support the key implementation success factors, e.g. patient encounter data with dietician
• Work collaboratively with the Ministry required education/training programs, other than accreditation required training.

Where AFHTO is now

Since April 2005, 150 Family Health Teams have been created in both urban and rural parts of the province, in three waves:

• 69 in April 2005 (Wave 1);
• 31 in December 2005 (Wave 2); and
• 50 in March 2006 (Wave 3).

In Wave 4, the government will create an additional 20 Family Health Teams.

Of the 150 Family Health Teams that have been implemented, over 55 FHTs, representing a number of teams are members of AFHTO.

Member FHTs represent all three governance models:

1. Physician-Led – non-profit corporations governed by a Board of Directors with physician representation;
2. Community-Led – community-based non-profit corporations governed by a Board of Directors including local community representation; or
3. Mixed governance model – a mix of community and provider-based groups coming together through a non-profit corporation with a Board of Directors.