Ottawa – Two important new mental health initiatives, developed by teams from St. Joseph’s Health Care in London, ON and Eastern Health in Newfoundland and Labrador, in partnership with patients and families, will be featured as leading practices at the National Health Leadership Conference (NHLC) on June 11 in Toronto. Both teams showed tremendous leadership and exemplary patient engagement in the redesign of care and service to reduce or eliminate suicides in patients receiving mental health care.
This recognition comes as part of the Excellence in Patient Engagement for Patient Safety Recognition Program, developed in partnership by the Canadian Patient Safety Institute (CPSI), HealthCareCAN (HCC) and Health Standards Organization (HSO) with support from Patients for Patient Safety Canada. This Recognition Program identifies, celebrates and spreads leading practices in patient engagement for patient safety.
Eastern Health will be recognized for the work its teams did to redesign its mental health and addictions service on the Burin Peninsula, to be a recovery-focused, walk-in service. As a result of the collaborative redesign efforts, wait lists have been largely eliminated and no lives have been lost to suicide since 2017.
St. Joseph’s Health Care London will be recognized for its work on the Zero Suicide initiative, an ongoing implementation of screening, assessment, risk and safety planning processes that aims to prevent all suicides for those receiving mental health care within the health system.
The two teams have been invited to NHLC, Canada’s largest gathering of healthcare leaders, to present their leading practices. As part of the recognition program, HCC, HSO and CPSI will cover all travel expenses and full registration to the conference for one patient partner and one health leader from each team, so they can share their successes, experiences and lessons learned with health leaders across Canada.
A number of additional leading practices, identified through the nomination and scoring process, will also be identified each year and added to HSO’s Leading Practices Library. The library is a knowledge sharing resource of innovative practices that have been identified through a rigorous evaluation process, and shared with the public, policy makers and organizations who are seeking ways to improve the quality of health services for all. This year’s leading practices will be available on the HSO site in the coming weeks.
A Leading Practice is a practice carried out by a health and/or social service organization that has demonstrated a positive change, is people centred, safe and efficient. Organizations that will be recognized for leading practices this year include:
- Joseph’s Hamilton – Forensic Psychiatry
- Hamilton Health Sciences
- Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre (2 leading practices)
- CISSS de la Montérégie-Est Équipe
- The Ottawa Hospital/Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
- The Perley and Rideau Veterans’ Health Centre
- Fraser Health Authority, Royal Columbian Hospital
- Middlesex Hospital Alliance
- Nova Scotia Health Authority
- Providence Health Care
- Providence Health Care, St. Paul’s Hospital
- Queensway Carleton Hospital
Quotes
“The Zero Suicide Initiative at St. Joseph’s Health Care London brings people together and provides standardized training, tools and processes to support conversations around suicidal thinking. This systematic, quality improvement approach sets a bold goal of reducing suicide to a never-event by wrapping care around the individual so that fewer people fall through gaps in their care journey.” – Jodi Younger, Vice President, Patient Care and Quality at St. Joseph’s Health Care London.
“On behalf of Eastern Health, it is a privilege to be recognized for our commitment to excellence in patient engagement for patient safety, and for our work in the redesign of mental health and addictions counselling services on the Burin Peninsula. By engaging with patients and those with lived-experiences, our team developed a common understanding and a shared vision for improving quality care. As a result, residents today can access mental health and addictions counselling services when needed – with no wait times. This exceptional achievement demonstrates the type of meaningful outcomes that can be achieved when health organizations partner with clients, families and other stakeholders to enhance health care. We look forward to the continued development of similar partnerships throughout our region.” – David Diamond, President and CEO, Eastern Health.
“The patient engagement and safety movement growing here in Canada and around the world is a vital part of a transformed and patient-centric health system. HealthCareCAN is proud to recognize these two initiatives that are doing such important work to reducing suicide.” – Paul-Émile Cloutier, President and CEO of HealthCareCAN.
“As patient partners we know that mental health affects all of us. We celebrate all the teams who led the way to safe care and hope to see many others follow in their path.” Bernie Weinstein, Member, Patients for Patient Safety Canada
“CPSI is proud to recognize two such exceptional examples of adapting to the needs of patients, in consultation with patients and their families. Along with the other new Leading Practices added this year, we are working together to reduce patient harm in our healthcare systems.” – Chris Power, CEO, Canadian Patient Safety Institute.
“We are delighted, along with our partners, to present these two organizations with our Leading Patient Safety Practices Award and celebrate how these health leaders have demonstrated positive change from co-designing and engaging with patients.” – Leslee Thompson, CEO of Health Standards Organization and Accreditation Canada
“In the 2018 recognition program, I was the patient partner and co-presenter from BC Children’s and Women’s Hospital’s winning initiative. This year, I welcomed the opportunity to be a member of the judging panel for this year’s applications. I was pleased to see the high level of engagement from clients and families employed throughout the many initiatives and how these partnerships contributed to the success of meaningful improvements and new initiatives.” – Leslie Louie, Family Engagement Advisor, Sunny Hill Health Centre
About HealthCareCAN: HealthCareCAN is the national voice of healthcare organizations and hospitals across Canada. We foster informed and continuous, results-oriented discovery and innovation across the continuum of healthcare. We act with others to enhance the health of the people of Canada; to build the capability for high quality care; and to help ensure value for money in publicly financed, healthcare programs. www.healthcarecan.ca
About Canadian Patient Safety Institute: The Canadian Patient Safety Institute (CPSI) is a not-for-profit organization that exists to raise awareness and facilitate implementation of ideas and best practices to achieve a transformation in patient safety. Funded by Health Canada, CPSI reflects the desire to close the gap between the healthcare we have and the healthcare we deserve. www.patientsafetyinstitute.ca
About HSO: Health Standards Organization (HSO) builds world-class standards and innovative assessment programs, new technologies and activation services for accreditation bodies, governments, associations and others. Our standards are designed in partnership with clinicians, policy makers, technical experts and patients to ensure they provide effective health services and overall value. We create global standards that help people in their local jurisdictions save and improve lives. www.healthstandards.org
About Patients for Patient Safety Canada: Patients for Patient Safety Canada is a patient-led program of the Canadian Patient Safety Institute and the Canadian arm of the World Health Organization’s Patients for Patient Safety programme. We are the voice of the patient and bring our safety experiences to help improve patient safety at all levels in the health system. www.patientsafetyinstitute.ca/en/About/Programs/PPSC
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Media contact:
Steve Wharry, Director of Communications and Member Services, HealthCareCAN
855-236-0213/613-241-8005 x 205 Cell: 613-761-8400 SWharry@healthcarecan.ca
