B01-1 Enhancing Perinatal Bereavement Care in Ontario: Results of a Provincial Needs Assessment

 

Author: Michelle La Fontaine, B.A.A., CLStDipl.

 

Purpose: Each year in Ontario approximately 37,000 families experience pregnancy and infant loss. Within the healthcare system, many of these families do not receive timely, compassionate, and informed care. This presentation will highlight a provincial needs assessment undertaken between January and March 2017. Over the course of three months, in-person focus groups were held in 14 rural, urban, and First Nations communities with bereaved families and care providers. An online survey for bereaved families also ran concurrently. This session will describe the findings from the focus groups and online survey, and will engage and stimulate participants’ thinking about possible innovative ways to address existing gaps in care in their own settings to advance the care of families who experience perinatal bereavement. The session will also highlight advocacy work undertaken by nurses and a peer support organization during the passing of provincial legislation aimed at protecting the needs of families experiencing perinatal loss, the first of its kind in North America.

 

Learning Objectives:

• Gain greater knowledge about the unique care needs of this population.
• Describe the process of implementing a provincial needs assessment and the results of same.
• Share adaptable innovative strategies for implementing family-centred supports for this population.

Presenter: Michelle La Fontaine, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto ON

 

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B01-2 Adding the "First Voice": The Inclusion of Community Members on Maternal Child Health Research Teams

 

Authors: Claire Gallant, Mother, MMus, HonBMus; Erna Snelgrove-Clarke, RN, PhD; Cynthia Mann, RN, MHA, MN, IBCLC

 

Purpose: The purpose of the presentation is to discuss the innovative approach of adding community members to interdisciplinary research teams in maternal child health, including the benefits and challenges of this initiative.

 

Learning Objectives:

• Describe the potential roles community members can play on research teams.
• Become familiar with tools that can be implemented when including and supporting community members/non health care providers in both clinical and research initiatives.
• Understand how clinical outcomes, most specifically breastfeeding outcomes, can be improved through the inclusion of mothers and community members in the research process.

Presenters: Claire Gallant and Cynthia Mann, IWK Health Centre, Halifax NS