2018 has been a jam-packed year for VHA’s research team both at home, throughout Canada and in the United States.

Congratulations to Dr. Sandra McKay, Director of Research at VHA, who was appointed to the Workplace Violence Prevention in Health Care Research and Development Team, established by the Ministry of Labour and Ministry of Health and Long-term Care.

Curiosity Carnivals held in Toronto provided our staff with games, lots of giveaways, yummy food and tons of learning opportunities about VHA research to take in. Our modified version of the carnival at the Health Shared Services Ontario (HSSO) conference in June earned rave reviews from our Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) colleagues and competitors. Thanks to all who dropped by our booth—we want to know what your partners/colleagues said about the accuracy of our handwriting analyst!

Stacey Ryan, Client and Family Voice Liaison, and Sonia Nizzer, Research Associate at VHA (seen on the right), twice brought a poster display and presented on The Little Things: Exploring perceptions and experiences of client and family-centred care through PhotoVoice (PhotoVoice). They first presented at the Beryl Institute Patient Experience Conference in Chicago, IL. in April and then at HSSO’s Achieving Excellence Together Conference in Toronto in June. VHA held an exhibition featuring the photographs of PhotoVoice at our Heart of Home Care Awards event, which celebrates unpaid family caregivers, in early April. This exhibit allowed the public to view some of the outstanding photos taken by VHA clients.

Dr. Sandra McKay participated in a panel at the Scoping Review of Older Person’s Living with Multiple Chronic Conditions Symposium on May 22, 2018 in Toronto. Researchers from University of Toronto Nursing and Toronto Rehab Institute hosted the event.

Arlinda Ruco, a doctoral student at VHA, presents on VHA’s Research Fellowship Program collaboration October 17, 2018 at the Health Quality Transformation conference hosted by Health Quality Ontario in Toronto.

The subject is Building Research Capacity in the Community Healthcare Sector: Learnings from a first year collaborative research Fellowship program.

Brydne Edwards will present a poster on her Research Fellowship Quality Improvement project Addressing Physical Activity with Seniors in the Community with Cognitive Impairment in Vancouver from October 18-20, 2018 at the Canadian Association of Gerontology conference.

This year’s theme is Making it Matter: Mobilizing Aging Research, Practice & Policy.

Dr. Sandra McKay is looking forward to joining Brynde in in Vancouver to present Virtual Calm: VR in the home to decrease dementia distress at the same conference.