Spotlight Series

Join us for this special edition Spotlight Series, guided by Canadian Patient Safety Week 2025 theme, All Voices for Safer Care. This webinar will explore how safety is shaped not only by systems and policies but also by the voices of those delivering, receiving and supporting care.

Our panel will explore how we can strengthen safety, build trust and drive meaningful change by making space for all voices. Learn how to move from knowledge to action and how we can, together, make healthcare safer for everyone.

Please note that we hosted two Spotlight Series webinars for Canadian Patient Safety Week. The October 28 webinar was English-first with French simultaneous interpretation, and the October 30 webinar was French-first with English simultaneous interpretation. The speakers for each webinar will be different.

Join us for this special edition Spotlight Series, guided by Canadian Patient Safety Week 2025 theme, All Voices for Safer Care. This webinar will explore how safety is shaped not only by systems and policies but also by the voices of those delivering, receiving and supporting care.

Our panel will explore how we can strengthen safety, build trust and drive meaningful change by making space for all voices. Learn how to move from knowledge to action and how we can, together, make healthcare safer for everyone.

Please note that we hosted two Spotlight Series webinars for Canadian Patient Safety Week. The October 28 webinar was English-first with French simultaneous interpretation, and the October 30 webinar was French-first with English simultaneous interpretation. The speakers for each webinar will be different.

Discover how improving access to primary and community care can reduce pressures on emergency visits. We’ll examine strategies through various pathways, including primary care improvements, integrating care and workforce considerations, while working with and for patients.

The webinar will cover the impact of these approaches on emergency department visits, identify ways to enhance access to primary and community care, and share real-world examples and actionable insights.

In this webinar, we’ll discuss the historical and ongoing presence of anti-Black racism in medicine and healthcare, including its impact on patient safety and equity for Black people and communities. Participants will explore actionable strategies that healthcare leaders, organizations, and the broader system can implement to create safer, more equitable healthcare environments. Topics explored in this session will include successful initiatives that have effectively addressed anti-Black racism and practical steps to apply these lessons within health and care settings. Join us in this important conversation to ensure that all patients receive care that is safe, respectful and equitable.

Resources:

• Check out the Black Health Primer online course (accredited) from Black Health Collaborative.

• Explore ways to dismantle systemic inequities that impact the safety and quality of care through HEC’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Virtual Learning Exchange.

• Learn more about the EXTRA™: Executive Training Program, HEC’s team-based, bilingual leadership development program.

On November 28, join us for an insightful discussion on asset-based community development, a transformative approach in healthcare. Our panel of experts will share real-world examples of communities that have successfully collaborated to provide the right service at the right time and place. Learn how leveraging local assets and co-designing solutions with healthcare leaders can reduce hospital stays and foster healthier, more resilient communities.

This event is essential for community and healthcare leaders with a desire to co-design local health solutions. It offers practical insights into building a future where healthcare is a community affair.

Related Programs

• Enabling Aging in Place

Related resources

• Cowichan Health and Care Plan (Island Health, 2024)

• Connecting People & Community for Living Well (Alberta Health Services)

• Webinar Series: Enabling Aging in Place (Healthcare Excellence Canada, 2024)

• Asset-based community development toolkit (City of Calgary)

• Russell C. Understanding ground-up community development from a practice perspective. Lifestyle Med. 2022; 3:e69.

• ABCD in Canada (Institut Tamarack)

• The Helper’s Crossroads (Cormac Russell)

• Yishun Health’s journeys beautifully described Asset-Based Community Development (Caring Communities)

• The River of Life frame (National Healthcare Group)

• Example of Every Block A Village in Austin, Garfield Park, and North Lawndale.

• The Connected Community: Discovering the Health, Wealth and Power of Neighbourhoods (Tamarack Institute)

• Webber S, Butteris SM, Houser L, Coller K, Coller RJ. Asset-Based Community Development as a Strategy for Developing Local Global Health Curricula. Acad Pediatr. 2018 Jul;18(5):496-501. doi: 10.1016/j.acap.2018.02.001. Epub 2018 Feb 7. PMID: 29427688.

