Woman with chronic health issues ‘not alone anymore’ thanks to community paramedics in Mississauga and Brampton

Week-long hospital stays due to chronic health issues used to be a regular occurrence for Lesley Garratt, but the Mississauga woman says she’s “not alone anymore” thanks to a program pairing paramedics with patients in the home.

“Every time I would go (to the hospital) for something different,” the 59-year-old Mississauga resident recalled of her time in and out of hospital.

Garratt suffers from Juvenile diabetes as well as asthma, COPD and congenital heart failure among other medical concerns, and ended up in the hospital nine times within a year.

But it was an encounter with a Peel Regional Paramedic named Alex that would change the course of her health care journey for the better, leading to regular check-ups in her home, remote monitoring of her condition and fewer emergency trips, meaning less strain on an already taxed hospital system.

“He was amazing, he knew everything about diabetes symptoms and complications,” Garratt said of Alex, who is also a diabetic.

Alex told her about the Community Paramedicine Program – a provincial service that provides additional care for seniors “in the comfort of their own homes before admission into long-term care.”

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Garratt was accepted into the program despite not technically being a senior citizen due to her health concerns, and in December was paired with Rachael Taylor – an Advanced Care Paramedic with Peel Regional Paramedic Services.

“Rachel was a godsend,” Garratt said. “Every time there was an issue she would call and make sure I was ok. Basically this whole transition from hospital to now, Rachel’s been with me.”

Rachael Taylor is an Advanced Care Paramedic with Peel Regional Paramedic Services.

Spending one-on-one time with patients isn’t something paramedics usually get to do after a call, Taylor said. Being part of the program has let her follow up with patients and “see the results of my efforts.”

“She is loving it, she thinks it’s just the greatest,” Taylor says of Garratt’s new remote setup which allows doctors at Brampton’s William Osler Health System to monitor her condition from her home.

“I’ve seen her get better. She’s never going to recover, but truly, she’s happier and more confident.”

From tracking her blood pressure and oxygen levels to tracking her glucose, Garratt “better understands her body now,” Taylor says. And while she’s still had to visit the hospital since enrolling in the program the stay was much shorter than previous visits.

“She recognized it sooner,” Taylor said of Garratt’s most recent hospital stay, saying she went “before she got really, really sick.”

While Garratt’s typical stay was around a week, her last stay was only a few days.

The Community Paramedicine Program received an $82.5 million funding boost in 2021. Not all services under the program in Ontario are specifically for the elderly, but that’s where Peel Regional Paramedic Services has focused its care.

Osler says Statistics Canada data from 2021 shows there were 212,625 people aged 65 or over in the Peel Region, accounting for some 14.7 per cent of the total population in Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon.

Dr. Neil Dattani with Osler in Brampton says the program is all about getting patients “optimal care in the right place,” and that paramedics will go beyond issues identified in referrals “to look for problems that are under the surface.”

The program isn’t just a benefit for seniors, as Dattani says home visits and remote monitoring free up hospital resources and takes the burden off acute care centres which often deal with staffing and capacity issues.

Dr. Neil Dattani with the William Osler Health System in Brampton says the Community Paramedicine program is all about getting patients ‘optimal care in the right place.’

For Garratt, the program has been “a huge sense of stability.”

“And it was a comfort to know that being with that program, I wasn’t alone with all these issues,” she said.

A spokesperson for Osler said committed funding for the program in Peel only runs until mid-2026, and Taylor said the province isn’t providing enough care. She said paramedics “see how broken the system is, and it isn’t getting any better.”

Garratt said she hopes the program gets additional funding support and recommends anyone with similar health concerns to consider applying.

“It’s a much-needed program, it’s made me feel so safe and not alone,” she said.

“But I’m not alone anymore because this program helped me so much in my journey, I know if another incident happens I have their backing and their help.”

There were more than 4,200 Alternate Level of Care patients in acute care beds in Ontario as of late December, with almost 40 per cent waiting for a long-term care bed, Osler said.

For more information on the Peel Regional Paramedic Services’ Community Paramedicine program visit www.peelregion.ca.