March is Child Life Month, a month where hospitals have the opportunity to celebrate Child Life Specialists through education and raising awareness.

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Children today confront a wide variety of stressful and potentially traumatic events that may overwhelm their natural ability to cope and heal. Difficult or unexpected experiences, such as chronic illness, hospitalization, the death of a loved one, or the aftermath of violent acts or natural disasters are upsetting for everyone involved. Children are particularly vulnerable, and parents or other responsible adults may feel unsure of their ability to help children to successfully understand and manage these experiences.

Because children process information from the world around them much differently than adults, they have distinct needs for managing the effects of stress and trauma. Without the assistance of a professional who understands their unique perspective, children of all ages may experience emotions such as fear, shame, confusion and loneliness, which can inhibit their natural development, and have lasting negative effects on their wellbeing.

Child Life Specialists are trained professionals with expertise in helping children and their families overcome life’s most challenging events, and the importance of their services has been well documented.

Child Life Services are associated with improved quality, outcomes, and patient and family experiences as well as decreased costs in paediatric care. There is evidence that child life services help to contain costs by reducing the length of stay, decreasing the need for sedation and analgesics, and increasing patient satisfaction ratings.

Our Hospital currently has two Child Life Specialists who work with children and families Monday to Friday throughout the organization. The areas that these services are widely available are the Paediatric Inpatient Unit, the Paediatric Outpatient Clinic, Maternal Newborn, NICU, ICU, the Emergency Department, Diagnostic Imaging and the Operating Room.

The Child Life Specialists help support children and families by forming a positive therapeutic relationship and providing developmentally appropriate interventions that promote coping and help to reduce fear and anxiety in the hospital. Examples of these interventions include:

• Preparing and educating children and families about surgeries, procedures and scans which helps to reduce the need for sedation
• Providing developmentally appropriate diagnosis education
• Providing distraction during procedures
• Grief and bereavement support
• Provide opportunities for medical and therapeutic play
• Provide opportunities to normalize the hospital environment
• Educate children and families about different coping strategies (guided imagery, grounding strategies, deep breathing)
• Sibling support

Shared from St. Joseph’s Care Group Behavioural Sciences Centre Newsletter

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Psychotherapy Matters Virtual Clinic

Psychotherapy Matters is a virtual care system that connects psychotherapists and their clients with psychiatrists and family doctors. This service supports well-being and recovery through personable consultations delivered by client-centered psychiatrists.

Accessible support: You could receive a diagnosis and even medication recommendations or monitoring from the convenience of your therapist’s office.

Skip the wait: With their Virtual Physicians, PMVC works with your therapist, saving you excess commutes, appointments, and overall wait times

EFAP Complimentary Support Services 

In addition to the traditional services offered in the EFAP, Behavioural Science Centre is now offering Complimentary Support Services to help you foster and maintain your personal and professional well-being. Our Complimentary Support Services are confidential, professional services that include, but are not limited to: 

• Intake services
• Next-day single session services and system navigation 
• Long-term supportive counselling
• Well-Being Check-ups

Our interns will start by providing a solution-orientated interview in order to collaboratively identify your concerns and a potential plan of action. Sessions will be approximately 50 minutes in length. From here you can choose to stay with the intern for additional sessions, or be referred to a core counsellor. Individuals will always have a choice as to whom they would like to see, and complimentary  services do not count towards your allotted number of sessions annually. 

What is a Well-Being Check-up?

You may go to the doctor to get regular checkups of your physical health, but what about your mental health? Everyone deals with tough times, but even happy events like a new job, a marriage, or a new baby can add stress. A well-being check up is much the same as a physical, but for your mind and can identify where stress is starting to take a toll on your overall mental health and well-being. The goal is to arm you with preventative strategies for managing and coping with stress.

This check-up takes roughly an hour to complete, with a short 20 min follow-up for your results. BSC staff will complete a questionnaire with you that reviews 10 domains of overall health and well being. Based on how you score yourself in these various domains, we will highlight what strategies you already use that work well, and navigate you with evidence based resources and tools in the areas you noted you would like some support.

