Community Health Centre and Dental Clinic

@ 713 Johnson Street (Access Health Centre)

Medical Clinic and Pharmacy: 713 Johnson Street, 1st Floor, 250-385-1466
Hours: Mon., Tue. 9 - 6 pm, Wed., Thur. 9 - 8 pm, Fri. 9 - 3 pm, Sat. 10 - 2 pm
Closed Sundays and statutory holidays

Dental Clinic: 713 Johnson Street, 2nd Floor, 250-383-5957
Hours: Mon. to Fri., 9 to 4 pm; Closed weekends and statutory holidays

The Cool Aid Medical Clinic was established in 1970, to provide primary health care for people who do not have medical coverage, or who live in the downtown core, many of whom suffer from mental health and addiction illnesses and/or other chronic health problems. In 2001, Cool Aid received provincial funding to develop the clinic into a comprehensive Community Health Centre. In October 2010, we celebrated one year of service at the new Access Health Centre.

The Dental Clinic, which opened at the Centre in the spring of 2002, recognizes the difficulty in accessing dental treatment for the at-risk population in the community, and strives to remove the barriers to care by providing affordable dental treatment.

The Cool Aid Community Health Centre endeavours to create an environment of trust and mutual respect between the staff and the clients it serves. Through an innovative team-based approach, services at the Centre are designed to reduce the significant barriers facing the downtown population from accessing health services. Integral to the Centre is its location in the downtown core and the expanded hours of operations to include evenings and Saturdays. A highlight of the unique service delivery at the Centre is shared care. For example, a nurse practitioner, nurse clinicians, physicians, mental health and addictions counsellors, nutritionist, acupuncturist, pharmacist , dentist and dental hygienist, and visiting specialists, such as psychiatrists, are all possible points of entry into accessing comprehensive primary health care.

Story courtesy of A Channel News, December 1, 2009. Read more about the Access Grand Opening and view photos .

Integrated with the primary health care function, the Health Centre offers education to nursing, medical and dental students, as well as family practice residents, licensed general residency dentists and physicians interested in inner-city medicine. The Centre is also a satellite site for the Canadian HIV Trials Network and participates in multiple HIV and Hepatitis C research projects. The Centre's physicians and nurse clinicians have been invited to speak at conferences, nationally and internationally, on these topics. Leading research on access to dental care in British Columbia has been undertaken by Cool Aid's Community Health Services.

The Health Centre also has an outreach component that effectively integrates a holistic approach; the Centre takes its services to where the people are located - whether on the streets, in other social agencies, in the drop-in centres, shelters or their homes. The outreach services, which include all practitioners from the multidisciplinary team, provide a full range of health assessment, counselling and referral services in Victoria's downtown community. This contact outside the Community Health Centre builds the necessary trust for clients to then more fully utilize the Centre and the services offered.

Access Health Centre

This story provided courtesy of Shaw TV Victoria. Find this story and more on Cool Aid's YouTube channel.

The Access Health Centre, a heritage-award winning building at 713 Johnson Street, is the new home for Cool Aid's Community Health Centre, Dental Clinic and pharmacy. It provides additional space to better serve our clients and is a partnership between Victoria Cool Aid Society and AIDS Vancouver Island. The Access Health Centre also houses counsellors from the Native Friendship Centre and home support services of the Vancouver Island Health Authority.

Reconstruction costs were $5.3 million to better serve over 6,000 individuals who need special health, medical and other support services in downtown Victoria. Thanks to very generous funding from the Capital Regional Hospital District ($1,045,000), VIHA ($1 million), and many others, the Access Health Centre was able to open in September 2009.

$880,000 still remains to be raised to pay for the capital costs. A building naming opportunity is available if a private donor steps forward with $1 million - any surplus will be invested in an endowment for the building at the Victoria Foundation. The Access Health Centre has its own web site which we hope you will visit. You can also donate online to help pay for the costs.