The Patient Family Caregiver Council [PFCC] will form a Committee to work in partnership with the Nipissing Wellness Ontario Health Team. Our goal is to help ensure local priorities and health system issues are addressed collaboratively with patients and their families.
Key Roles of the PFCC:
- Identify and advise on opportunities to incorporate the patient’s perspective in initiatives to better integrate care across the area.
- Provide advice on recommendations about health care access or service delivery improvements from the patient and/or family caregiver perspective.
- Recommend strategies and practical ideas for improving patient care and caregiver recognition and support.
- Support effective patient engagement across the area.
The Committee of 10+ members will be selected for both skills and diversity. We will assemble an effective group that reflects the area’s population in: age, geographic distribution, cultural diversity, socioeconomic status and experience with the health system.
The PFCC, formally Patient and Family Advisory Committee with the Ontario Health Team, will continue to recruit citizens with lived experience. Members of this Patient Family Caregiver Council will help co-design a new model of health system integration with enhanced programs and service delivery.
Meet Our Members
Mary Schaefer (Co-Chair)
Mary began her nursing career at Hotel Dieu Hospital in Cornwall, Ontario. She brings a valuable breadth of experience, having worked in the orthopaedics, surgical, intensive care and emergency departments. She moved to Sturgeon Falls and worked at the West Nipissing General Hospital for 10 years, working in medicine, chronic care and coronary care. Sturgeon Falls is also where she married her husband, Paul.
Her next career step was with the Community Care Access Center (CCAC) for over 25 years, including as a Community Case Manager (CCAC): 1992-2007 and Manager Client Services Community 2007-2013.
She then became a Disability Management Consultant for Banyan Work Health Solutions, utilizing her strong interpersonal skills to work with diverse client groups with varying levels of comprehension and language capability. Mary also developed a good understanding of working with Government agencies, (WSIB, Veterans Affairs Canada, CCAC and Insurance Companies), medical professionals, lawyers, insurance representatives, employers, social service and community workers.
Mary’s had a number of personal experiences of the health care system for herself and her family – some positive, some not. She looks forward to working with the team to improve the multi-faceted health care systems in our community.
Blanche-Hélène Tremblay (Co-Chair)
Blanche-Hélène resides in Astorville. During the course of her forty-year career in education she has worked on the implementation of various initiatives including Indigenous education, early childhood education and school supports for newcomers. At the community level, Blanche-Hélène has been a member of the boards of directors for the Association for Community Living and Les Compagnons des francs loisirs as well as Chairperson of Cassellholme Family Council and member of the organizing committee for Help-Portrait.
On a personal level, Blanche-Hélène is a mother of four, grandmother of six and happily married to Noel. She was a caregiver to her father who spent three years in what was then known as the Alternative Level of Care Unit at the Regional Health Centre, and to her mother who is now living with her after spending more than eight years in a long-term care home.
Blanche-Hélène applauds the Nipissing Wellness Ontario Health Team for its focus on implementing patient, family and caregiver-centered care. She is encouraged by the team’s commitment to ensuring equity and inclusion for its diverse clienteles. “Nothing about me without me”
Connie Lamarre
Connie lives in Mattawa, Ontario where she was raised. She is a loving mother if three and grandmother of three. She has a long history of caring for children in the community both as a volunteer in several organizations, including the chair of the St. Victor School’s Catholic School Advisory Council, and as a small business owner. Connie joined the Patient Family Caregiver Council to represent the Mattawa and Area and ensure the smaller rural areas of Nipissing are represented at the system level in the co-design process. She is also an active member of the Mattawa Hospital Patience Family Advisory Council.
Connie’s personal experience with the health care and social services industry scans through many pockets of the system. In 2013 she adopted two beautiful children and navigated the children’s network through both the adoption process and a subsequent special needs diagnosis. She also cares for her aging parents who have been though many health struggles over the years.
