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The following profile looks at one of several Chamber members featured in the summer edition of our INSIGHT Magazine promoting health and wellness

When someone walks through the sliding glass doors at Langs, they enter a world of possibilities when it comes to not only managing their own healthcare but finding valuable community connections.

What began as a call to action in 1978 from a group of concerned citizens in response to a need for accessible services for youth, Langs has grown from a townhouse on Langs Drive to a successful community-based hub providing all-encompassing ‘one stop’ integrated healthcare and social support services under one roof.

“Since our inception, Langs has understood that a person’s health is shaped by far more than their physical symptoms,” says Langs CEO Debbie Hollahan, explaining its adoption of the ‘Model of Health and Wellbeing’ that recognizes true wellness encompasses physical, mental, and social well-being, all of which are shaped by the environments in which people live. This approach reflects what is known as the social determinants of health.  Unlike a traditional medical clinic, a Community Health Centre (CHC) is designed to support individuals who face barriers to care, whether that’s language, income, social isolation, culture, geography, or simply lack of access to a family doctor or nurse practitioner. Rather than focusing solely on treating illness, CHCs work to address the underlying conditions that contribute to poor health.

 “When you remove barriers and treat the whole person, the ripple effect reaches well beyond the individual. It reaches families, neighbourhoods, and the broader health system,” says Debbie.

The need to help others is what drew Debbie to a long career in healthcare, first working in critical care as a registered nurse before moving into diabetes care, including joining the Ministry of Health as a provincial diabetes co-ordinator, which led to working for Langs 16 years ago as the director of the Waterloo Wellington Regional Coordination Centre and subsequently moving into the CEO position four years ago. And although she will officially retire from Langs on Nov. 27, Debbie remains committed to her work.

Comprehensive strategic plan

“What is really important for us is to keep our finger on the pulse of the community,” says Debbie. “What populations are we serving? Are we meeting their needs? For someone who is new to Cambridge or new to the country, do they feel comfortable coming to Langs?  This can be daunting, so we try to create an environment where they feel welcomed and at home. That sounds simple, but it’s genuinely how we operate. We want people to belong.”

There has been much growth in Langs’ programs and services over the years, including a large team with an even larger contingent of volunteers, as well as its more than 25 on-site community partners.  But through it all, Debbie shares, “we remain committed to our mission to ensure individuals and families accessing services have a place that feels like home for health, wellness, and community support.”

This is achieved through a comprehensive strategic plan, which was just completed this past year.  Through this exercise, Debbie explained, “it became very clear some people see our walking track and gymnasium and just think we’re a community centre, while others think we’re just a primary care facility because we have physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, dietitians and social workers.  So, our challenge was to create a strategic plan that incorporates all that we do to accomplish our mission and achieve our vision of ‘Changed lives, healthy communities’.” 

Debbie further explains, “to effectively care for our community, we must also foster a culture of wellness for our staff.  This commitment is embedded in our strategic plan, ensuring we create a culture and environment where employees can truly flourish.”   

There are challenges, such as meeting the volume of patients and participants, seeing the impact of the cost of living and keeping up with innovation and new technologies but caring for people remains paramount at Langs to ensure individuals and families can access services, which they continually adapt to meet the needs of a changing population.

As an example, she points to Langs relationship with Muslim Women of Cambridge which sees them set aside an hour a week to allow the group to use the facility’s popular indoor walking track.

‘Social prescribing’ offers new approach

“We also have offered up our gymnasium on the weekends to other cultural groups so they could provide various events in a comfortable setting,” says Debbie, adding regular evaluations, surveys and focus groups have proved invaluable for Langs to obtain feedback on its many services. 

Extensive programming occurs through the Youth Wellness Hub located on the second floor, its after-school program, summer camps, PD Day events, as well alternative education programs for Grades 4 & 5 and 7 & 8 students. For adults and seniors, numerous social and health-related programs – including the Ontario Seniors Dental Care program - have been created incorporating various activities such as exercise, cooking, crafts, nutrition, and educational workshops surrounding relevant issues and organizations.

The prevalence of chronic diseases is also increasing. Langs not only offers a large diabetes education program but also support those with respiratory conditions by having a respirologist on site along with asthma educators. Its regional self-management program offers free workshops throughout the region for those living with chronic diseases.  

“Another new initiative we just recently developed is social prescribing,” says Debbie, which centres on health-care providers prescribing social activities for their patients to help build connections. “Perhaps someone is living by themselves and are not comfortable attending a program on their own, their health-care provider can write a prescription for an activity and one of our Health Guides will reach out to them and introduce them to the program. It’s another way to really get community members involved.”

But Langs work is not just confined to its main hub, or its satellite locations in North Dumfries and the Grow Community Centre.

“We also respond to what we’re seeing on the ground. Mental health pressures are up across all ages,” says Debbie. “We recently had the opportunity to partner with the Waterloo Region HART Hub to build outreach services to support those individuals precariously housed or living with an addiction.” 

Building trust and relationships

The service involves a team of medical professionals from Langs going out daily to work with this vulnerable population in shelters and on the street. 

“A big part of working with this population is really building trust and relationships,” says Debbie, something the staff at Langs is more than familiar with after decades of successful community-building.

Langs also has demonstrated leadership in the province for their central intake services which offers central intake for all diabetes, orthopedic, and cataract referrals. This is a service that offers a streamlined referral process, ensuring that individuals--regardless of where they live, are routed to the right service, at the right time, with the right provider.

“We certainly measure success from a health-care perspective because we have clinical outcomes that we track. But we are equally attentive to the outcomes that don’t show up in a medical record.  I think if a person feels welcomed and wants to return to Langs, that’s another way that tells us we’re doing a good job.”

Visit www.langs.org to learn more.