The navigation is meant to take the guess work out of it for you. We have tried and tested many of the resources that are out there, and want to guide clients to tools that would be the best fit given their needs and goals.

You can read the full newsletter here, and access the issue archive.

From February 26 to March 3, Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre (TBRHSC) and Thunder Bay Regional Health Research Institute (TBRHRI) celebrated Employee Recognition Week. This week was dedicated to celebrating the people —medical staff, employees, teams, volunteers, and Patient Family Advisors ­who are making a difference for patients and families in Northwestern Ontario through their outstanding service and dedication.

This initiative aligns with our Hospital and Health Research Institute’s strategic priority of Staff Experience, by recognizing and celebrating the work that our staff are doing every day. Last year, TBRHSC and TBRHRI launched Strategic Plan 2026, identifying Staff Experience as one of the four key priorities. Improving staff experience includes taking action to retain, recruit and support staff.

This Employee Recognition Week focused on kindness, celebrating the kind acts that happen every day at the Hospital and ensuring that extra kindness was spread throughout, to recognize and celebrate our staff.

During the week, Kindness Carts circulated throughout the Hospital with snacks for staff to enjoy, with special deliveries occurring to offsite staff. Other activities included daily trivia and daily prize draws. In the style of random acts of kindness, free coffee cards and shortbread cookies brightened staff’s day. There were also events for staff to participate in, including a virtual yoga class presented by the Wellness Committee and an Open House of the Ibn Sina Simulation Lab for all staff, learners and volunteers, to see the Sim Lab in action. Managers, Coordinators, and Supervisors took part in Fostering Well-Being through Leadership training, a course that provides leaders with a foundation for applying Psychological Health and Safety in the workplace. The goals of the training are to increase confidence in supporting staff who may be experiencing mental health challenges, and to present strategies for how leaders can take care of their own health and well-being.

There was also the opportunity for peer-to-peer recognition, where staff could order pens with custom messages for their colleagues, submit a Thumbs Up post, which are positive messages posted on our corporate intranet and internal daily newsletter for the organization to view, or via Recognition e-Cards, which were delivered right to their colleague’s email address. Publication of 2022 retirees, as well as our 2023 Long Service recipients were circulated for recognition during the week.

Though this week is set aside every year to celebrate the team at TBRHSC and TBRHRI through small expressions of thanks, we are grateful each and everyday for the people who play a vital role in keeping our community safe and providing exceptional care for patients and families every single day.

The 18th Annual Transfusion Medicine Virtual Education Symposium take place on April 27, 2023, where attendees will have the opportunity to learn about the latest research, technologies, and best practices in transfusion medicine. The symposium will cover Pathogen Reduced Platelets, Solvent Detergent Plasma and Fibrinogen Concentrate. Whether you are a clinician, nurse, medical laboratory personnel or student, this symposium promises to be an engaging and informative event. 

The event will be divided into two identical sessions. The first session will run from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm, and the second session will run from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm. Attendees are welcome to register for either session, depending on their availability. 

To register for the symposium, please visit our website Registration Page and complete the registration form. There is no registration fee for the event. 

For more information, please contact Janet Sharun, Coordinator, Transfusion Services, at janet.sharun@tbh.net or extension 6901.

The theme for Nutrition Month 2023 is to Unlock the Potential of Food and practice healthy eating habits to take care of ourselves and our families. Good nutrition and healthy eating help us live longer and live healthier. They help manage weight, improve digestion, promote mental health and prevent chronic diseases like Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and cancers. 

Make the most of Nutrition Month by following the recommendations in Canada’s Food Guide, such as planning meals, cooking more often and involving your kids in the kitchen. Include physical activity along with your nutritious eating habits, helping you achieve and maintain a healthy lifestyle. You can also subscribe to Canada’s Food Guide updates for health information and recipes to keep unlocking the potential of food throughout the year.

The Thunder Bay District Health Unit also has information highlighting ways to get involved in Nutrition Month 2023 throughout the Thunder Bay District and includes resources for recipe sharing, stretching your food dollar and more.