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March 15, 2023
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Family Caregivers of BC (FCBC) proudly and compassionately supports over one million people in British Columbia who provide care and support to a family member or friend living with disease, disability or frailty due to aging. Their mission is to improve the quality of life of family and friend caregivers through support, information, education and leadership. FCBC’s health system collaboration work over the past 13 years has been focused on strengthening the voice of family caregivers and the significance of their role. As a partner in the BC Ministry of Health’s Patients as Partners Initiative, they adopted the “nothing about me without me” value of person and family centered care. This session will describe their efforts to engage with the health sector and effect systemic, structural and cultural changes at the micro, meso and macro levels so that family caregivers are valued, recognized and included as partners in care.
February 15, 2023
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Oak Valley Health developed an Essential Caregiver Program to support the safe reintegration of families and loved ones in the patient’s care throughout their hospital journey. Essential caregivers are chosen by the patient to assist with patient care and well-being while in the hospital and are considered to be an integral part of the care team. This session will provide an overview of the development and implementation of this program.
January 18, 2023
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Liv Mendelsohn, M.A., M.Ed. (she/her), Executive Director Canadian Centre for Caregiving Excellence
Caregiving is the next frontier of public policy in Canada. Across the country, caregivers and care providers support the people we love with very little assistance from our governments. In this session, Liv Mendelsohn, Executive Director of the Canadian Centre for Caregiving Excellence (CCCE), will show how doing better is possible. CCCE recently launched Giving Care: An Approach to a Better Caregiving Landscape in Canada, a wide-ranging policy whitepaper that lays out the state of caregiving and offers policy solutions for how to make Canada the best place in the world to give and receive care. Learn how good public policy – proper income supports, improved tax credits, and accessible services, among others – can help caregivers, care providers, and care recipients.
Nov 16, 2022
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This session will focus on the implementation journey of the Essential Partner-in-Care (EPC) program at Lakeridge Health, including why the program was developed, the various components of the program, and challenges and successes of the program roll-out so far. It will also include a brief overview of the Ontario Caregiver Organization’s Caregivers as Partners Learning Collaborative and highlight key learnings from cross-sectors partners that support the inclusion of caregivers.
October 19, 2022
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Improving patient safety has been a priority for more than 20 years, yet harm continues to occur an unacceptable rate. To enable safe care, we must rethink our approach. The Measuring and Monitoring of Safety (2013, Vincent, Burnett and Carthey) offers a broader, dynamic approach for creating and sustaining safer care, in which patient partnerships are integral. This session prepared and delivered in partnership with patients, will explore the questions “how safe is your care?” and “what makes you feel safe?” and illustrate actions patients, carers, healthcare providers and leaders can take to support safety though inquiry and conversations.
September 21, 2022
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Engagement capable environments are environments that have incorporated the values of patient-centered and patient-partnered care as a philosophy underlying the organization's priorities. We will present co-created resources for building the capacity of patient partners, health service teams and sector leaders. This session will include information and lessons learned from ongoing efforts to bring the voices of patients and essential care to the table to improve safety and quality of care.
June 15, 2022
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May 18, 2022
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Join the Essential Together program for a presentation from the University Health Network, Ontario, when they will discuss “Essential Care Partners Supporting Care Activities – Process and Resources for Implementation”
April 20, 2022
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Join the Essential Together program for a Q &A with Ariel Rice from Tideview Terrrace Nursing Home, an Eden Alternative Registered facility, located in Digby, Nova Scotia. We will discuss how they have welcomed essential care partners during COVID, the barriers and facilitators, and why they have taken the Essential Together pledge.
March 16, 2022
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Session Description - a general discussion of the keys to success in maintaining family presence during COVID. Identification of some of the challenges of this commitment and the learnings along the way.
Jennifer is a registered nurse whose passion for family presence and PFCC grew after caring for her husband at while he battled a rare disease in hospital for a year. She now works with AHS Engagement and Patient Experience department and lives and breathes her passion for this work in all she does.
Valrie is a registered nurse with many years of nursing leadership and a special interest in patient and family centred care and family presence. She left a manger’s role in 2013 to join the South Health Campus Patient and Family Centred Care Department and subsequently the Calgary Zone Patient and Family Centred Care Team.
February 16, 2022
Presenters: Angela Morin, Lead, Patient and Family Centred Care & Anne O’Riordan, Patient Family Experience Advisor
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Are patient and family partners considered essential in your organization or essential with conditions? To kick off the discussion, Angela and Anne will do a brief presentation on the role of patient and family experience advisors, at the organizational and leadership levels, at Kingston Health Sciences Centre during the pandemic and their impact on family presence and the role of essential care partners. The experience of Kingston Health Sciences Centre will be shared with insights into changes that developed over the course of the pandemic and reflections about factors that fostered or challenged the role of patient and family partners at all levels of the organization.
