Happy New Year E-Connecters!
Welcome to the first E-Connect of 2019. As we begin the new calendar year, we look forward to the many ways we will continue to change lives together with Windsor-Essex.
Today you will read about an exciting milestone for one of our Addiction programs, a special way our patients are honoured, how quick action saved a life, and finally, about a unique program for children and youth with neurodevelopmental limitations.
Until next time...
Maciah
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Thousands of clients served as HDGH's Centre for Problem Gambling and Digital Dependency celebrates 200th Residential Treatment Cyle
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Celebrating 25 years this spring, Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare’s Centre for Problem Gambling and Digital Dependency (CPGDD) has worked with thousands of clients since 1994 rebuilding their lives from the devastating effects of a gaming or gambling addiction. Touted as the best gambling treatment program in Ontario, clients are welcomed warmly at the community-based hospital’s Emara Building that sits quietly backing peaceful greenery on the West-Windsor campus.
The CPGDD team not only celebrated a milestone this year, but ended 2018 with significance welcoming their 200th Residential Cycle on December 30th.
The CPGDD Residential Program is three-weeks of treatment where a maximum of seven clients spend 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare for their gambling or digital dependency addictions. When a new three weeks begin, it is considered a cycle.
“It is a very intense three-week program,” explained Stephanie Heredi, Program Manager for Problem Gambling Services and Digital Dependency. “During this time each client receives one-on-one counselling with a dedicated addictions counsellor. They attend group sessions throughout the day learning how to cope with stress, money and feelings, understand the nature of their addiction and develop a plan to help them meet their personally identified goals. Each group session builds on the previous day, so 100% attendance is critical.”
Heredi explains that visitors are not encouraged but the residential program does include a family day, where loved ones can express the impact of the clients’ gambling, relationships can be repaired and the team can also educate the clients loved one on the nature of their addiction.
What makes this Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare program particularly successful is not only its structured three-weeks but also the staff that run it. The entire team at CPGDD, from addiction counsellors, secretaries and attendants, all operate with a passion and uniqueness that extends to the successful journey of their clients’ recovery.
“I’ve been working with CPGDD since February 2015,” said program secretary Julie Turner. “The one thing that is uniquely me is that I take the time to write inspirational messages into the residential clients’ notebooks to hopefully encourage them throughout their journey.”
It is this type of care throughout the program’s multidisciplinary team that lends warm, innovative and committed service to its clients.
With the advancement in today’s technology, the team has updated both its inpatient and outpatient service to include a digital component recognizing that those experiencing gambling addictions are not only in physical buildings like casinos or bingo halls but also electronic through online gaming or gambling on their phones or computer. The centre’s staff continue to evolve and update the program as quickly as its ever-changing digital landscape.
While self-referral is possible for the CPGDD’s outpatient services, to participate in the residential program there are only five agencies in Ontario that are able to make the referral. Clients eligible for the residential program will already be seeking service and participating in some form of treatment and often come from outside of Windsor-Essex.
Congratulations CPGDD on your 200th Residential treatment cycle. We look forward to celebrating 25 year of changing lives with you this spring.
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As one of our four streams of service, Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare provides care for those patients at the end of life in our Palliative Care program. After a patient passes away, we have a ceremonial practice called the Honour Guard. This practice is a way for our staff, and any individual at Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare, to demonstrate support and respect to families and friends during their loss of a loved one. It is also a way for the care team to say farewell to the patient they cared for and to acknowledge the family and loved ones that they came to know.
In the past, a patient who passed away at Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare was transported through an area where they could not be seen. The care team recognized that the patient’s journey leaving is just as important as is their arrival.
After heartfelt discussions and in consultation with patients and their families, the team adopted the practice of forming an Honour Guard when a patient who passed is taken from the building. Staff form a line along the hall of the patient's room while the family and friends follow the transport of their loved one. The Honour Guard also forms in the lobby of the Dr. Y. Emara Centre for Healthy Aging and Mobility as individuals from all over the building gather to show a respectful presence for the family as a final tribute to their loved one. The Honour Guard practice is explained and offered to the family in advance so they can decide if this is what they want for themselves and their loved one.
The Honour Guard has been very well received by families and loved ones of our patients. The following excerpt is from a note sent by one of our staff members following the death of a close family friend on the palliative care unit:
“I just want to thank you and that amazing team that you have for all of the heartfelt work that all of you do. Today, as you know, my mother’s best friend has passed on. I can’t tell you how much I was moved by the hearts of those that took time out to demonstrate such great compassion and respect for the patient and her family. The Honour Guard procession, seeing you all there in the lobby and walking with her through the front doors was so wonderful and touching. Such an overwhelming feeling! There are simply no words to tell you how we all felt.”
Along with supporting and respecting our patients and their grieving family and friends, the Honour Guard also allows staff to show their respect to patients that may not be blessed with the support of family and friends who could be near them at this time. The Honour Guard offers a caring peaceful remembrance for all.
If you are in the Emara Building and hear of, or see an Honour Guard ceremony taking place, please be respectful; please stop, remain quiet, or join the demonstration to show your support.
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While Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare is a community-based hospital that provides rehabilitative care for those in our region
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they have experienced a significant health event and have received acute intervention, there are still some rare instances where quick-thinking and emergent medical action is required to potentially save a life.
