A geriatrician from Scotland who is leading a novel “hospital at home” service will be the keynote speaker at a public talk at McMaster Innovation Park on Tuesday, Nov. 25.

Dr. Graham Ellis, associate medical director for the Older Peoples Clinical Forum in Lanarkshire, Scotland, will describe why care provided in the home can trump care in hospitals, during his presentation entitled There is No Place Like Home: Providing Alternatives to Hospital Care.

The “hospital at home” service, which has been operating for three years in Scotland, has been successful in allowing more patients to be cared for at home rather than in hospital, with services provided by a team of nurses, doctors, social care staff and other health providers.

The initiative has led to significant redesign in service provision and changed staff attitudes and perceptions about hospital admission. Ellis will explain how the service works, and why it has been highly-rated by patients.

Finding ways to provide more care in the home is a pressing health system challenge in many countries, with the College of Family Physicians in Canada calling on the federal government to develop and implement a national home-care strategy by 2016.

The public talk has been organized by the McMaster Health Forum as part of its work to help Ontario’s health system address the challenges of how to improve the provision of home and community care services for its aging population.

At a recent citizen panel convened by the Forum, participants emphasized that home and community supports often do not provide what’s needed to allow older adults to stay at home, and that most people don’t know about such services, or face challenges in accessing them.

The presentation by Ellis will provide insights as to how these and other challenges of providing better home and community care can be addressed, and is designed to involve the community in the discussions about needed changes.

Ellis has an active research interest in the evaluation of service developments and is a senior clinical lecturer with the University of Glasgow.

The talk will take place Nov. 25 at MIP from 7 to 8:30 p.m., and will also be available through live streaming.

The public event is supported by the Labarge Optimal Aging Initiative and presented in collaboration with the Ontario Association of Community Care Access Centres. It is open to all, and there will be an opportunity for questions from the audience.