Creating a compassionate workplace
By Compassionate Ottawa, published in the Ottawa Business Journal on October 12, 2020. “This pandemic has affected everyone. Every aspect of our life seems to have been disrupted. The workplace is a key area in which significant changes have occurred and will continue to evolve. For many, home has become the principal place of work…
Read MoreWe’re All in this Together: Community Health Centre Staff Reflections during the Pandemic
SEOCHC Staff celebrating National Nursing Week, May 10-16, 2020 Written by Ann Gallant, HELP Ottawa Advisory Council member and Community Health Worker at South-East Ottawa Community Health Centre (SEOCHC) When I first heard about the Healthy End of Life Project (HELP) Ottawa in October 2019, I felt strongly that with a focus on the development…
Read MoreBridging the Gap: Compassionate communities are essential for care
by Dr. Nick Busing, via healthydebate.ca “COVID-19 has highlighted the need for all of us to live in a compassionate community. The pandemic has been devastating for so many individuals and their families. There have been tragic losses despite the heroics of our healthcare workers and other essential staff. Too many of these losses have…
Read MorePARLER DE LA MORT… EN FRANÇAIS
OTTAWA – Emmené par une quinzaine de bénévoles, l’organisme Compassion Ottawa tente de rendre ses services accessibles en français afin de « changer la culture entourant la mort » dans la communauté franco-ontarienne. « On a un malaise à parler de la mort. On n’hésite jamais à parler de la naissance, mais ceux qui abordent…
Read MoreHELP Ottawa: Faith Communities and the COVID-19 Pandemic
Banner hanging at Orleans United Church Written by Colleen Mayo-Pankhurst In early 2020, a new term entered the international lexicon: COVID-19. By March 15, many public spaces in Ontario, including places of worship and schools, were ordered to close and residents were asked to do something called “social distancing”. There was a run on toilet…
Read MoreWong: ‘Death-ed’ – Learning about end-of-life issues must be a lasting legacy of COVID-19
Photo by US NAVY via Reuters. Article by Dr. Michael Wong via the Ottawa Citizen. “As we look towards the future, what will be the legacy of COVID-19? Experience has always been our teacher. We learned to make vaccines from smallpox. We learned first-hand the importance of personal protective equipment from SARS. We learned to…
Read MoreMacDonald and Busing: Let’s work on caring for Canada’s millions of caregivers
PHOTO BY YVES HERMAN / REUTERS by Jane MacDonald and Nick Busing “It’s hard for us to be isolated from family, friends, sports, physical activity, choirs … we are all suffering and dealing with this crisis in different ways. Imagine if you were also a caregiver for a family member or friend. A family/friend caregiver is…
Read MoreWill The Pandemic Finally Make Us Talk About Palliative Care?
By Zi-Ann Lum “OTTAWA — In the thick of the pandemic, Dr. Paul Hacker drafted a palliative care plan to manage a patient’s physical and emotional pain that his grandchildren were going to forget about him after he was gone. The man was dying from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis — more commonly known as ALS or ‘Lou…
Read MoreOpinion: COVID-19 should be a wake-up call for seniors. After the pandemic, it’s time for planning
Photo by Christinne Muschi/Reuters. Article by Sandra Martin. “Back in the naïve days of early March, I bristled when the adult children of a widowed friend threatened to pack her off to the countryside to wait out the pestilence. I could feel the generational tectonic plates shifting in favour of a cohort of kids whose…
Read More‘I Cried Multiple Times’: Now Doctors Are the Ones Saying Goodbye
Photo by Gabriela Bhaskar for The New York Times. Article by Joseph Goldstein and Benjamin Weiser “The elderly coronavirus patient arrived at the Manhattan hospital extremely sick and rapidly deteriorating. Dr. Marissa Nadeau, an emergency medicine physician on the night shift, had little time to ascertain his wishes. “The patient, gasping for breath but alert, made it clear he…
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