Past Projects

Assessing the Feasibility of ARC - single arm, prospective, sequential mixed methods study

ARC Feasibility

In 2018, we studied the feasibility of the ARC Model across seven focus areas: demand, implementation, adaptation, integration, practicality, acceptability, and potential for efficacy.

- ARC was easily integrated in primary care practices and was extremely valued by patients. It supported primary care providers in their function (especially non-interprofessional practices).

Study Protocol

Study Findings

ARC RCT

Randomized Control Trial – 1st Social Prescribing Trial in Canada

In 2019, we conducted a prospective, multi-site, mixed methods, patient randomized controlled trial comparing the ARC navigation approach to the traditional Ontario-211 navigation services within a social prescribing initiative to evaluate the effectiveness of the ARC navigation model on optimizing appropriate access to community-based services for socially complex primary care patients, including Franco-Ontarians living in minority situations.

- Access to needed resources was higher in the ARC compared to the 211 arm. The study also demonstrated the benefit of the ARC navigation services in reducing access inequities across education level, an in achieving better language concordance of services for francophones

- Patients highly valued ARC's patient-centered navigation approach and reported higher benefits from ARC navigation sevices compared to the 211 navigation approach

Study Findings

ARC COVID

ARC – COVID Pilot Study

In 2020, in response to the disruption of services and elevated levels of health and social needs resulting from the pandemic, we conducted a pragmatic, prospective, cluster (regions) randomized controlled trial comparing the ARC navigation model to usual care in supporting community members access needed health and social resources.

- We evaluated whether the ARC social prescribing approach is feasible to address COVID related needs.

Study Findings