Adrian Polidano

What is it like volunteering at Grandview Kids?

Read Grandview Kids Volunteer Taaha’s experience below.

A graphic image of Taaha beside a quote he shares in the article.

What is it about volunteering at Grandview Kids that appeals to you personally?

To me, the most appealing aspect of Grandview Kids is how dedicated everyone is to providing compassionate family-centred care. Volunteering at Grandview Kids allows me to be a part of providing such care to an exceptional group of clients in our community. In addition, volunteering at Grandview Kids has allowed me to work with a fantastic group of clinicians who are always willing to answer questions I may have regarding their specialty.

How has volunteer work had an impact on your life?

Volunteering at Grandview Kids has made a huge impact on my life. I have been able to learn so many different skills while volunteering. My communication skills with children and their parents have improved significantly – you can read all you want about communication skills, but until you apply them you’ll never develop those skills. I have learned so much about prioritizing especially when there is a rush of clients and their families coming in through the door. Lastly, volunteering at Grandview Kids has also helped me understand the importance of establishing and advocating for more pediatric care centres. Facilities such as Grandview Kids are necessary if we want to help children reach their potential.

What has your favourite event or volunteer assignment been with Grandview Kids and why?

I truly enjoyed volunteering at the Covid-19 vaccine clinic organized by Grandview Kids. Helping children overcome their fear of needles was extremely rewarding.

What do you like to do when you are not volunteering?

I recently learned how to swim, so anytime I’m not volunteering or busy with school you can find me at the pool.

Grandview Kids joins a community in mourning following the loss of Draven Graham.

Draven Graham was a young boy with Autism who tragically passed away early this week in Lindsay, Ontario. Grandview Kids extends our deepest condolences to Draven’s family and friends during this difficult time. Many of us within the Durham, Lindsay and Autism communities remain shaken by this tragedy.

Traumatic events can impact those directly or indirectly involved. It is natural to experience all kinds of emotions, from shock or sadness to anger or fearfulness. You may also experience physical or behavioural responses such as changes to your sleep or eating patterns, forgetfulness, increased vigilance, withdrawal or irritability. These reactions are all part of the grief experienced when we suffer a loss.

Here are some things to consider:

Reach out to friends and family. Let them know what would be helpful during this difficult time.
Be kind to yourself and be aware of your feelings. Try not to judge and be patient. Time will often ease the intensity of your reactions.
Reduce other stressors when possible and try to engage in a relaxing activity, like a hobby, exercise or leisure activity.
Look after your physical health. Maintain good sleep, eating and exercise habits.
Focus on what you can control in your life and engage in routine activities.
Express your feelings tangibly or creatively by writing in a journal, doing an art activity, or volunteering for a cause.
If your reactions are intense and enduring, talk to your doctor or connect with a mental health professional.

There are many professional services that you and your family can access:

Distress Centre Durham: 905-430-2522
Durham Mental Health Services Crisis Response: 905-666-0483
Bereaved Families of Ontario Durham Region: 1-800-387-4870
Durham Counselling Walk-in Clinic (ages three to 19 years): 289-509-0603 extension 3203
Kids Help Phone (ages five to 20 years): 1-800-668-6868

Grandview parents and caregivers can lean on each other by accessing the Online Parent Support page through Facebook. Families currently accessing Grandview Kids Social Work services can reach out to their clinician for advice and insight.

Tragedies such as this bring our community closer together. Connect with one another and know there are many professionals and peers ready to support you.

CEO Blog May 2022

Kids and youth with disabilities and their families have been disproportionately and negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

As a member of Empowered Kids Ontario, Grandview Kids raises our voice along with other children’s health organizations making up the Children’s Health Coalition including CHEO, Children’s Hospital – London Health Sciences Centre, Children’s Mental Health Ontario, Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, Kids Health Alliance, McMaster Children’s Hospital and SickKids.

The Children’s Health Coalition is asking all parties in Election 22 for a bold commitment over the four-year term of the next government ensuring that Ontario will make kids count.

Today in Ontario, one in three kids receives community-based rehabilitation services within the clinical standard of 90 days from referral to service: the majority wait almost three years to access care.

Kids are more than 50 percent more likely to wait beyond the clinical standard of care compared to adults. More than 30,000 Ontario kids are waiting for community-based rehabilitation and specialty clinic service. In the Durham Region, this translates to 5,614 kids waiting for community-based services at Grandview Kids.

In Ontario, more than 50,000 Ontario students are waiting for School-Based Rehabilitation Services. In the Durham Region, this translates to 6,080 students waiting across all seven School Boards serving the Durham Region.

