Inside the Circle – April 12, 2022

On Friday, Circle of Care received a call from a man named Kent, who had been referred to us by the Red Cross. Debra McLellan contacted Lisa Rae, explaining that Kent had mental health issues, and said he had no money for food, and also hadn’t eaten for the last ‘few days’.

Kent had no family and no contacts, except a mental health worker who works part-time. Debra called his worker but she was away. The team ended up coordinating emergency meals for him. Lisa emailed Jennifer van der Wath and Doug Elliott to see if they could arrange an iRIDE driver to pick up meals from the office and deliver to the client for the weekend. Jennifer went back and spoke with Doug who immediately organized three Emergency Meal Bags (6 meals) and contacted iRIDE, who had a driver at the office to pick up the meals by 3:45pm.

“Within one hour, all of this was organized and pulled together to get the meals to this client in need!” said Jennifer. “What an awesome team effort exemplifying Circle of Care’s values of excellence and collaboration!”

April 16 is Advance Care Planning Day. On this day, Canadians are encouraged to talk with their loved ones about would be most important to you in a health care emergency.

Click the button below for more information and for quizzes such as ‘How Well Do you Know Me?’

Congratulations to this week’s Champions of Care nominees:

• “I’m a client of Janet Chippin and I would like to provide some positive feedback about Janet. I lost my father in 2015 (he passed away due to cancer) and was having a tremendously hard time dealing with the loss ever since. I sought help from multiple sources including therapies, but nothing helped and I felt hopeless. I heard about the grief program from my husband and finally decided to give it a shot. That’s how I got connected with Janet. Janet is very knowledgeable and, most importantly, is very compassionate. She understands what I’m going through and after each session, I just felt lighter and the pain deep in my heart just got a little bit less painful each time. Ever since I started talking with Janet, I finally started to see a little glimpse of hope and I believe there will be a way I could find a way to finally cope with grief eventually, to make it less rehabilitating, and probably I could have some joy in life again one day. I have to thank Janet for that. It was her compassion, her approach and her love that gave me the strength and hope.” – Client
• “I am writing to express my appreciation for Maria Valle Perez’s amazing work at Rekai Transitional Care Unit. I am glad that we had Maria as a team member to assist Rekai TCU patients. Maria was always available to advocate and provide all kinds of support to Rekai patients and other staff in a timely and generous manner. She always supported patients during their stay in Rekai TCU and during their transition to the community. Maria always made sure the patients would have a safe and healthy place to stay after being discharged. She made the patients feel safe and comfortable by advocating for OT home safety assessment, meal arrangements, transportation arrangements and all other necessary arrangements before going home or back to the community. Maria went above and beyond to assist TCU staff in managing with complex/challenging clients’ situations. She also played an instrumental role with the clients’ transitions during the closure of the unit. It was really a great pleasure to work with Maria.” – Chet Bhatt, Rekai TCU Clinical Manager

To ensure we continue to foster inclusivity, we’re sharing with you a Speaker Series hosted by Sinai Health. Dr. Ajay Parasram speaks about what structural white supremacy is, how it’s been normalized and woven into Canadian public institutions, and its impacts on perpetuating Islamophobia throughout society.

Date: Tuesday, April 12th
Time: 12pm

Are you looking to improve your financial knowledge? McGill University has a free online course that covers the following: an intro to personal finance, budgeting and saving, understanding debt, the art of investing, behavioural finance, and more.

By the end of the course, you will receive a ‘Personal Finance Essentials’ attestation. For more information and to register, click the link below!