ROGER’S HOUSE CHRONICLES - WINTER 2007

IT HAS BEEN LESS THAN EIGHTEEN MONTHS BUT ALREADY ROGER’S HOUSE HAS ESTABLISHED ITSELF AS AN INTEGRAL COMPONENT OF THE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM. The vision to build a home to care for our children and youth and their families as a living legacy to Roger Neil-son has truly come to fruition. Whereas the previous year was dedicated to building the foundation of Roger’s House the brick and mortar, this year we have focused on building the team to assure our house was truly a home.

The Board of Directors are entrusted to govern the house and fiscally ensure our future. As a ‘new’ Board we have focussed as well on our own development. With

the assistance of Bryan Herechuk, the Roger’s House team and our community

partners we worked to develop our strategic plan and to refine the vision, mandate and objectives of Roger’s House. Marion Rattray, Dr. Bill

Splinter and Lloyd Cowin have been true leaders, guiding and develop-ing the awesome talents of our team of employees.

Message from the Board

Featured Event: 5th Annual Direct Energy Walk, Roll and Run

The Ottawa Senators Foundation announced that $248,000 was raised today in the fifth annual Direct Energy Walk, Roll and Run for Roger’s House.

The event, which took place at Ottawa’s Brookstreet Resort, saw more than 1,000 participants take part in either the 2-, 5- or 10-kilometre events. Senators players Martin Gerber, Antoine Vermette and Roger’s House honorary chair Mike Fisher took part in the ceremonies and signed autographs for the participants.

“The community continues to show its outstanding support for the legacy of Roger Neilson,” said Ottawa Senators Foundation president Dave Ready. “This year’s event was a tremendous success, setting records for both number of participants and funds raised for Roger’s House.”

Roger's House is the charity of choice of the Ottawa Senators Foundation. Located on

the grounds of the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, Roger's House provides a comprehensive pediatric respite and palliative care program with elements of outreach, residential hospice, pain and symptom

management; grief and bereavement counseling; and research.

Since opening its doors in May 2006, Roger's House has had more than 250 admis-sions. The welcoming home-away-from-home atmosphere comforts children and families who are admitted to the state-of-the-art, eight-bedroom facility, where dedicated professionals and volunteers provide the very best in compassionate care and support.

Roger’s House Board of Directors

Julie Tubman (Chair)

Ray Byrne Erin Crowe

Ruth Hartanto Ian Hendry

Sylvie Lamoureux Tamera Mlakar

Susan Richardson Chad Schella

5th Annual Direct Energy Walk, Roll and Run Raises $248,000 for Roger’s House

It is with great pride that I have seen how the Board and the employees have in such a short time come together to not only care for our children and youth but also to care and support each other. The entire Board of Directors and I look forward to the coming year and all of the upcoming opportunities to learn and develop. Julie Tubman Chair, Board of Directors

WHERE DID THE SUMMER GO? Maybe it is because Roger’s House was so busy this past summer that the sum-mer seemed to go by so quickly. A big thank you goes out to all staff and vol-unteers who handled our high occu-pancy this summer with calm and caring.

There is much to report on related to positive endorsements of our services as well as opportuni-ties to make improvements. I will highlight a few of these.

Earlier this year we received a very positive licensing review from the Ministry of Children and Youth Services. This was very validating to the hard work that went into planning and developing Roger’s House services. The licensing review also provided us with a few areas we could improve upon, which is very helpful.

We also received excellent feedback from many families in our first annual family satisfaction survey. The ratings and comments were overwhelmingly positive. We again learned some things that we can improve on. The feedback

is very helpful and appreciated. Thank you to all families who took the time to com-plete the survey--and to Sarah Humphreys, the RN at Roger’s House who put the survey together. An employee committee is working on prioritizing the areas we can improve upon.

We initiated a mentor-ship program this past spring, with a grant received from the Ministry of Health. Employees of Roger’s House received training and

mentoring from Canuck Place, the Hos-

pice at May Court and the Isaac Walton Killan Hospital. This valuable opportu-nity for our employees, volunteers and some of our partners was successfully led by Lynn Grandmaison Dumond, our Advanced Practice Nurse.

We are working closely with Ron Higgins of the Wren Group to review and improve many of our processes at Roger’s House. Ron’s expertise is extremely valuable and helpful. We expect these initiatives will make our work more effective and efficient.

As we look ahead to 2008, we intend to embark on accreditation with the Hos-pice Association of Ontario (HAO). This is yet another opportunity for us to review our services and processes and improve what we do. Accreditation with the HAO will be evidence to all families that our services are meeting provincial expectations.

