The Kim and Stu Lang Community Healthcare Partnership Program (CHPP) was established in late-2019 through a transformational $11-million donation made by long-time OVC and OVC Pet Trust supporters Kim and Stu Lang. The CHPP brings OVC faculty, veterinarians and clinical staff, students and partners together to expand animal healthcare by providing primary and acute veterinary care to companion animals living in vulnerable circumstances. Examples of the populations served include Indigenous communities, individuals experiencing housing-insecurity, and sheltered animals.
Through community-based clinics and ongoing connections with pet owners, the program also instills values related to social accountability in veterinary education and equips student veterinarians with the necessary skills to address the systemic challenges of inadequate access to care upon graduation.
Dr. Shane Bateman, a professor in OVC’s Department of Clinical Studies, guided CHPP’s initial development. As Interim Veterinary Director, he led several successful student-supported clinics in underserved communities, providing telemedicine and in-person clinical care to more than 2,000 patients.
In late-2021, OVC welcomed a new leadership team consisting of Dr. Lynn Henderson, Dr. Lauren Van Patter, and Meghan Longley to oversee the CHPP and further develop the program’s clinical and educational mandate.
As the CHPP’s veterinary director, Henderson leads the program’s clinical and learning teams who are engaged in community service and service learning. She also oversees the relationships and partnerships between OVC and many community stakeholders and committed organizations with a focus on improving access to veterinary care.
Henderson is a 2007 OVC alumna with extensive and wide-ranging experience in companion animal general practice, emergency medicine, house-call medicine, and hospice and palliative care. She is completing a Master of Education degree in Higher Education in the Health Professions alongside a Collaborative Specialization in Indigenous Health through the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto and is particularly interested in the social inequalities within healthcare including unequal access to services and education, and the prejudice surrounding race, gender, and socio-economic status within our communities.
Van Patter is an animal studies scholar whose research focuses most broadly on questions of ‘living well’ in multispecies communities. As OVC’s Kim & Stu Lang Professor in Community and Shelter Medicine, her community-based research focuses on understanding barriers faced by marginalized communities who are underserved or do not have adequate access to veterinary care. This information will inform the future directions of the CHPP and how the program can best serve the needs of the community.
Meghan Longley serves as the CHPP’s Clinical Services Manager. In this role, Longley draws on her extensive experience as a Registered Veterinary Technician (RVT) and in teaching Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) students at OVC to provide critical strategic and operational support for the CHPP’s clinical program and student veterinarians participating in the program.
OVC dean Dr. Jeff Wichtel says, “The CHPP is essential to maintain the role of the veterinarian as the valued and trusted steward of animal health in our communities and believe in its mission to bring veterinary expertise and compassionate care to those for whom it might not otherwise be accessible.”
“The CHPP allows OVC to be a leader in illustrating the impact of veterinary care on human and community health,” says Henderson. “Most importantly, it inspires and catalyzes positive change in the veterinary profession, arming the next generation of veterinarians with confidence, cultural competence and leadership skills to serve their communities and ultimately make the world a better place.”
The CHPP in action: Establishing a community-based veterinary clinic with Aroland First Nation
In late-October 2021, a team of OVC faculty including Drs. Katie Clow, Shane Bateman, Gordon Kirby, and RVT Meghan Longley, led a team of student veterinarians for a weekend-long community-based clinic in the remote northern community of Aroland First Nation, a small community of approximately 400 people. This project is one example of the many community-based clinics run by the CHPP.
The veterinary clinic was community-driven and aligned with local pet owners’ specific needs and values. Clients were particularly interested in preventive treatment to keep their pets healthy; on-site care at the clinic included standard clinical services like physical exams, vaccine administration, nail trims and deworming medicines. Almost 60 cats and dogs received treatment at the clinic over two days.
“The people coming to the clinic were willing to do so much for their pets,” says Lana Turcic-Brandau, a Phase 3 student veterinarian. “The nearest vet clinic is four hours away. The lengths people go to receive regular veterinary services shows their care and devotion to their animals.”
“This partnership celebrates the human-animal bond and reminds me of why I chose to pursue veterinary medicine,” says Emma Stacey, Phase 4 student veterinarian. “It provides a different perspective than the classroom and connects us with people that have diverse lived experiences.”
The CHPP relies on corporate and community partners to provide funding for community-based veterinary services. The clinic in Aroland First Nation was supported by PetSmart Charities of Canada, the Chief and Council of Aroland First Nation, and others.
Advancing a One Health approach to community-based veterinary medicine: OVC’s partnership with Community Veterinary Outreach
In January 2022, the OVC formalized a partnership with Community Veterinary Outreach to help advance a One Health approach to community-based veterinary care in southwestern Ontario.
Community Veterinary Outreach is a registered charity with a mandate to improve the health of individuals and pets experiencing homelessness or housing vulnerability. As part of this partnership, Community Veterinary Outreach will assist OVC in adopting a One Health model for the Kim and Stu Lang Community Healthcare Partnership Program.
Community Veterinary Outreach will advise the college on interdisciplinary and student training and education on intercultural humility, the social determinants of health, and the structural and systemic barriers often experienced by vulnerable populations. It will also help facilitate connections between OVC and other community support services, advising on the coordination of human health and social services in conjunction with community-based veterinary programs.
Remy’s Fund provides new avenues for accessing veterinary care in underserved populations
In veterinary education, social inequities like the access to disposable income or geographical barriers are not typically addressed in class or in practice, which can perpetuate the challenges that can result in poor health outcomes for pets. The Ontario Veterinary College’s (OVC) OVC Pet Trust team is working with long-time supporters Kim and Stu Lang to help address this.
Remy’s Fund sets out to support more equitable access to veterinary care. The fund is named in memory of the Lang’s rescued yellow Labrador Retriever, Remy, who received life-saving care at OVC a few years after she joined the Lang family. Remy’s Fund is part of a larger gift that also created the $11-million Kim and Stu Lang Community Healthcare Partnership Program (CHPP), which aims to increase accessibility and affordability of veterinary care for underrepresented and historically underserved communities.
Initial guidelines for the management of Remy’s Fund will expand in upcoming years as the fund grows through further donations.
OVC’s larger CHPP program is addressing systemic issues related to the accessibility of veterinary care. CHHP supports teams of student veterinarians who provide in-community preventive procedures such as vaccinations, spaying and neutering.
“A ‘pre-departure workshop’ helps to prepare them, covering topics such as cultural humility, implicit biases, and some background about the geography and peoples we are going to serve in the respective upcoming rotation,” says Henderson.
If pets need additional care during or between visits, Remy’s Fund helps offset those costs. Henderson expects that Remy’s Fund will not only support families who require veterinary care but will be critical in teaching students about incremental care, which balances treatment options and patient budgets.
Adds Henderson: “Remy’s Fund will do a lot of good work in these communities, and practical learning at this level is profoundly engaging and formative for students.”
