Happy Tuesday,
While 'April Showers' are in full effect for Windsor-Essex, today's E-Connect will shower you with feel-good news stories from Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare.
Today you will read of a recovering story from one of our past neurological patients, a special connection to our history, an exciting donation, and more.
Until next time...
Maciah
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It was a beautiful summer day in July 1st, 2018 as Sandi Malowitz spent time with her family in Michigan. While she walked along the sidewalk caring her sleeping granddaughter, Sandi unexpectedly fell backwards, hitting her head on the concrete walkway. Thankfully, Sandi was able to hold her granddaughter tight and she was unhurt. Although she didn’t lose consciousness, the freak accident left Sandi stunned with her head bleeding.
She was taken to Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan where she recovered from three brain bleeds over the course of three weeks. When stable, Sandi was able to return to Windsor, continuing her restorative care journey at Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare.
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Sandi pictured with her husband, Mike.
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Over the next two weeks as a patient on 3
rd
floor Inpatient Rehabilitation, Sandi was eager to get back to her usual self. She worked hard towards her recovery with the guidance of her healthcare team. She was blown away by the care she received, expressing that our staff were ‘outstanding’. When sharing her story, she said how grateful she was for Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare physiotherapist, Carl, who saw her determination and had her up at 9:00 a.m. each morning to complete her exercises. Sandi’s hard work paid off and she was ready to return home, but her journey wasn’t quite finished.
After discharge, Sandi was told that it would be approximately six weeks before she could return to Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare for outpatient rehab, due to a waitlist of patients. To better serve our neurological rehab patients, like Sandi, a
“Bundled Care” program
has recently made significant improvements to this waitlist. Fortunately, a cancellation allowed Sandi to begin her outpatient therapy nearly right away. She said the staff were always upbeat and smiling and gave her tasks that weren’t too burdensome that she couldn’t complete them. Sandi enjoyed being in the outpatient gym and felt motivated watching the other patients, some more frail than she was, saying that it put life into perspective for her, thinking, “If they can work this hard, so can I.”
“Before my fall I had been a pretty active person so now that I was still recovering, there was a gap in my life,” Sandi explained. “Being able to go to my outpatient appointments twice a week was so helpful. It made me feel normal again.”
As Sandi worked through her physiotherapy, occupational therapy, and circuit training, she felt comfortable and truly looked forward to coming to Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare saying how excited she felt when she could see improvements in her abilities.
“I am proud to have graduated everything and to be thriving again. The work that I did through the direction and supervision of your staff was such an important experience for me.”
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Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare Heritage: Connecting families and strengthen roots
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It’s been a little over three months that the walls of Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare’s Dr. Fouad Tayfour Regional Rehabilitation Centre have been lined with beautiful graduation photos of Hôtel-Dieu and Grace Hospital nurses. This work is part of a larger plan to continue to celebrate the significant history of our organization.
But for many, our organization’s history, is intertwined with personal family roots.
Audrey Johnson, Clinical Informatics Specialist with TransForm Shared Services Organization and the e-VOLVE program, based out of Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare, spent days searching the graduation composites looking for someone in particular: her great-aunt Lorraine.
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Lorraine Renaud, Hôtel-Dieu School of Nursing, Class of 1948.
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Lorraine, who had recently passed away after celebrating her 90
th
birthday had graduated from Hôtel-Dieu School of Nursing in the 1940s. Audrey knew of her great-aunt’s nursing career but had very few details as Lorraine moved to California to settle down with her family when Audrey was young.
“We knew that she was proud of being a nurse,” Audrey explains. “But none of us, not even her kids, had seen a photo of her doing what she loved.”
After some digging and help from our archives specialist, Nicole Hutchinson, we were able to not only discover the year Lorraine graduated – 1948 – but also her student records, and of course, a graduation photo.
Audrey and her family were thrilled say, “Anytime you uncover history information on a family member is incredible.”
Being able to connect families, even those thousands of kilometres away, to their own heritage through sharing our Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare history is truly an honour. We hope as more artifacts are discovered, more photos are shared, and more experiences are remembered, that more connections are created and more family roots are strengthened.
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2019 Ontario Physiotherapy Association Volunteer Award: Robert Cusinato
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Each year, the Ontario Physiotherapy Association (OPA) recognizes the contributions of it’s members in several different award categories. This year, Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare’s very own physiotherapist Robert Cusinato was nominated for an award by the Windsor District of the OPA executive.
We are proud to announce that Rob was awarded the Outstanding Volunteer Award at the 2019 OPA InterACTION Conference on April 6th in Toronto.
The
Outstanding Volunteer Award
is given to an individual in recognition of their significant contribution to the profession, in a volunteer capacity, at a national, provincial, or district level.
Rob has served as the Treasurer on the executive of the Windsor District of the OPA for nearly 20 years. He has been involved with the local chapter of the Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Society of Canada for several years, and has been a strong advocate within our community for the role that physiotherapy has to play in a chronic disease such as MS. He is involved in teaching both at the Schulich School of Medicine at the University of Windsor, and the Physiotherapy Program at University of Western in London, Ontario. Rob is well respected within the physiotherapy community in Windsor and beyond. He has a unique ability to connect with his clients and coworkers with his great sense of humour.
Please take a moment to congratulate Rob on this exceptional achievement!
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Celebrating philanthropic success with community partners
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L-R: Patrick Kolowicz, Director Adult Mental Health & Addictions, Rita Gidillini, Child and Youth Worker RCC, Lisa Karns, Child and Youth Worker RCC.
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Local non-profit In Honour of the Ones We Love Inc. have been exemplary community partners to Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare supporting our programs and services for several years. As the collaboration grows, Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare and In Honour recently co-presented two events whose success are greatly attributed to the community's affection for the In Honour organization led by Anita Imperioli: Wine and Dine Tour held in November 2018 and Unsung Heroes an event held on International Women's Day 2019 in honour of Tish Harcus, Lina and Linda Sabatini.
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On Wednesday, April 10th, In Honour of the Ones we Love Inc. joined Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare representatives from our Regional Children's Centre and Adult Mental Health programs to celebrate the successes of these events.
As such, In Honour presented a donation of $50,000 which will be used by both programs - the new Breakfast Program at our Regional Children's Centre and various needs and necessities for women's mental health services.
We are tremendously grateful to In Honour of the Ones We Love for their continued support of our organization and for truly changing lives together with us every chance they get.
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Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare plans for accessibility for all
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In fulfilling the Mission of Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare, we are committed to providing an accessible environment to all who come through our doors, seek and use our services, and access our information. It is important to us to provide a safe, inclusive, and welcoming environment for everyone.
As a public healthcare organization in Ontario, we respect the standards and regulations set forth under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, as such, we are pleased to share our updated Multiyear Accessibility Plan for 2019 through 2022.
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Windsor-Essex's 2019 Vital Signs Survey
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The WindsorEssex Community Foundation wants to hear from you! Tell us what you think of Windsor-Essex as a place to live, learn, work, play, and grow by taking the 2019 Vital Signs Survey. Those who complete the survey have a chance to win $100.
Vital Signs is an annual check-up that measures the vitality of our community, identifies significant trends, and assigns grades in areas critical to our quality of life.
The WindsorEssex Community Foundation (WECF) is a leader in philanthropy - we help to build a better Windsor-Essex by attracting and managing legacy funds, making grants to support local charities and programs, and bringing community partners together.
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