The Adult Mental Health team at Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre gathered in the outpatient department for the annual Purple Giving Tree Lighting Ceremony, reaffirming their commitment to harm reduction, trauma-informed care, and anti-stigma practices.

The ceremony opened with welcoming hand drummers, followed by the lighting of the Purple Giving Tree, which symbolizes the harms and overdoses associate with substance use in our community.

Staff were invited to place pledge bulbs on the tree, reflecting personal and team commitments for the year ahead.

The event coincided with an Adult Mental Health donation campaign in support of the Regional Food Distribution Association. Staff contributed non-perishable food items, with over $1,900 raised to date.

Shared on behalf of the Help Desk

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The transition to M365 involves moving our local files to the cloud with OneDrive and SharePoint. With over 1,000,000+ files in our local storage, this transition involves a lot of file preparation work.

Learn the new system limitations to properly prepare your files:

• Special Character Restrictions: The following characters cannot be used in file or folder names: ” * : < > ? / \ | % .
• OneDrive Storage Limit: 10GB for Office Workers/2GB for Frontline Staff for personal file storage.
• File Path Limits: All file paths should be ≤256 characters and have a maximum file depth of five to seven folders.
• Office File Incompatibility: Old Office 97-2003 files and templates must be converted to newest formats.

Remember to:

• Delete old files and convert old formats.
• Rename long file names and remove special characters.
• Reduce folder depth to five to seven folders.

For more information, click here.

If you have any questions, please contact the Help Desk at Help.Desk@tbh.net.

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Staff at TBRHSC embody the spirit of the season with their annual food drive in support of St. Andrews Dew Drop In. Food was delivered yesterday (December 17), and the volunteers at St. Andrews Dew Drop Inn were thrilled see the team and how much food was being donated, and continue to express their appreciation of TBRHSC staff’s efforts year after year. The Capital & Facilities and Support Services departments have had a friendly food drive challenge for five years now.

Thank you everyone who brought in donations, your generosity will help provide meals to community members in need. A big congratulations to staff in ICP Admin, who took the weight win for this year!

Amount of Food Collected (By Department)

Switchboard – 73.7 lbs

Capital Planning – 22.4 lbs

ICP Admin – 238 lbs

Housekeeping/Portering/Laundry –  111 lbs

Purchasing – 21.3 lbs

Stores – 17.2 lbs

Nutrition and Food Services – 141.2 lbs

Maintenance – 44.2 lbs

TOTAL = 687.9 lbs of non-perishable food items for St. Andrews Dew Drop Inn

As part of our commitment to patient and family centred care, we are pleased to offer a warmer, more comfortable way to wait for pick-up from the temporary passenger pick-up area.

A monitor has been installed in the West entry that displays a live feed of the pick-up zone. Patients may wait indoors and exit the building once they see their ride arrive.

This month’s Town Hall took place on Wednesday, December 17 via Microsoft Teams. See below for a video recording of the session and a copy of the presentation slides.

If you have questions you would like answered, please send them to TBRHSC.GroupNews@tbh.net and we will do our best to address them at a future Town Hall.

If you’d like to access a recording or presentation from a previous Town Hall, visit the archive.

Thank you for your commitment to staying informed and engaged.

Reflections From the Front Lines provides our health care professionals with an opportunity to share stories and experiences about their role in providing exceptional care for every patient, every time.

We feature these each month during our Town Hall — a virtual venue designed to keep staff, professional staff, volunteers and leaners informed about what’s happening at Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre and Thunder Bay Regional Health Research Institute.

Check out our previous episodes below (or on the Hospital’s YouTube channel), and be sure to tune in to future Town Halls for more stories.

Please note that Thursday, January 1, 2026, is New Year’s Day, a statutory holiday, and banks and financial institutions will be closed. As a result, employees will be paid one day earlier on Wednesday, December 31, 2025.

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Fraudulent emails or messages where an attacker poses as a legitimate business or reputable person in order to steal sensitive information.

90% of data breaches started with a phishing attack. Stay vigilant and report all suspicious emails. Don’t get phished.

Fight back! With the PhishNotify button, you can report suspicious emails with a single click. Look for it in your Outlook Home ribbon.

Education information coming soon to your inbox.

If you have any questions, please contact the Help Desk at Help.Desk@tbh.net.

Shared on behalf of Medical Affairs

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Effective immediately, please be advised of the following update to the paediatric on-call routing process: 

• The Ward Pediatrician on-call will respond to INTERNAL calls only.
• The NICU physician will manage all EXTERNAL calls.

 External calls include, but are not limited to: 

• Local calls from within Thunder Bay (e.g., calls from midwives or other physicians), and
• Regional calls, including those where the requesting physician is seeking advice or a “question-only” consultation.

 The change is intended to clarify call responsibilities and ensure appropriate call coverage moving forward. 

Thank you for your attention and cooperation.

Its time again to celebrate this holiday season by adorning yourself and your work area. Individuals and teams can submit a photo on or before December 18 to Human Resources at TBRHSC.HumanResources@tbh.net.

December is a time filled with holidays celebrated by many cultures and faiths. It’s important to recognize and honor the diversity of traditions throughout this time.

Submitting a photo gets you entry into a prize draw. Draws will be held throughout the week of December 15-19.

New outfit? New entry! Multiple entries allowed.

Please remember: Holiday attire must align with guidelines/requirements based on specific professions and any decorations must follow safety, Fire Code CPO-01 and IPAC precautions.

All photos must be submitted in the highest available resolution. Submitters are responsible for ensuring that no sensitive or confidential information is visible in the background.