Hello E-Connecters,
Yesterday across Ontario residents celebrated the ones they love during Family Day. Today's E-Connect follows that same theme as Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare truly is one large family.
Continue on to read about a new program to support our patients after they leave our care, a vibrant way our community is connecting through play, a new member of our Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare family, celebrating key parts of our family history with Black History Month, and more.
Until next time,
Maciah
|
|
March of Dimes Canada brings hope to Stroke Survivors:
Hospital visitation program comes to Windsor
|
More and more Canadians are living with the after-effects of a stroke. Rehabilitation can be a long and challenging process and, after being released from the hospital, many survivors are left wondering
what next
?
March of Dimes Canada’s
Peers Fostering Hope
program aims to answer that question.
Based at Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare on Prince Road,
Peers Fostering Hope
will pair local stroke survivors with volunteers who will visit them in the hospital and share their own stroke experience.
‘It’s about lending an understanding ear,’ says Donna Mackay, Associate Director of Community Engagement and Integration Services with March of Dimes Canada, ‘and that’s invaluable when you’re life is changing in unpredictable ways. Our volunteers provide support and information about what to expect in the future, access to resources, and proof that there is life after stroke.’
Peers Fostering Hope
is already available in 21 Ontario hospitals, as well as one in British Columbia.
‘It’s a chance to provide support in a variety of ways,’ adds Denise Carpenter, Coordinator of Community Services in Windsor for March of Dines Canada. ‘Stroke survivors can learn about MODC programs, and follow up with an MODC representative after leaving the hospital.’
‘We can also help them with system navigation and community re-engagement,’ she continues. ‘These are vital to the recovery process, and many stroke survivors need some assistance at first.’
For more information on March of Dimes Canada’s stroke recovery programs, including
Peers Fostering Hope
, please visit:
afterstroke.marchofdimes.ca
|
|
A beautiful, vibrant space for adults and children to rehabilitate, enjoy the outdoors, and play.
Last fall, Playworld and New World Park Solutions created this breathtaking video showcasing just how valuable this space and play is for the populations we both serve and for our community.
Click the photo below to enjoy the video.
|
|
Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare welcomes new Director of Child and Youth Mental Health Services
|
Rochelle Lee is a progressive and genuine person who is eager to help move children and youth mental health at our Regional Children’s Centre forward in a positive direction.
Coming to us from Thunder Bay, Rochelle joins our HDGH team as our new Director of Child and Youth Mental Health.
Though Rochelle has lots of prior experience working in this field, she spent the past five years viewing the other side and transition of mental health as she supported adult mental health at CMHA Thunder Bay.
Eager to return back to caring for children and youth and to take the next step in her career, the opportunity to move to Windsor and join our RCC presented itself.
As she starts her new role, Rochelle looks forward to learning more and more about RCC and its programs in order to continue to align RCC with the greater HDGH strategic plan and vision, while nourishing and building community partnerships.
“I want everyone to know that I am authentic; I am who I say I am,” Rochelle explains. “I love to learn and to grow and share this outlook in my work.”
Away from HDGH, Rochelle has a great family life with her Pilot husband, two kids, and in-laws here in Windsor. Welcome, Rochelle!
|
|
President and CEO to speak at International Women's Day event
|
International Women's Day, held every year in March, celebrates the accomplishments and triumphs of women across the world.
On Thursday, March 7th, the University of Windsor EPICentre will be hosting an International Women's Day panel discussion at Waters Edge Event Centre. The evening will feature a seated dinner followed by a panel discussion with some of Windsor's fearless female leaders, including Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare's President and CEO, Janice Kaffer.
Tickets to this empowering and inspiring evening are on sale now.
|
|
Marion Overton, one of the first Black-Canadian nurses to gradutate from Hôtel-Dieu School of Nursing.
|
|
Letitia Burke; 1952 Hôtel-Dieu Nursing Graduate.
|
|
Dorothy Richards; 1953 Hôtel-Dieu Nursing Graduate.
|
|
Celebrating Black History at Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare
|
As we continue to celebrate the 130-year history of our organization this year, it’s fitting to look back and celebrate the astounding men and women who evoked change for their race this Black History Month.
A well-known story about our heritage is the work of Reverend Wagner, Pastor of St. Alphonsus Church who was determined to help the black members of his congregation.
In the late 1880s, he contacted the Religious Hospitallers of St. Joseph in Montreal to solicit donations to build an orphanage for the black children not accepted in white schools. The Sisters agreed to donate $2.50 with the additional request of Rev. Wagner's consideration of building a hospital in Windsor, thus creating a life changing partnership that was Hôtel-Dieu Hospital.
