Working Groups

CYHNEO activities are carried out through Working Groups.

For publications and documents that the Working Groups have produced, please visit the Publications section.

Guidelines for Working Groups

All working groups and projects MUST:

be inclusive and participatory
have cross-sectoral partners
incorporate evaluation and broad application of projects
reflect principles of health promotion and illness prevention
contribute to the integration of services and continuum of care
help identify and create opportunities for innovative and needed action

Current Working Groups

Engaging Community in Early Dental Health Promotion

Healthy teeth are a part of healthy development for children 0 to 6. Recognizing the importance of baby teeth and good dental habits, the Engaging Community in Early Dental Health Promotion working group has been formed to explore the development of an early childhood dental health promotion workshop targeted at professionals working with young children and families.

This practical, interactive workshop aims to engage those working with young children and their families in incorporating dental health promotion strategies into their current work. The workshop will complement existing community initiatives and activities to give participants the knowledge, skills and resources to help parents prevent early childhood tooth decay.

Mental Health
This group strives to develop a strong voice for Eastern Ontario on a range of issues critical to child and youth mental health, as well as to develop innovative responses to issues as they arise.

Partners for Paediatric Professional Development in Eastern Ontario (P3DEO)
The P3DEO Working Group builds on the collaboration base established through the past working group Rural Outreach among allied health professionals at Community Care Access Centres, the Ottawa Children's Treament Centre and CHEO.

P3DEO strives to foster and promote opportunities for professional development through continuing education and coordination. Since 2002, the group has sponsored annual education events for allied health care providers, including a regional planning forum (2002), a 2003 session on best practices and knowledge transfer and a 2004 event on integration of regional paediatric services.

The working group works towards building relationships and networking opportunities throughout the region. Core activities to promote this are through the Directory of Allied Health Professionals in Eastern Ontario - a professional "phonebook" of discipline specific key contacts for service providers, and the P3DEO Bulletin - a one-page update on local activities and suggested links for allied health professionals.

Ottawa Child Housing Advocacy Initiative (OCHAI)
The Ottawa Child/Youth Housing Advocacy Initiative (OCHAI) is a partnership between researchers and clinicians from the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO), housing organizations and child and youth focused community groups. OCHAI aims to better understand the housing needs of children, youth and families, as well as the factors that influence housing status.

OCHAI has hosted two Housing and Child/Youth Health symposiums and is set the launch the Housing and Health for Children and Youth toolbox. For more details, please contact ochai@magma.ca / (613) 737-7600 ext 3134.

Social Determinants of Health
Chair: Mehroon Kassam
This long-standing group works to develop a strong cross-sectoral voice for Eastern Ontario on issues involving social determinants of health and their impact on children and youth. Previous work of the group includes focus on poverty and housing.

The SDoH Working Group launched the Workbook on Child Health and Poverty in 2006. Child Poverty Workbooks for each of the five regions in Eastern Ontario. These workbooks are an update of the 2000 Poverty Report Cards.

Past Working Groups and Partnership Projects

Affiliation Agreement Partners
Focus: Build close collaborations between CHEO and the region's 17 community and rural hospitals.

Accomplishments and Activities: The partners successfully concluded their Affiliation Agreement in January 1999, allowing community and rural hospitals to share specific resources and more easily consult with CHEO specialists -- among many other advantages. For example, rural hospitals can now purchase specialized paediatric supplies through CHEO, share data on care utilization, share educational and library resources, and join forces for effective advocacy on child health issues. And this groundbreaking agreement was just the beginning: the partnership subsequently secured a grant of $3.2 million from the Canada Health Infrastructure Partnerships Program, leading to the establishment of the Eastern Ontario Telehealth Network. The partnership still meets at least once a year to deal with ongoing issues, including coordination of medical consultations and meetings, advocacy, health education, services and planning.

Consultation on Mental Health Services Restructuring
Our Network was invited to coordinate the region-wide consultation process for the proposed restructuring of specialized psychiatric and mental health services for children and youth in Eastern Ontario.

Health Reform
The Network submitted a brief in response to the Romanow Commission, making a strong argument for protection, expansion and integration of services to children and youth. It also coordinated a panel discussion on health reform and service integration. For a copy of the report, see Romanow.

Holistic Healing
This group organized a workshop on traditional, alternative and complementary healing methods. Held June 2004 at the Odawa Friendship Centre in Ottawa, it featured an overview of concepts and available services from practitioners in Eastern Ontario.

Middle Childhood Matters: A Framework to Promote the Healthy Development of Children 6 to 12
The Middle Childhood Matters Group was the result of a collaboration between the Network and United Way Ottawa. This time-limited group developed a research-based assets framework useful for anyone interested in promoting the healthy development of children age 6 to 12.

Grounded in evidence-based research, including the Search Institute's developmental assets framework (www.search-institute.org), the framework focuses on four key elements and some of their influencing factors that enhance and contribute to children's overall health and well-being.