January 19, 2022
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Discover the key steps to shift existing visitor and caregiver presence policies towards person- and family-centred care based on the three foundational principles for successful reintegration of essential care partners into health and care settings.
Drawing on the latest evidence, policy guidance and lessons learned through the pandemic, Healthcare Excellence Canada has developed tools and resources that support Essential Care Partner programs. This session will show participants how to use the Essential Together Change Package and create an opportunity for them to share experiences and lessons learned.
December 8, 2021
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The role and importance of informal caregivers as partners in the care and services provided to clients in public residences have continued to evolve over the past decade. However, the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic has turned everything on its head, forcing the Direction du programme de soutien à l’autonomie des personnes âgées (Support for elderly autonomy program) to reinvent itself and come up with other ways of communicating. During this time of great uncertainty when in-person contact was no longer an option, various initiatives were introduced to maintain these important relationships. This presentation gives an overview of the issues and the solutions identified to overcome them.
November 24, 2021
Speaker – Mike Kekewich, Director of Clinical and Organizational Ethics at The Ottawa Hospital, as well as the Director for the Champlain Centre for Health Care Ethics, and the Champlain Regional MAID Network.
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Recent visiting policies to health and care facilities across the countries have shown considerable change in the last few months, with some introducing vaccine mandates for staff, essential care partners and general visitors. Mike will present about the ethics and decisions involved when considering introducing vaccine mandates for essential care partners.
October 27, 2021
Panel speakers included:
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October 13, 2021
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This huddle will share stories, bust myths and clarify the facts that show how essential care partners benefit care, experience, safety and outcomes, including during COVID-19. Stories written by members, colleagues and friends of the Essential Together Patient and Caregiver Advisory Group bring evidence to life and demonstrate the vital role essential care partners play in a patient’s care team.
September 23, 2021
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This huddle will provide an overview of updated policy guidance and evidence for implementing family presence policies in health and care settings, including during the pandemic.
During 2020, policy guidance regarding family presence policies was co-developed with range of people with expertise and COVID-19 related experience, including providers, administrators, patients, families and caregivers. Using the latest evidence about the impact of restrictive policies on patient outcomes, this policy guidance has been updated to reflect the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. This session is particularly relevant for healthcare decision makers and those implementing policy that impacts on essential care partners' access to loved ones in any health and care setting.
June 30, 2021
Speakers: Dr. Jasneet Parmar (Care of the Elderly physician and Associate Professor at the Department of Family Medicine, University of Alberta) and Cecilia Marion (Senior Director of Operations, Addictions, Mental Health and Continuing Care, Covenant Health).
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June 9, 2021
Speakers: Alison Kilbourn (Project Lead, Strategic Partnerships and Innovation, Ontario Caregiver Organization) and Jennifer Killing (Vice-President - Quality, Research and Strategic Partnerships, peopleCare Communities)
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May 26, 2021
Speakers: Kristin Grunert (Director, Patient and Family Centered Care and Area Engagement), Amber Clarke (Patient and Family Centred Care Specialist) and Erin Kell (Patient and Family Centred Care Specialist) from the Saskatchewan Health Authority
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May 6, 2021
Speakers: Chris Mayhew (Senior Consultant, Engagement and Patient Experience, Alberta Health Services) and Dean Radbourne (Patient and Family Advisor, Alberta Health Services Patient and Family Advisory Group)
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April 8, 2021
Speaker: Lisa Raffoul, Patient Advocate, Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare
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Key resources (currently English only):
March 25, 2021
Speaker: Jennifer Cornell, Director of Long-Term Care, Grey County
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Key resources (currently English only):
We know there is different language and terminology used across the country, but to make sure we provide as much clarity as possible, in this context:
Blanket visitor restrictions refer to restrictions that extend to all “visitors” entering a facility, often without exceptions, including essential care partners.
Essential care partners provide physical, psychological and emotional support, as deemed important by the patient. This care can include support in decision making, care coordination and continuity of care. Essential care partners are identified by the patient (or substitute decision maker) and can include family members, close friends or other caregivers.
Patients includes residents and clients.
Patient partners include patients, residents, clients, families, caregivers and care partners, and others with lived experience who are working together with teams to improve the quality and safety of healthcare.
Health and care facilities refers to hospitals, long-term care/residential care/nursing homes and other congregate care settings as well as primary care and outpatient care settings.
Open family presence policies support the presence of essential care partners at patient bedside at any time and not restricted by “visiting hours.”
Join us in shaping the future of quality and safety. Together.
Subscribe to updates on the information and opportunities that matter most to you.