It was late 2018 when a new patient to our Cardiac Wellness program, we’ll call him Joe (to protect his privacy), was attending an Intake meeting with Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare Nurse Practitioner, Kristie Tasevski-Moy, at our satellite location in Leamington.
Joe was sitting in a chair in Kristie’s office when he unexpectedly became unresponsive.
“I got up and went over to him to check his pulse,” Kristie recalled. “His pulse was still there so I wasn’t sure if he was having a seizure or was fainting. When his pulse was lost, I knew this was serious.”
With a background in emergency medicine and life saving techniques, Kristie acted fast; she yelled for help from her colleagues in the nearby exercise gym, dialed 9-1-1, and eased Joe into a laying position on the floor.
As Kristie performed CPR on Joe, her colleagues arrived with an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) machine. They defibrillated him once and continued CPR until Essex-Windsor EMS arrived.
Because of Kristie and her colleague’s quick thinking and actions, Joe was revived, regaining his pulse and consciousness.
“I was so grateful to see Joe become alert again. As EMS was taking him to the ambulance, Joe was confused, but he was alive and I was so relieved.”
Today, Joe is well on his way to recovering from this unexpected cardiac arrest and will be joining our Cardiac Wellness program once again this month.
There is no doubt that we change lives together each day at Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare, but it is evident, that we save lives as well.
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L-R: Cathy Geml, OAC Chair; Dr. Christine Daigle, Ozad Research Scientist; Dave Taylor Ex-Officio OAC Member; John Jenner, OAC Member; Dr. Brenda Roberts-Santarossa, OAC Member; Dr. Cory Saunders, Ozad Senior Research Scientist; Bill Ozad; Pam Skillings, OAC Secretary; Dr. John Strang, Ozad Director; Dr. Joseph Casey, Ozad Senior Research Scientist; Bill Smith, Electrozad Supply President; Stephen Roberts, Ex-Officio OAC Member; Dr. Andrew Taylor, Ozad Research Scientist.
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Celebrating the legacy that is the Ozad Institute
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Bill Ozad is a special man who can’t help but put a smile on your face due to his inquisitive disposition and infectious grin. As stories are told about Joseph Ozad, it’s clear that Bill remains very proud of his late father.
In early December, Bill was invited to Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare’s Regional Children’s Centre (RCC) to see and hear about one of the legacies his father left behind in the form of the Ozad Institute.
Heavily involved in the electrical industry since the early 1950s, Joseph Ozad saw a need in this community and spearheaded the establishment of the Electrozad Supply Company Limited in April 1955, the first electrical product distributor east of the Manitoba border at the time. Today, Electrozad has become the largest independently owned electrical wholesale distributor in Southwestern Ontario.
Joseph was passionate about helping others and had a deep love for his family and son, whose unique neurodevelopmental needs inspired the establishment of a research, education, and training institute.
Though Joseph Ozad passed away in 1978 after battling Multiple Sclerosis (MS), his strong and compassionate personality, and his name, live on through Electrozad Supply and the Ozad Institute.
Officially established in 1990, the Ozad Institute was envisioned by Dr. John Strang, clinical neuropsychologist and seminal Institute Director, who appreciated Joseph Ozad’s desire to improve the lives of children and youth with neurodevelopmental disabilities. The officials of the Electrozad Foundation were immensely supportive of the project, providing a $250,000 grant to get the Ozad Institute and the Ozad Institute Fund off the ground. This was closely followed by a second grant of $175,000 for Ozad Institute rooms in the George Albert Huot building of RCC.
Today at Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare’s RCC, the Ozad Institute continues to change lives every day with its dedicated facilities which include the Ozad testing room, observation room, research office, and conference room. These facilities are used for RCC clinical practice, training, and research. Since 1990 the Ozad Institute has also contributed to increasing competencies for care and treatment providers to improve lives of children with neurodevelopmental disabilities through research, community conferences, and other education and training for professionals, parents, and pre-doctoral and post-doctoral graduate students.
To allow Ozad Advisory Committee members and Ozad Institute scientist-practitioners to meet Bill Ozad, and give him the opportunity to experience his father’s legacy, Bill was invited to RCC for a reception in his honour. The Electrozad Supply Company President and the Electrozad Foundation Director were also in attendance.
With a gigantic smile on his face, Bill was in awe as he saw his and his father’s name on walls, plaques, and print. He beamed proudly as he stood next to his father’s photo in the Ozad Conference Room.
After hearing about how the Ozad Institute continues to impact children throughout our community, Bill took to the front of the room to say a few words.
“I am really happy to come today and see everyone,” said Bill. “I really want to thank everyone for the great work you do at the Ozad Institute.”
After Bill had proudly finished his remarks, Dr. Strang said that he was now an “official Ozad Institute speaker” and presented him with the Ozad Institute memento that has been given to other Ozad Institute Conference speakers in the past.
Thank you to all participants from the Ozad Institute and Electrozad Supply for making the reception for Bill so special. And thank you to all those affiliated with the Ozad Institute for continuing to find ways to change the lives of children with neurodevelopmental disabilities.
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Stems and Spoons for Child and Youth Mental Health
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Together with Cooper's Hawk Vineyards, Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare's Changing Lives Together Foundation is supporting child and youth mental health programs at our Regional Children's Centre through the annual Stems and Spoons afternoon.
The special tasting event pairs delicious soups with the Vineyard's wine as proceeds support the children and youth in our community.
Tickets to the event are $20 and can be purchased in advance or at the door.
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