“Ladies and Gentlemen:
I’m honored to be asked to present this year’s Child and Youth Care Worker of the Year award.  It’s been my pleasure and privilege to have had the opportunity to work with this year’s recipient in the past; I have seen her work both as a Youth Care Worker, and as a home supervisor managing a team of Youth Care Workers.  She has shown exemplary skill in providing care with the various children she has come into contact with.  She has completed several education courses including Therapeutic Crisis Intervention (T.C.I.), Children and Residential Experiences (C.A.R.E.) Training as developed by Cornell University, Trauma Training and is currently working on her Bachelor of Social Work by Distance Delivery via the University of Manitoba. Utilizing the skills she’s learned from these various courses, the most common remark from the children that she works with is ‘she’s like a mom’.  She worked with a young boy and supervising his team; at admission this young man presented with many complex issues and challenging needs.  While she and her team implemented the outlined program, over time she played a critical role in stabilizing the case and getting the child back to a point of being placed with a family again.  Her strengths are in her ability to listen and sympathize, and the heart that she puts into the care of the children that she has the opportunity to connect with each and every day.  After her hard work in the past year and the dedication to her profession that she has shown, it is with great pleasure that I present the award of Child and Youth Care Worker of the Year award to Ms. Tia Brown.”

Congrats, Tia! All of us at CareGivers are proud of you, and deeply appreciative of the work you do.

This year’s event, hosted by Mark Critch with a keynote address by Danny Williams, is Atlantic Canada’s premiere celebration of corporate leadership excellence.  Winners are chosen because of their corporate, community and industry involvement, their company’s growth in recent years, and, their responses to various managerial challenges.

Whelan attributed the success of CareGivers to the company’s commitment to its employees, clients and families. “Relationships are at the heart of everything we do, we work hard to meet the needs of our clients while challenging ourselves to integrate best practice models as our way of doing business.”

As CEO of CareGivers since 2001, Anne Whelan has expanded the company to include residential care, clinic and concierge services.  In 2009, Whelan also acquired BrenKir Industrial Supply, a Newfoundland company which supplies fire, safety and industrial products. BrenKir has three locations in Placentia, Marystown, and Mount Pearl.

On April 13th, 6 CareGivers office staff ventured out of their comfort zones and into Conflict Resolution training. Hosted by Achieve Training Centre at the Ramada St. John’s, our office staff was given the opportunity to learn about different conflict styles, how to diffuse intense situations, and, probably most surprisingly, what really ticked them off. The energetic lectures and creative role playing weren’t just to keep our participants intrigued, it worked great with teaching them to assess what type of conflict styles they would eventually be dealing with and even how to predict reactions. It’s these skills that not only help to keep a cool head in situations before irritation and frustration escalate, but they help turn conflict into an opportunity for communication. Congrats to all of our CareGivers who completed the training session!

On Wednesday, February 16, CareGivers recognized its long-serving home care employees working in the Placentia area with service awards for years of commitment to our organization. Twenty one of our employees received awards for five, ten and fifteen years of employment.  To recognize the dedication of our employees we held a dinner in their honour and certificates of achievement were given out.  Events Scheduled for St. John’s and Carbonear had to be rescheduled for the Spring do to weather.

15 Years of Service
Geraldine Mooney
Eleanor Traverse

10 Years of Service
Madonna McGrath
Sheila Thorne
Ellen Miller

5 Years of Service
Beverley Hickey
Marion Judge
Paula Foley
Elizabeth Roache
Connie Williams
Margaret Picco
Wanda Darlene Connors
Anne Brewer
Cindy Mulrooney
Darlene Pittman
Judy Flynn
Connie Lundrigan
Drucella Brown
Wanda O’Keefe

Back Row (L-R) Eleanor Traverse, Elizabeth Roache, Paula Foley, Madonna McGrath, Connie Williams, Connie Lundrigan, Margaret Picco. Front Row (L-R) Valerie Lannon, Anne Brewer, Wanda O’Keefe, Wanda Darlene Connors

We understand you have choices in care. When seeking in-home care for your aging loved one, it can be emotional, stressful and confusing. CareGivers has some news that we hope will help you choose an agency that has taken a vested interest in what you care about: quality care. We are excited to share with you that CareGivers has just received its Home Care Pulse Certification.

What does that mean to you? Through surveys, numerical benchmarks and interviews, we have earned a certification that proves we care about quality! With this certification, you can rest assured that we are committed to client satisfaction and has loyal, productive caregivers. Each month, we receive strong statistically accurate feedback from both our clients and our employees, and we use this to continuously improve.