Many families that required minimal support prior to the pandemic now require more intensive support to regain what has been lost. This will create greater pressure on a system in which children are already waiting years to access care.

Kids with disabilities and those recovering from illness or injury are at risk of significant long-term health problems because critical early intervention windows are being missed.

A system approach for children is essential for Ontario’s paediatric recovery. This must include investment in community-based care.

Kids who are not meeting developmental milestones, kids with disabilities, kids with neurodisabilities and kids recovering from illness and injury need timely access to leading clinic care and support programs close to home.

Investment by the Provincial government is critical to ensure that the children’s health care system manages pressures which significantly intensified during the pandemic.

The nature of children’s health care is interconnected. Changes and pressures in one area have profound impacts throughout the system.

We ask all parties to commit to the following:

Adopt and commit to a bold 1 billion dollar Make Kids Count investment across all child health sectors so Ontario can address urgent needs and bring children’s healthcare to the same level of attention as the adult system.
Convene a children’s health care summit with government and children’s health care organization to agree on principles for a long-term children’s health strategy.
Release the Province’s first ever children’s health care strategy and further build Ontario’s health care capacity.

Continued support for children with autism

Every child with autism has individual requirements. A needs-based approach is appropriate. Both the Ontario Autism Program (OAP) Advisory Committee’s and the Implementation Committee’s recommendations are based on this principle. There is broad agreement and support for this.

Grandview Kids wants to deliver on a needs-based program. Along with others in Ontario, we want to continually improve access and delivery for all of our services including the OAP.

It makes sense that public providers are funded to deliver elements of the OAP as these programs offer valuable supports with proven benefits for kids and their families, many of whom are already receiving care in our system.

The 50,000 kids waiting and the growing waitlist for OAP services must be addressed by the Provincial government.

Learn more

Read more about the Children’s Health Coalition’s calling to candidates and Party leaders to #MakeKidsCount by visiting the Empowered Kids Ontario webpage.

Review the Make Kids Count action plan and watch the Children’s Health Coalition Make Kids Count Media event on YouTube.

Reflecting on the first anniversary of the Durham Region Paediatric Complex Care Program

In May 2021, Grandview Kids opened its doors to children and youth with medical complexity with the launch of the Durham Region Paediatric Complex Care Program. On our first anniversary, members of the multi-disciplinary team share their reflections on how this program supports local children and youth with complex medical needs and their caregivers.

Members of the Complex Care Program multi-disciplinary team posing with Zoe–the first child to access care through the program.

What makes the Complex Care Program so impactful for children, youth and families?

Samantha Haigh, Registered Nurse and Child and Complex Young Adult Care Coordinator with the Central East Home and Community Care Support Services said:

“The integrated, team approach to care is what is most impactful for those accessing care through the clinic. The collaborative engagement between families and health professionals from The Hospital for Sick Children, Grandview Kids, and Central East Home and Community Care Support Services help families to access appropriate services closer to home, improve system efficiency, improve shared decision-making and problem solving, optimize their child’s health, and navigate the health and social systems. Families are able to communicate their most important needs and concerns to the entire team at the clinic visit. This saves families time and energy by ensuring that all members of the health care team are aware of the current care plan. I strongly believe that participation in the Complex Care Program provides families with a sense of trust, support, and confidence as well as an opportunity for self-advocacy.”

A unique feature of the Program is the inclusion of a Peer Navigator. What benefit does this bring to families?

Christine Huang, Speech-Language Pathologist with Grandview Kids reflects:

“It is wonderful and unique that the Complex Care Clinic includes a Peer Navigator, a person with lived experience, who reaches out to families before every visit. Families have an opportunity on that phone call to share updates and concerns, peer to peer, and ask questions.

It could be potentially overwhelming and intimidating to be in a room full of professionals on their clinic visit, so it is great that the family has someone who can be an advocate for them in that room.”

How would you describe the Program to someone who hasn’t heard of it before?

Heather-Ann Burrell, Registered Dietitian with Grandview Kids states:

“Complex care is an opportunity for families and clients to see multiple members of their healthcare team in one appointment. With the various interdisciplinary roles in the same room, families can voice their main priorities for their child and the team can work together in unison to address these priorities.”

Courtney Brazier, Recreation Therapist with Grandview Kids continues:

“The Complex Care Program is an all-inclusive clinic where clients, families and caregivers are able to connect with a comprehensive interdisciplinary team to receive coordinated, quality care. One’s interdisciplinary team may include a Paediatrician, Nurse Practitioner, Dietician, Social Worker, Care Coordinator and Family Engagement Program Assistant, Physiotherapist, Occupational Therapist, Speech-Language Pathologist and Recreation Therapist.”