A special thanks goes out to Bryan Herechuk who volunteered his time to

clarifying roles and responsi-bilities, enhancing collabora-tive practice and communi-cation between team members, improving program processes, structure and procedures and developing relationships among and between like colleagues to enhance

sharing of clinical experience and research ideas. These goals were derived from the Roger’s House Inter-professional and Inter-organizational Mentoring Needs Assessment as well as the Roger’s House Program Improve-ment and Feedback Survey (fall 2006).

One hundred and seventy-one participants (49 mentors and 118 mentees) attended a total of 12

days of mentoring in 4 locations across Canada. Participants logged in over 1121.5 hours of education and mentoring activities. Participation was interdisciplinary in nature and included professionals from the nursing, medicine, pharmacy and allied health disciplines as well as numerous volunteers.

The satisfaction of partici-pants with the initiative was overwhelmingly positive. Highlights included collaboration, collegiality, team building and validation of shared practices. The educational initiative has also set the stage for future partnerships in pediatric palliative care.

We wish to thank the Hospice at May Court, the Canuck Place Children’s Hospice and the IWK Halifax Pediatric Palliative Care Team for sharing their knowledge, skill and expertise in caring for children with life limiting illnesses and their families with the Roger’s House Pediatric Hospice professional staff, volunteers and partners.

Lynn Grandmaison-Dumond

IN THE SPRING OF 2007 ROGER’S HOUSE, one of only a few pediatric hospices in Canada, partnered with 3 other palliative care agencies from across Canada to establish a mentoring initiative for Roger’s House professional staff, volunteers and community partners. The mentors were asked to share knowledge and skills about caring for children with life limiting illnesses and their families. Roger’s House’s Mentors included the Hospice at May Court (Ottawa), the Canuck Place Children’s Hospice (Vancouver) and the IWK Halifax Pediatric Palliative Care Team. This initia-tive was funded through the Inter-professional Mentorship, Leadership and Coaching (IMPLC) Fund sponsored by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long term Care, Nursing Secretariat.

The goals of the initiative included: enhancing clinical skills of professionals,

ROGER’S HOUSE CHRONICLES - WINTER 2007

IT’S A FACT:

Roger Neilson was head coach for 450 NHL wins!

Message from the Executive Director

edit and publish this newsletter. It is a good example of how volunteers contribute so much to the daily operation of Roger’s House. Thank you Bryan and to all of our dedicated volunteers.

All of us at Roger’s House wish you and your family a restful and happy holiday season and all the best for the New Year.

Lloyd Cowin Executive Director

House News

Mentorship Program

Roger’s House Interdisciplinary and Inter-Organizational Mentorship Program

Hospice at May Court Staff: Susan Smith & Anne Tackaberry

Ali Black (far left) & Volunteer Mentors from Hospice at May Court

Canuck Place Mentoring Team

Roger’s House is proud to welcome thirty-one new graduates of the Pal-liative Care Mandatory Training for volunteers. These volunteers will be

qualified as Family Support Volunteers. This role involves working in the residence with our guests and their families. We are pleased to have so many

qualified individuals and look forward to welcoming them to the care team.

Some highlights:

• At last count, we have 155 active volunteers

• Since September Volunteers from Speaker’s Bureau facilitated 9 events and tours

• Roger’s House hosted two corporate days of volunteering, two separate groups, one came to the home to assist with cataloguing the books in the library and the other prepared meals for the freezer.

• Knitting and sewing volunteers have helped stock our supplies of slippers, quilts and pyjamas

• Floral volunteers have been adding

their magical touch to beautify our home

This is just a short list of the many contributions that volunteers have made to Roger’s House.

A Big Thank You to All! Thanks for being part of the care team.

Lise Beauchemin Coordinator of Volunteer Services 613-523-6300 ext. 605 lbeauchemin@cheo.on.ca

Staff and the Family Advisory Committee will assess the format and questions with plans to conduct the survey yearly.

Roger’s House staff would like to thank the families who responded to the survey. Your input is welcome at any time. We are committed to working in partnership with you to continue to provide the best possible care for your children and youth.

Nora Ullyot

Roger’s House conducted its first family satisfaction survey in July 2007. Surveys were mailed to all families who had stayed at Roger’s House during the first year of opera-tions. We received 22 responses (44 %), which is considered a good response rate.

The overall rating was very positive with an average of 89.5% of fami-lies indicating they were satisfied or very satisfied with the care they received.