This year, however, we want to focus our Black History celebration a few decades later to our increasingly diverse healthcare team.
Due to lingering prejudices, leading up to the late 1940s, Black-Canadian women were still not allowed to attend nursing schools in Windsor; that was until 1948 when Colleen Campbell and Marian Overton paved the way for their fellow aspiring nurses, becoming the first Black women to graduate from Hôtel-Dieu School of Nursing.
From 1948 until 1961, 13 Black-Canadian women graduated from Hôtel-Dieu School of Nursing, many going on to do amazing work and bringing change to our community.
As attitudes changed, more and more people of colour were accepted into the healthcare profession including at Grace Hospital.
In 1982, Windsor’s first Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) was founded at Grace Hospital by doctors Godfrey Bacheyie and Joseph Galiwango (pictured above). Established to care for high-risk pregnancies and premature newborns, the new unit dramatically lowered the rate of infant deaths in the area as members in Windsor-Essex no longer had to travel to London or Toronto to receive urgent medical attention. Dr. Bacheyie is still practicing neonatal medicine at Windsor Regional Hospital.
Today, over 70 years later, the trailblazing efforts of our first Black nursing graduates and all those who followed are still celebrated and reflected in our diverse team at Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare. Wishing you all at very joyous Black History Month!
|
|
A river divides us; Patient safety unites us
|
On February 8th, two countries were bridged together through one common goal: keeping our patients, and thus, our communities, safe.
The International Patient Safety Symposium welcomed a captive audience of over 100 to hear from healthcare, education, and business industry experts from Windsor and Detroit regions.
Keynote speaker, Ken Daniel, evoked tears from many of the attendees as he shared the tragic story of how he lost his son to addiction and the need to shed light on addiction care.
“We think of those fighting cancer as brave and heroic,” Ken says. “We think of those battling drug addiction as weak and hopeless. We will save so many lives when we drop the notion of what we think an addict is and provide them with the proven care they need.”
Ken believes that if there had been adequate local resources to meet his son’s needs, he would still be with us today; and so he created the
Jamie Daniels Foundation
in his son’s memory and to raise funds for addictions' services including safe recovery houses.
The second keynote speaker, Denise Bertin-Epp, also shared her insights into the addiction recovery world as she operates
Urban Recovery NYC
. Denise’s thought-provoking discussion challenged healthcare providers to become more proactive with intervention strategies.
“Helping someone with an addiction needs to be a love-based approach,” she expressed. “We need to be proactive and bring what we know as ‘rock bottom’ up.”
Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare was proud to be an event partner for the Symposium, as we shared a number of organizational resources through information booths and speakers.
President and CEO, Janice Kaffer took to the stage on a number of occasions including alongside Dr. Leonardo Lozada, Chief Medical Officer, Detroit Receiving, Harper University and Hutzel Women’s Hospitals, Detroit Medical Centre, and Dr. Ken Blanchette, Associate VP Academic for St. Clair College. The three formed a panel, sharing resources, understanding, and research to advance our position as an international hub for healthcare innovation.
Janice later returned to the podium to speak about the need for staff safety and how Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare has learned, improved, and continues to strive to uphold staff safety. Janice spoke on the ways staff safety impacts the safety of our patients.
To conclude the event, Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare’s Alison Murray, Director of Quality, Health Information Management, and Technology, along with Kathy Quinlan, Manager of Quality and Clinical Projects spoke about the voice of the patient and what our organization has done to improve the patient care journey. Some of these projects include our refreshed Strategic Plan that ensures our frontline staff see themselves in the plan, Unit Based Councils identifying areas for improvement on their unit, and real-time patient satisfaction surveys that ask for feedback from patients in order to make changes for the better.
As we reflect on the 2019 International Patient Safety Symposium, we are eager to apply our learnings to our own organization.
|
|
Changing Lives Together Foundation to team up with
In Honour of the Ones We Love for International Women's Day
|
Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare's Changing Lives Together Foundation is teaming up with In Honour of the Ones We Love Inc. for a very special evening celebrating Windsor's unsung female heroes.
International Women's Day is celebrated across the globe every year on March 8th, honouring and celebrating all that it means to be a woman. For this momentous day, gather the female heroes in your life and join us at Windsor Yacht Club for delicious hor d'oeuvres and dinner.
Tickets to this event, emceed by CTV Windsor's Michelle Maluske, are $100 each and will benefit women's mental health programs at Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare.
Call 519.257.5111 ext. 76910 to get your tickets today.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