Health and social care partnerships provide a unique opportunity to address complex health and social needs. With social determinants of health, such as employment and housing, accounting for 30-55 percent of health outcomes (World Health Organization), there’s been a call in this country to engage with sectors beyond health to improve equitable access to care.

Join us on May 29 as our panel of health and social care experts—from leaders to providers to people with lived experiences—shares the impact of these partnerships and how their experiences of working together makes a difference.

All registrants will have access to a recording and a list of resources on health and social care partnerships after the event, which will be posted on the HEC website.

Resources 

• A toolkit on how to implement Social Prescribing (World Health Organization, 2022) 

• Poverty: A Clinical Tool for Primary Care (Centre for Effective Practice, 2016) 

• Learning from Practice: Joint Action for Equity- Working Together to holistically support the underhoused population during COVID-19 (National Collaborating Centre for Determinants of Health, 2023) 

• Learning From Practice: Promoting wellbeing and health equity among older adults (National Collaborating Centre for Determinants of Health, 2023) 

• Learning from Practice: Joint Action for Equity - Community-centred collaboration responds to Cargill outbreak (National Collaborating Centre for Determinants of Health, 2023) 

• Enabling Aging in Place Promising Practices: Maple Ridge/Pitt Meadows Community Services Social Prescribing Program (Healthcare Excellence Canada, 2023) 

• Improving Equity in Access to Palliative Care (Healthcare Excellence Canada) 

• Bridge-to-Home (Healthcare Excellence Canada) 

• Nursing Home Without Walls (Healthcare Excellence Canada) 

• Enabling Aging in Place (Healthcare Excellence Canada) 

• The Collective Impact Toolkit (Tamarack Institute, 2022) 

• Equipping for Equity Online Modules (EQUIP Health Care) 

• Tools & Resources | ePAC (Equity in Palliative Approaches to Care) 

• A Collective Response to Death, Dying, and Grief in the Inner City (Equity in Palliative Approaches to Care, 2023) 

• Too Little, Too Late: How we fail vulnerable Canadians as they die and what to do about it (University of Victoria (Institute on Aging & Lifelong Health), 2018)  

The pandemic strained an already overburdened health system. The mental well-being of the workforce, and thus the quality and safety of care, are impacted. Supporting the psychological well-being of the health workforce – the backbone of the health system – is needed now more than ever.

HEC’s new approach to patient safety recognizes that the mental health of the workforce is deeply entwined with quality and safety of care. While funding and policy elements at provincial and federal levels are important, so are strategies at the individual-, team- and organization-level. Join the webinar to learn from others about initiatives that have improved the psychological well-being of healthcare workers and how you can incorporate some of the tools and strategies in your work, no matter your role or workplace.

Resources

• Rethinking Patient Safety: A Discussion Guide (Healthcare Excellence Canada)

• Trauma and Resiliency Informed Practice in Action (Healthcare Excellence Canada)

• Breathing Toolkit (Translating Research in Elder Care) 

• Rotenstein LS, Berwick DM, Cassel CK. Addressing Well-being Throughout the Health Care Workforce: The Next Imperative. JAMA. 2022;328(6):521–522. doi:10.1001/jama.2022.12437

• Mabona JF, van Rooyen D, Ten Ham-Baloyi W. Best practice recommendations for healthy work environments for nurses: An integrative literature review. Health SA. 2022 Apr 25;27:1788. doi: 10.4102/hsag.v27i0.1788. PMID: 35548062; PMCID: PMC9082217.

