The Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) is pleased to receive a $30,000 grant from the Bell Let’s TalkCommunity Fund. The grant was presented to Dr. Catherine Cervin, NOSM Associate Dean, Postgraduate Education and Dr. David Marsh, NOSM Acting Dean and Associate Dean, Community Engagement during the Sudbury Wolves game against the Soo Greyhounds at the Sudbury Community Arena on January 18. The funds will support an initiative to educate and promote wellness and resilience for the School’s residents (physicians in their post-MD training years—see backgrounder below).

With the funds from Bell Let’s Talk, NOSM is creating Wellness Peer Networks, which includes developing curriculum focused on crucial conversations and cultural competency for residents. The Wellness Peer Networks will provide residents with mental health resources and will develop supportive networks to enable them to have a positive impact on the mental health and well-being of those who live in rural and remote Northern communities. Using the School’s advanced technology such as videoconferencing, these networks will promote resilience and wellness, reduce the stigma of mental illness, and develop health-care professionals who can address mental health issues in Northern Ontario including among Aboriginal and Francophone communities.

“Northern Ontarians deserve healthy communities that promote good mental health and well-being, as well as a responsive, culturally appropriate mental health care delivery system. This does not exist in all our Northern Ontario communities yet,” said Dr. Cervin. “These wellness networks will provide further education to NOSM residents to enable them to protect their own mental health during the stress of their education, while also equipping them with the ability to provide high-quality care to future patients who may be struggling with mental health challenges. We are grateful for the support from the Bell Let’s Talk Community Fund in developing a healthier Northern Ontario.”

“Bell Let’s Talk is very proud to support the Northern Ontario School of Medicine’s Wellness Peer Networks program,” said Mary Deacon, Chair of Bell Let’s Talk. “The Bell Let’s Talk Community Fund supported over 50 organizations over the past year, in every region of the country, all of which are making a difference in the lives of people living with mental illness, and the family and friends who support them. Over the last five years, the Bell Let’s Talk Community Fund has invested more than $5 million in hundreds of community programs and services that improve access to mental health care.”

Bell Let’s Talk Day is January 27
On January 27, for every text message, wireless and long distance call made by Bell Aliant and Bell Canada customers, or for every tweet using #BellLetsTalk, and every Facebook share of the Bell Let’s Talk Day image at Facebook.com/BellLetsTalk, Bell will donate 5 cents to support Canadian mental health programs. Over the first five Bell Let’s Talk Days, Bell has committed a total of $73,623,413.80 to support mental health initiatives across the country.

Bell’s donations are made at no extra charge to Bell Let’s Talk Day participants, though normal long distance or text charges if any, apply.

About Bell Let’s Talk

The Bell Let’s Talk initiative promotes Canadian mental health with national awareness and anti-stigma campaigns, like Clara’s Big Ride for Bell Let’s Talk and Bell Let’s Talk Day, and significant Bell funding of community care and access, research, and workplace initiatives. To learn more, please visit Bell.ca/LetsTalk.

 

Backgrounder

Residents are individuals who have graduated from an MD program, and are now doctors. Delivered via accredited residency (postgraduate) programs in Canadian medical schools, residency education allows doctors to practice medicine with the supervision of a practicing physician, while learning their chosen medical specialty. Residency is the final stage of medical education, prior to College certification and practice as an independent and fully-licensed physician.

NOSM offers high-quality, community-based residency education in family medicine and eight major general specialties, including general surgery, internal medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, psychiatry, orthopedic surgery, anesthesiology, and public health and preventive medicine. Visit nosm.ca/postgrad for more information.

 

For more information, kindly contact: news@nosm.ca

The Northern Ontario School of Medicine’s A Roadmap to 2020: NOSM’s Whole School Strategic Action Plan is now publicly available. A follow-up to NOSM’s Strategic Plan 2015-2020, the Roadmap describes exactly how the School will accomplish its strategic goals.

The Action Plan was developed in order to integrate activities across NOSM’s wider campus of Northern Ontario. Below are the five overarching categories of the Action Plan that integrate the School’s goals:

• Connecting the entire NOSM campus of Northern Ontario;
• Sustaining and aligning NOSM’s infrastructure, logistics, and leadership;
• Growing a culture of continuous improvement;
• Expanding research in the North, for the North; and,
• Leading at home and beyond Northern Ontario.

Under each of these five categories, the Action Plan outlines specific objectives that NOSM will complete in order to ensure that the ambitious, yet achievable, strategic plan will be successfully implemented by 2020.