With her passion for helping others Connie is very active in her Church and has had much success in assisting the community with navigating the healthcare system as well as brining people together to find the resources they need.
Connie is passionate about advocating for her community to ensure they can live healthier and happier lives.
Julie Van Berkel
Julie joined PFCC in December 2022 as a way to share her perspectives in accessing healthcare in the area. She is passionate about supporting marginalized individuals and creating equitable communities. Julie currently works for the North Bay and Area Local Immigration Partnership, which focuses on increasing community capacity for welcoming and integrating newcomers.
Julie moved to North Bay from Southern Ontario in 2020, unable to find a primary care provider for herself, she uses her role at PFCC to amplify the unique challenges that unattached patients face within the healthcare system. Julie is very thankful to the NWOHT and the PFCC for ensuring community voices are heard, and looks forward to continue to work and advocate for equitable and inclusive health systems in our region.
Judy Cowan
Judy Cowan is a registered nurse with 40 years of experience in a variety of settings both in the hospital and in the community. Having experience in various administration, research and clinical roles, Judy brings a wealth of knowledge about the health care system and patient centered care. She has worked collaboratively with primary care physicians to implement two large electronic medical record projects to modernize the delivery of patient care in a large clinic in North Bay. Her experience has also includes leading the practicum component of the Personal Support Worker Program at Canadore College.
In addition to her clinical expertise, Judy also understands the healthcare system from the patient and caregiver perspective. Judy served as the primary caregiver for her elderly parents and in-laws both in Ottawa and North Bay. Through this experience she navigated the stresses of both aging in place and the transition into next stages of care including senior’s residences, assisted living facilities and long-term care.
This personal exposure shapes Judy’s recommendations making sure the patient and caregiver voice is at the center of collaborative decision making in the evolving health care system. Judy has served on the Patient Family Caregiver Council since 2022 and looks forward to continuing this important work.
Heather McGuinty
Heather has been a Registered Nurse for over four decades working in the healthcare system and is privileged to have worked in all 3 sectors: hospital, community, private. Heather has accumulated a vast wealth of knowledge, experience and understanding of what patient’s and families go through in their most vulnerable moments.
The earlier years of her nursing career were spent working in ICU/EMERGENCY departments and had exposure to the dying and their families in some tragic circumstances. Heather pursued studies on death and dying, grief and bereavement through King’s College in London, Ont. that set the foundation to a later calling to working with the dying and their families.
During the last 22 years of Heather’s career, 2 years were spent as Director of Care in a private infirmary working in a
French environment in geriatric care of aging women in a convent. The next 20 years were devoted to the art of palliative/end of life care in home hospice settings as care coordinator for Home and Community Care for the NELHIN.
Heather has journeyed with many dying patients and their families and has an in depth understanding of the care of the dying on all levels: psychosocial, spiritual and physical. Heather has been an active member of several local palliative care committees and has been involved in program development and establishing guidelines for RNs, RPNs and PSWs in end of life care. Heather has taught frontline workers in the essentials of working in palliative care. She has written articles pertaining to the experiences of working with the dying and has presented at local palliative care conferences, as well as to the Bereavement Ontario Network.
After Heather retired 3 years ago, she enrolled in an advanced course for chaplaincy through St James Seminar In the States. Heather received her chaplaincy registration in December of 2021.
Carla White
Carla joined the PFCC in September 2023 and is a passionate advocate for improved access to healthcare for all living in the Nipissing district. She is a PhD student studying health communication and hopes to bring forward her perspectives from an educational background to improve the success of patient/physician/caregiver communication as a means for improved healthcare experiences.
Carla was born and raised in North Bay and has a familiarity and recognition of the unique characteristics and challenges that face our district from a health perspective. She looks forward to engaging with the community through her involvement with the PFCC. Additionally, she hopes to emphasize the importance of community voices by ensuring they are accurately represented and remain the central focus of all future healthcare transformation.