NCB Reinvestment Sub-committee
This sub-committee of the SDoH Working Group aimed to maintain the funding and sustain the programs from the NCB Reinvestment program. The group collected program and funding data from across the region and assessed the impact the loss of funding would have on local communities. An education and campaign package was developed for communities to use to advocate for maintaining the NCB reinvestment programs. For more information please contact networkinfo@magma.ca or (613) 737-7600, Ext 3134.

Kahswentha
Network contacts facilitated establishment of an agreement (Kahswentha) between CHEO, the Royal Ottawa Hospital (ROH) and the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne, regarding the integration of traditional healing methods into the treatment of children and youth with mental health issues. Kahswentha ("two rows") refers to the traditional parallel rows on a wampum belt which signified that agreement had been reached between equals.

Through the agreement, both CHEO and ROH formally acknowledge respect for traditional Aboriginal healing practices, and affirm that hospital caregivers will recognize the importance of such practices and interface - but not interfere - with Aboriginal practitioners.

Mind Masters: Positive Living Skills for Children
Focus: Providing research-based skills for positive living to children, including those with physical and behavioral challenges.

This project was an outgrowth of a pilot study conducted among children with cancer, which successfully used a variety of research-based "let's-pretend" strategies to help them cope with the fear and pain associated with treatment. Response from both children and their parents was phenomenal, and it was clear that the techniques could help children in a variety of challenging situations.

Subsequently, the Working Group was awarded a $170,000 Trillium grant to expand the project for children all over Eastern and Northern Ontario. The result was MindMasters, a resource kit for use by parents and professionals that includes information, activities, worksheets, and a companion CD. Since then, more than a thousand regional service providers in health, social services, education and recreation have been trained in the MindMasters method.

Mini MindMasters, a program for children under 6 years, is also available.

Oral Health Working Group
Through a diverse membership of public and private dentists, dental hygienists, public health nurses, speech and language experts and interested individuals, this working group strived to develop, implement and evaluate innovative and effective approaches to the promotion of oral health and the prevention of dental problems in children and youth across Eastern Ontario.

Parent Support and Education
In partnership with the Hamilton Health Sciences Centre, the Network obtained a provincial Challenge Fund grant to provide train-the-trainer workshops in effective parenting, and to develop the Parent Support Zone catalogue listing general resources for families in Eastern Ontario.

Partnership for Francophone Mental Health
Through the Network, a Partnership Agreement was negotiated between CHEO's Mental Health Services and Hospital Montfort in Ottawa, the region's major francophone health care facility.

Reading Readiness
Focus: Reading readiness by age 5 is a known indicator of school success. Since school failure is a known factor in mental health problems, promoting early intervention is an effective preventive measure.

This group offered a number of educational events for parents and service providers to promote the importance of reading readiness for school success, and the role of phonemic awareness as a method to teach reading.

Respite
Focus: As the group began to examine the situation of children needing long-term care, it became clear that respite for caregivers was one of the most urgent priorities. Specifically, parents needed to know that seeking appropriate respite is a legitimate part of effectively caring for their child, and they needed to know more about the options available.

Accomplishments and Activities: The group researched and produced a web-based resource for parents and families needing respite in order to combine the care of their children with special needs with the responsibility of taking care of themselves. The resource includes a wealth of information on issues related to respite, offers guidance in planning and applying for respite programs, and contains an annotated directory of respite providers and funding sources in Eastern Ontario.

Rural Outreach
Focus: Strengthening the capacity of Eastern Ontario communities to care for children and youth with special needs.

This Working Group has a long list of achievements, including:

Modeling a sustainable approach to outreach clinics. This began with the effort to make life a little easier for rural children in wheelchairs, who often had to travel to Ottawa several times a year for specialized equipment adjustments during their growing years. CHEO, OCTC, local CCACs and service providers all collaborated in organizing regular traveling clinics for seating mobility.
Holding a series of workshops on autism for parents and primary caregivers in rural areas, so that rural children can reap the benefits of the new emphasis on early intervention.
Strengthening the capacity of allied health professionals in the counties to respond to a range of paediatric needs through increased linkages between OCTC and CHEO and the region's 4 CCACs, including workshops, case conferencing; sharing information and education events. This activity led directly to formation of the new Working Group, P3DEO.
Expanding the directory of caregiver respite resources prepared by the Working Group on Community Support for Long-Term Care Needs, making it truly regional.
Addressing concerns about the safe transportation of children and youth with special needs, leading to formation of the Safe Transportation Initiative.

Safe Transportation for School Children with Special Needs
An offshoot of the Rural Development Working Group, this group was formed to address the need for safe transportation to and from school for children and youth with special needs. It consulted parents and bus drivers, raised awareness, developed and implemented train-the-trainer workshops, and built strong working partnerships with the Upper Canada District School Board and the Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario.

These seeds have now blossomed into a true self-sustaining community collaboration. Some 200 bus drivers representing transportation company in the Eastern region have attended workshops, and are now actively training their peers.

In addition, community leaders with expertise in specific areas have been identified and recruited to offer special workshops (e.g. behavioural challenges, autism wheelchair safety, ambulatory care). The program has now been adopted and adapted by CHEO's Autism Spectrum Disorder School Support Program.