Challenges Addressed Through MCP²

MCP² aims to reduce some of the fundamental barriers to collaborative practice, including the lack of inter-professional collaboration, a lack of policy development in regulatory bodies, jurisdictional issues and some of the regulatory mechanisms. To fill these gaps, a political and administrative will be required, and this can be facilitated through the activities of MCP².

MCP² focuses on activities that reinforce and build capacity in primary maternity health care, including the development of tools, the dissemination of information and the engagement of key stakeholders in considering alternate models of primary maternity care. As a result of this initiative, there will be:

• Guidelines for the establishment and implementation of multidisciplinary collaborative care model of primary maternity care.
• A catalogue of collaborative maternity care models currently available in Canada and in five European jurisdictions (The Netherlands, Germany, Scotland, Sweden and France).
• National standards with regards to terminology and scopes of practice for health care providers involved in primary maternity care.
• A greater understanding of the benefits of multidisciplinary collaborative maternity care by both women and health care providers.

In addition, a National Primary Maternity Care Committee, with provincial and national representation of stakeholders involved in primary maternity care, will facilitate the adoption of a common set of guidelines and scopes of practices. It will also facilitate the harmonization of legislation and policies of governments, professional regulatory colleges, professional associations, funding agencies, insurers and educational institutions throughout Canada, as it relates to the provision of multidisciplinary collaborative primary maternity care.

In summary, MCP² will lead to a better understanding of new models and settings and improve the confidence of both the public and health care providers in the quality of services. In addition to gathering valuable information, this initiative will be extremely beneficial in opening direct channels of communication between the professions that raise the quality and responsiveness of maternity care services.