Tools & toolkits 

• Health Worker Burnout Toolkit (The Healthy Professional Worker Partnership)

• Caring for Healthcare: A toolkit for psychological health and safety in healthcare workplaces (Mental Health Commission of Canada)

• Host A Conversation on Rethinking Patient Safety (Healthcare Excellence Canada)

• Are You Doing the SWOT Analysis Backwards? (Harvard Business Review)

• Patient Safety Essentials Toolkit: Huddles (Institute for Healthcare Improvement)

• SBAR Tool: Situation-Background- Assessment - Recommendation (Institute for Healthcare Improvement)

• Assembling the Pieces Toolkit (Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety)

• “What Matters to You?” Conversation Guide for Improving Joy in Work (Institute for Healthcare Improvement)

Recordings

• Watch: Moral Injury Webinar (SWITCH BC)

• Addressing Health Worker Mental Health: A toolkit, its application, and leader-focused Commentary (Canadian Health Workforce Network)

• Advancing Psychological Health and Safety for Health-Care Workers (Mental Health Commission of Canada)

Articles & Reports

• Mental Health and employers: The Case for investment Pandemic and Beyond (Deloitte)  

• Perlo J, Balik B, Swensen S, Kabcenell A, Landsman J, Feeley D. IHI Framework for Improving Joy in Work. IHI White Paper. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Institute for Healthcare Improvement; 2017.

Trainings & Courses 

• The Working Mind Healthcare (Opening Minds)

• Online Training in Psychological Health and Safety (Mental Health Commission of Canada)

Other

• Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace (CSA Group) 

• National Standard (Mental Health Commission of Canada)

• Care For Caregivers 

HEC's new patient safety approach includes a broader concept of harm, including harm caused by racism. Cultural safety and anti-racism are essential to supporting safer care. Unfortunately, First Nations, Inuit and Métis people and communities continue to face racism in healthcare.

On December 6, panelists will look at how racism and culturally unsafe care affect the safety and quality of care for First Nations, Inuit and Métis people and communities. Join us to explore strategies and actions for creating culturally safe and equitable care as we take a distinction-based approach to an urgent patient safety issue.

Notable and Quotable 

“We all have the same challenges, and we all want the same thing: to be heard and to be acknowledged when we express how we would like help.”- Lynn Kilabuk, former President of Larga Baffin

“Show up and prepare yourself for hearing about people’s traumatic experiences and their frustrations with the health care system. They will share. If you show up, they’ll show up too. You’ll build something a lot better.”- Alika Lafontaine, MD, FRCPC; Immediate past-President, Canadian Medical Association

“Treat every client the way you would want your family member to be treated. All the organizational policies and inclusive initiatives in the world mean nothing when members from our community walk into the emergency room for real health concerns and we’re treated like addicts looking for a fix.”- Mme. Bobbi Paul-Alook, Secretary of Health and Seniors for the Otipemisiwak Métis Government within Alberta

“My word of encouragement is to be that single drop in the bucket, because it adds up. So just look to your own heart. Be responsible for yourself and it will follow. That’s a small step. You don’t have to solve it in one day. Just be a good person.” - Reagan Bartel, Director of Health for the Otipemisiwak Métis Government within Alberta

Resources

• Opening Ourselves: An introduction to anti-oppression practices and frameworks (Healthcare Excellence Canada)

• Trauma and Resiliency Informed Practice in Action (Healthcare Excellence Canada)

• A Journey We Walk Together: Strengthening Indigenous Cultural Competency in Health Organizations

• Measuring Cultural Safety in Health Systems (Canadian Institute for Health Information)

• Indigenous Cultural Safety & Humility: Emergent Understandings (Webinar) (Royal Roads University)

• Cultural Safety: Respect and Dignity in Relationships (Northern Health BC)

• Addressing Racism in the Healthcare System A Policy Position and Discussion Paper (April 2021) (Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada)

• Hassen N, Lofters A, Michael S, Mall A, Pinto AD, Rackal J. Implementing Anti-Racism Interventions in Healthcare Settings: A Scoping Review. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Mar 15;18(6):2993. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18062993. PMID: 33803942; PMCID: PMC8000324.

• Monchalin R, Monchalin L. Closing the health service gap: Métis women and solutions for culturally safe health services. Journal of Indigenous Wellbeing Te Mauri- Pimatisiwin. 2018 Jul 16; 3(1).

• Words Matter: Strategies to Reduce Bias in Electronic Health Records (Centre for Health Care Strategies)

• Shared by participant in chat: Nourish