Frances recently completed an inaugural CIHR Health System Impact Fellowship[3] where as an embedded researcher she supported senior leadership and investigated seniors’ campuses (physical settings that provide a range of inter-related seniors’ services including institutional long-term care, independent housing, assisted living, and community support services) and factors that affect their ability to integrate care across a broad spectrum of needs for seniors wishing to age in place[4][5]. She has published on this model and shared municipally, provincially and federally on its benefits at an individual, organizational and system level.
Frances’ campus continuum research aligned well with another CIHR funded fellowship with the international iCOACH team which explored integrated community-based primary care approaches from different lenses (e.g., policy, client and care partner perspectives). Findings from this research serve to inform mechanisms that are supportive and prohibitive to holistic integrative models and factors that influence their ability to scale and spread. This research is also particularly relevant boundary spanning cross-sectoral work underway through Ontario Health Teams across the province.
Frances’ earlier doctoral work funded through a CIHR Banting and Best Scholarship, explored Tipping Points to Institutional Care for Persons Living with Dementia and analyzed the dementia policy trajectory in Ontario[6]. Findings noted significant opportunity to support people as independently and as safely as possible in the community for as long as possible at the same cost or lower to institutional long-term care if provided with an enabling community-based framework. Towards a Community-Based Dementia Care Strategy: How Do We Get There from Here? – PubMed (nih.gov)[7]
Frances leads the Seniors Strategy Team at the Regional Municipality of York with oversight of the proposed 2024 to 2027 York Region Plan to Support Seniors. She was formerly the Director of Dementia Programs at the Schlegel-University of Waterloo Research Institute for Aging, where she oversaw national projects and initiatives seeking to improve the quality of life and well-being of people living with dementia and all who partner in their care. In previous and current roles Frances has been involved with two provincial dementia strategies (1999 – 2007 and 2015 – 2018) and related dementia investments in Ontario, and continues to inform dementia policy and support evidence based practice at the provincial[8], national[9] and international level[10] level[11].
Frances enjoys her Adjunct Faculty role at the University of Toronto Institute for Health Policy, Management and Evaluation co-instructing HAD5010: Canada’s Health Care System with Dr. Sara Allin. She is also a passionate co-lead for the Design and Dementia Community of Practice of the brainXchange which seeks to share best practice recommendations on the built environment for clients, care partners and staff in dementia care settings and local community.
- CIHR Health Systems Impact Fellowship (Inaugural) – University of Toronto and AdvantAge Ontario
- CIHR iCOACH Post-Doctoral Fellowship – University of Toronto
- PhD (Collaborative Health Policy and Life Course and Aging, University of Toronto)
MHSc (Health Administration, University of Toronto) - Hons BA (Gerontology, McMaster University)
- Long-Term Care Administration Certification (Toronto Metropolitan University)
- Case Management Certification (McMaster University)
- CIHR Fredrick Banting and Charles Best Award – University of Toronto (2008)
- Research Day PhD. Poster Award University of Toronto (2008),
- Research Day G.B. Rosenfeld Poster Award – University of Toronto (2002)
Research Interests:
Health Policy, Healthcare Management, Health and Aging, Dementia, Frailty, Home and Community Care, Integrated Community Based Primary Healthcare, Long-Term Care, Design and Dementia
Dr. Frances Morton-Chang is an experienced health services leader and change agent. She is a sought-after health systems consultant, lecturer and dementia specialist with advanced training in evidence-based research and knowledge mobilization. Her academic and professional experience spans across the broader health and social care spectrum (community, primary, acute, and long-term care sectors, NGOs and health research programs).
As a gerontologist and health policy researcher[1], Frances’ academic, teaching and professional experience largely focuses on innovative and integrative care options across care trajectories for those experiencing complex and often multiple health and social care needs (i.e., dementia, frailty, mental health, poverty[2]) and translating findings into tangible tools, practices and interventions.