A working group of staff has reviewed the results and will make recommendations based on the comments to management and to the Family Advisory Committee.

Message from the Coordinator of Volunteer Services

things. It is unfortunate that there is a need for this service, but at the same time, we feel it is a great honour and privilege to be part of it. As nurses, we know that there is little we can do to stop a life limiting illness or disease, but we can assure that these children and their families have the quality of life and dignity they so deserve. Roger’s House is the place where we can offer that type of care and support.

Our job can certainly be mentally, emotionally and spiritually challenging but we receive never-ending support

from a team of professionals and an amazing group of volunteers. Fami-lies graciously accept and welcome us into their world as we work together to make their journey a little easier. The courage and strength we draw from our families encourages us to grow both personally and professionally. To see a child’s face light up with a smile or to be able to bring comfort to a child in pain or to see parents who were physically and mentally exhausted spending time laughing and playing with their child are our rewards. We gain so much through

When asked what we do for a living the conversation usually comes to an abrupt stop when we say…”I’m a nurse at Roger’s House”. Quite often the responses we hear are “I don’t know how you do that”, or “It must be such a sad place to work”. Truth be told we are not sure how we could not work where we do and although it has its sad moments it is actually a happy place.

There are many things in life that occur which we cannot explain nor justify but have to accept. Pediatric palliative care is one of those

IT’S A FACT:

Roger’s House went from conception to opening it’s doors within 2 years!

Volunteer News

ROGER’S HOUSE CHRONICLES - WINTER 2007

Roger’s House: From A Nurse’s Eyes

Family Satisfaction Survey Family News

our experiences and the lessons these families teach us will last a lifetime.

Regardless of what children are in the house, whether for respite, transition, pain and symptom management or end of life care the rewards are huge. So to answer the question, how do we do it? This is not a job, but a passion, a certain philosophy on life and we are proud to say that we are part of the Roger’s House family. And yes, we do laugh at work.

Megan Sloan & Wendy Gougeon

For fundraising inquiries, please contact: The Ottawa Senators Foundation 1000 Palladium Drive Kanata, ON K2V 1A5 tel: 613-599-0202 fax: 613-599-1471 rogershouse@ottawasenatorsfoundation.com www.ottawasenatorsfoundation.com

Roger's House is the charity of choice for the Ottawa Senators Foundation. As such, the Ottawa Senators Foundation has made a commitment to cover an important portion of the annual operating budget for Roger's House and to help build an endowment fund to provide for its future financial stability and growth.

The Ottawa Senators Foundation handles all of the fundraising/charitable receipting activities of Roger's House and invites you to support them in continued endeavors for Roger's House. Through the Ottawa Senators Foundation you can make a donation or host an event to benefit Roger's House.

Roger’s House Founding Sponsors

ROGER’S HOUSE CHRONICLES - WINTER 2007

SUPPORT CHILDREN AND FAMILIES!

ADDRESS: 399 SMYTH ROAD, OTTAWA, ON K1H 8L2

PHONE: 613-523-6300 EXT 600

FAX: 613-523-3617

EMAIL: OLEYNIK@CHEO.ON.CA

WEBSITE: WWW.ROGERSHOUSE.CA

Upcoming Events: BELL / SENS SOIRÉE Hilton Lac-Leamy

FEBRUARY 20, 2008

TELETHON FOR ROGER’S HOUSE Roger’s Sportsnet FEBRUARY 25, 2008

Family News

• advise staff and volunteers through the Board

• be a ‘voice’ for other families, ensuring that all families receive support and care that meet their needs; are in line with Roger’s House vision, mission and value statements; and respect different cultural beliefs and customs

• ensure that the perspective of guests and siblings are considered when key decisions are made by the Board and staff

• participate in networking with other groups such as CHEO, CFAN (Canadian Family Advisory Network) and OCTC

The FAC will provide advice on a number of topics and will be involved

We are pleased to announce the forma-tion of the Roger’s House FAMILY ADVISORY COMMITTEE. The FAC will have an important role to play in advising the Board of Directors on those issues that have a direct impact on the family-centered care provided at Roger’s House.

The FAC will include two board members, 6 family representatives including one youth, and one represen-tative from both the CHEO palliative care team and the nursing staff.

The FAC will:

• act as the liaison between the Board and families

with many initiatives such as family surveys; family handbook; and participating in learning sessions for new staff and medi-cal residents.

We hope to encourage other Roger’s House families to participate in short term, ad hoc projects when needed.

Family Advisory Committee