A new directory has just launched to help people in Toronto more easily find care close to home.

The Toronto Health and Social Services Directory (torontoservicedirectory.ca) is a website that helps people more easily find health, social and community services in Toronto, including the former municipalities of East York, Etobicoke, North York, Scarborough and York.

Features of the Toronto Health and Social Services Directory include:

• Ability to search 8,000+ services by location combined with topic or keyword
• Easy-to-find service topics, including Older Adults, Caregivers, Mental Health, Health Care, 2SLGBTQI+, Newcomers, Income Support, Housing and more
• Ability to search for services offered in specific languages
• Detailed service listings that include eligibility, address, hours, accessibility and contact information

VHA Home HealthCare helped to develop this directory in partnership with other organizations and eight Ontario Health Teams serving the Toronto area. The listings on the Toronto Health and Social Services Directory are drawn from three existing service directories in Ontario: 211 Ontario, ConnexOntario and thehealthline.ca. It is meant to complement these existing navigation resources. By combining the Toronto-based and Toronto-serving listings from these directories in one place, the Toronto Health and Social Services Directory makes it easier for people to find the services they need. This helps ensure local residents are better able to identify and access health, social and community services that are close to where they live or where they would like to get care.

Developed with input from local residents

The Toronto Health and Social Services Directory was developed with input from patient/client, caregiver and community advisors from across Toronto. They provided feedback during the development of the directory, including on its search functions and design.

This helps ensure the directory serves patients/clients, caregivers and community members as effectively as possible. The directory also helps health, social and community services providers, including family doctors, more easily find other services that their patients/clients may benefit from.

Quotes

“For many community members, navigating the health, social and community services system can be a complex and challenging task. For this reason, we’ve taken efforts to make the Toronto Health and Social Services Directory as easy to use as possible for local residents. We’ve also worked with partner organizations to help ensure the information they are sharing in their listings is as transparent, trustworthy and timely as possible – these are a few of the necessary ingredients for client-centred and trauma-informed services.” – Jasper Rottiers, Community Advisor in Toronto who contributed feedback during the development of the Toronto Health and Social Services Directory

“Family physicians spend a lot of time looking up services to support patients. Being able to access accurate, up-to-date service listings in Toronto in one place helps improve our overall standard of care by allowing physicians to focus more time directly on our patients.” – Dr. Leon Bhatia, Family Physician in Toronto

“As Ontario Health Teams, we are committed to supporting our community members in finding the health, social and community services they need, close to home. This helps ensure local residents are able to find the services they need at the right place at the right time. We look forward to continuing our work with partners, including Ontario Health Teams serving Toronto and their member organizations, to maintain and update the directory as needed so it serves local residents as effectively as possible.” – Margery Konan, Manager of Integrated Care at East Toronto Health Partners who co-led the development of the Toronto Health and Social Services Directory in collaboration with eight partner Ontario Health Teams

About Ontario Health Teams

Ontario Health Teams are a model of care that the Government of Ontario introduced in 2019. They are a new way to organize and deliver services in local communities to provide patients with better connected care. Under Ontario Health Teams, the healthcare providers who care for patients/clients (including hospitals, doctors and home and community care providers) work together as one coordinated team – no matter where they provide care. Learn more about Ontario Health Teams.

Eight Ontario Health Teams serving Toronto are partners in the Toronto Health and Social Services Directory:

• Downtown East Toronto Ontario Health Team
• East Toronto Health Partners
• Mid-West Toronto Ontario Health Team
• North Toronto Ontario Health Team
• North Western Toronto Ontario Health Team
• North York Toronto Health Partners
• Scarborough Ontario Health Team
• West Toronto Ontario Health Team

Representatives from each of these Ontario Health Teams, including providers, administrative staff and patient/client, caregiver and community advisors, worked together to develop the directory and play a role in maintaining it.