“The rapid establishment and success of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine is the result of collaboration from Northern Ontarians across the entire geography of Northern Ontario,” says Dr. Roger Strasser, NOSM Dean and CEO. “As we move forward, we need to make sure we have an effective, sustainable organization that delivers education and research that communities really need.”

NOSM’s Strategic Plan, launched publicly last September, is the product of a highly inclusive process nearly two years in the making. From May to September 2014, NOSM’s Dean and CEO Dr. Roger Strasser, Deputy Dean and Associate Dean of Community Engagement, Dr. David Marsh, senior leaders, and staff travelled to more than 50 rural, remote, Francophone, and Aboriginal communities across Northern Ontario to meet with individuals, organizations, learners, health-care professionals, and faculty. In all, more than 1,000 individuals provided input into the future of the School. NOSM’s Strategic Plan 2015-2020 is the culmination of a purposeful process that actively sought to understand the ongoing health-related needs in the region.

“NOSM was the first Canadian medical school to embrace the idea that all of our activities should be directed to influence the health of the people we serve,” says Dr. David Marsh, NOSM Deputy Dean and Associate Dean of Community Engagement. “With our new Strategic Plan, and now the Roadmap to 2020, we will continue to collaborate with our many community partners to ensure that our education and research influences the health of Northern Ontarians.”

Both A Roadmap to 2020 and NOSM’s Strategic Plan 2015-2020 are available at nosmsp2020.ca.

Contact

news@nosm.ca

Board Members Tour Anishnawbe Mushkiki Aboriginal Health Centre and Take Part in a Case-Based Learning Exercises 

The Board of Directors of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) held a face-to-face meeting in Thunder Bay on November 26 and 27, 2015.

NOSM Board members began their two-day meeting with a tour of the Anishnawbe Mushkiki Aboriginal Health Centre. Established as a primary health care facility within the District of Thunder Bay, the Centre provides primary, traditional, and alternative approaches that work to empower Aboriginal people to achieve optimal health and wellbeing.

This year, NOSM’s Board of Directors and Academic Council members participated together in quality monitoring and effectiveness sessions, first looking at the Institutional Quality Assurance Process (IQAP), led by Dr. Moira McPherson, Chair of NOSM’s Board of Directors and Lakehead’s Provost and VP (Academic), and Dr. Nancy Luckai, Lakehead’s Deputy Provost. Next, Directors took part in two Case-Based Learning (CBL) exercises typical of NOSM’s student-centred teaching approach. This session was led by Dr. Roger Strasser, NOSM’s Dean, Dr. David Marsh, NOSM’s Deputy Dean and Associate Dean of Community Engagement, Dr. Owen Prowse, NOSM’s Assistant Dean of Admissions, Miriam Cain, NOSM’s Director of Admissions, and Kate Beatty, NOSM’s Director of Equity and Quality.

In the evening of the first day, Board members were able to view The Rural Challenge and the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, a documentary by Dr. Hoi Cheu, a faculty member and researcher at Laurentian University. The film describes NOSM’s revolutionary rural educational model through the personal experience, insight and humour of the School’s students, graduates, faculty members, community partners, and international associates.

Throughout the two days, Board members received presentations related to NOSM’s socially accountable admissions processes, finance, and advancement, and updates from several Board committees. In addition, Board members heard about the progress made regarding NOSM’s development of a Response to and Prevention of Sexual Violence on Campus strategy.

Angèle Brunelle, NOSM Board member, and Executive Director of L’Accueil francophone, and NOSM’s Dr. David Marsh, provided an overview of the recently held fifth Francophone Symposium where more than 90 health professionals and community partners from across Northern Ontario gathered to explore dimensions of health care related to Francophone populations.

At the formal Board meeting at the end of the second day, the Board approved Financial Statements from the Finance, Audit and Risk Committee for the five-month period ending September 30, 2015.

The Board-approved A Roadmap to 2020: NOSM’s Whole School Strategic Action Plan was circulated to all members, which is a follow-up document to NOSM’s Strategic Plan 2015-2020 that describes exactly how the School will accomplish its strategic goals. NOSM publicly launched its new strategic plan in September, the details of which are available at www.nosmsp2020.ca.

Dr. Moira McPherson, Chair of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine’s Board of Directors and Provost and VP (Academic) at Lakehead, noted that the two-day meeting in Sudbury was a great success. “As NOSM celebrates its 10th anniversary, it’s exciting to reflect on the progress the School has made in contributing to the health of the people and communities of Northern Ontario,” says Dr. McPherson. “NOSM’s success is truly a collaborative effort, and I am inspired by the Board’s ongoing dedication to governance and fiscal management at the School.”

The Northern Ontario School of Medicine’s next Board of Directors meeting is scheduled to occur on March 16, 2016.