What is something you learned since the Complex Care Program launched one year ago?

Mandy Doherty, a Social Worker with Grandview Kids shared:

“The education I receive from working with families is never-ending. It is truly a privilege to work with them. They have taught me there are no boundaries to love, humour and strength. I have learned that each family is unique and therefore, the care required is unique.

It’s also wonderful to work with the multi-disciplinary team at the clinic. My knowledge base benefits from their respective roles and what they bring to the clinic.”

Members of the Complex Care Program multi-disciplinary team on the day the program launched one year ago on May 5, 2021. — Members of the Complex Care Program multi-disciplinary team.

A note of thanks

It has taken a village of dedicated individuals to build this Program. Grandview Kids would like to extend its deepest appreciation to the members of the launch team, our supportive stakeholders, and our current team delivering high-quality, coordinated care to children and youth.

Project launch team members

Thank you to the members of the project launch team who worked behind the scenes to move the Program from idea to action.

Grandview Kids: Lorraine Sunstrum-Mann, Janet Isaac, Cathy Kelly, Fadia Omer, Dr. Carolyn Hunt, Tisha Harris, Janet Isaac, Dr. Helen Wong, Dr. Tanya Buors, Marianna Wise, Andrea Belanger, Cherie Kerr, Jessica Todd, Sandie Le, Mandy Doherty, Kirsten White, Jackie Down, Christine Daley, Krista Witherspoon, Avori Cheyne, Dr. Taryn Eickmeier, Harry Deeg, Courtney Brazier, Kate Gauldie, Abby Siapno, Maritza Basaran, and Kelly O’Connor.

The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids): Dr. Julie Johnstone, Dr. Julia Orkin, Joanna Soscia, Kate Langrish, Katharine Williams, Jason Buera

Lakeridge Health: Julie Rojas, Dr. Joan Abohwheyere

Central East Home and Community Care Support Services: Tracey Raymore, Laszlo Cifra, Nousha Naweed, Kim Grieg

Strategy Systems: Priya Rana

Kayden is a strong-willed, 16-year-old teenage girl that will tell you what she wants and how.

Even with her few words, her strong personality and love for her family is a clear imitation of her super vigilant and proactive mom. With a diagnosis of Cardiofaciocutaneous (CFC) Syndrome, an epilepsy disorder and a global developmental disorder, Kayden is fully dependent on family members in all aspects of life. She requires help with eating, toileting, dressing and personal hygiene. She uses a walker and wheelchair due to difficulty in balancing herself, is G-tube fed and uses a tablet for most of her communication, only recently beginning to speak a number of words.

Kayden sitting in-between her two siblings while kissing her sister to the right of her on the cheeck. — Pictured: Kayden and her siblings.

Kayden’s complex health needs require immense attention and care. From the endless appointments between specialists and therapies to coordinating the care and information between her medical teams in Toronto and the Durham Region community, Kayden’s family can feel the enhanced stress that comes on top of the daily care she needs. When Grandview’s Complex Care Program began a year ago, this Ajax family found that this was the extra community care and support they had been needing all along.

Kayden sitting beside her mother, father, siblings and dog on the couch. — Pictured: Kayden and her family.

Kayden has been receiving a number of Grandview services over the years but with the Durham Region Complex Care Program, children and youth with complex medical needs, like Kayden, are now supported closer to home. This program is delivered in partnership between The Hospital for Sick Children (Sick Kids), Grandview Kids, Lakeridge Health, and the Central East Home and Community Care Support Services. Though Kayden will still have to go to Sick Kids for some clinic-specific supports, such as neurology and nephrology, many services that would normally mean a full-day trip from Ajax to Toronto are now accessible at Grandview Kids. The Complex Care Program has also “helped in bridging the gap between Sick Kids and the community,” says Kayden’s mom.

“Normally I would coordinate with the hospital and home and community care, but now since they are all available at the appointments, my worries and extra efforts are completely gone. They do the work while I sit and focus on Kayden’s health issues only.”
Kaydem’s mom

Clients and caregivers benefit from the care, support and expertise of an interprofessional team, inclusive of a Paediatrician, Nurse Practitioner, Care Coordinator and Family Engagement Peer Navigator. This allows Kayden’s family to remain focused on her well-being, while Kayden’s dream “to be loved by everyone” is fulfilled.