In addition to being Home Care Pulse certified, CareGivers is the ONLY Newfoundland owned and operated home care agency that is certified by Accreditation Canada (click to view more about them).  This means that you and your family can be assured that the people who manage CareGivers – and the staff we hire- are using a set of national standards to manage care.

A fact sheet is attached and we hope that it helps you understand how much we care about your experience and your loved one’s quality of life.

However, I miss the bus.   And, whether you notice it or not, there are a lot of people who do.   Home support workers – the people who go into the homes of other people who need extra help in order to live independently – are bus users.  About 40% of CareGivers employees list ‘bus’ as their primary mode of transportation.  When a person only gets paid around $12 an hour for short shifts of 3 to 5 hours, getting a taxi doesn’t make economic sense.  So, workers lose their source of income, and either have to try to collect EI or get another job close to home.  When this happens, the client who was counting on their worker doesn’t get the care they need, and they too, suffer the consequences of being without care.

Those of us who work in the home care sector know the struggles we face to improve the quality of care for our clients and the working conditions for home care employees.  It’s a long road. . . .   one that we can’t travel without the Metrobus.

On behalf of all the people who rely on the bus – or on someone who travels on a bus – for work or school, let’s encourage both sides to find a way forward in the dispute.  We need a sustainable, reliable and modern public transportation system in our urban environments.

Executive Director Anne Whelan accepted the award during the Canadian Women Entrepreneur Awards Gala held November 29th, at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel in Toronto. Whelan says “this award acknowledges our commitment to integrity, safety and continuous improvement through expanded management and dedication to empowering our team.”

The RBC Momentum Award is given to an individual who has directed their corporation to successfully overcome obstacles while capitalizing on opportunities for growth in leadership and a commitment to excellence. CareGivers has pursued an aggressive growth strategy to meet the needs of home care, nursing and residential care services, expanding from 120 employees in 2005 to over 500 throughout Eastern Newfoundland. Under the direction of Anne Whelan, CareGivers is planning to expand within the province over next six months, and potentially explore other opportunities across Canada. Anne Whelan is just one of six women nationally to receive the 2010 Canadian Women Entrepreneur Award through Women of Influence.

Anne Whelan with Laura Gainey, Regional President, Ontario South West, RBC Royal Bank

 The first scholarship, “The Tiffany Brazil Memorial Scholarship” is named in honour of Tiffany Brazil, a youth care worker who was killed in an unfortunate accident earlier last year.   Tiffany was a trained LPN whose outgoing personality and professionalism inspired all her co-workers, and whose desire to help children and their families was evident in everything she did.  She managed to balance her work and studies with the demands of raising a young family. This $1000 scholarship will be awarded to a CareGivers employee enrolled in full-time studies while maintaining full-time employment with CareGivers (72 hours or more bi-weekly).  Academic achievement and contribution to quality care will be considered.

The second scholarship, “The John Whelan Memorial Scholarship” is open to all full-time youth care employees whether enrolled full or part time in a program of study directly related to child and youth care.   John was a vocational educator, community volunteer and lifelong learner who worked primarily with boys and young men to develop life skills. His patience, willingness to share his time and talent, and his unconditional generosity helped to shape CareGivers early child and youth care practice.   The $1000 scholarship bearing his name will be awarded to an employee demonstrating a commitment to children and youth in care that extends beyond their employment, and a desire to continue to develop as a child and youth care professional.

Both of these individuals made a difference in the lives of so many, we wanted to mark their contribution in some meaningful way.  It seems fitting that we recognize employees who follow in their footsteps.  We’re very pleased to offer the scholarships because so many of our staff are also students; being able to help them pursue that goal is important to us.  We encourage all eligible employees to apply.

Have a look at CareGivers’ home support worker Melissa MacPherson’s Story on how she views the importance of home care.

As suicide has, in some way, impacted most people in some capacity the training is extremely valuable as “suicide first aid” and is a great way to help you to help others. The 2-day ASIST program is divided into five learning sections;
• Preparing
This section sets the tone and expectations for the workshop
• Connecting
This is where we take a look at our own attitudes towards suicide and examine how those attitudes can impact an intervention.
• Understanding
This section focuses on the person at risk or suicide and what their needs are. Participants will learn to recognize risk and develop safeplans to keep the person safe.
• Assisting
This section introduces the suicide intervention model and allows participants to practice using this model in large and small group simulations.
• Networking
This section looks at resources available in our community and asks for a commitment by participants to help these resources form a strong support network.

ASIST training is becoming more prominent in our attempt to make Newfoundland and Labrador a “suicide safe community”. The network currently in place of the ASIST trained continues to grow as more people have begun taking the training. The training is informative, engaging, and reliant upon the participation of the participant as this is the best means by which to learn. Everyone in our community has the potential to be a caregiver of someone at risk of suicide at some point in their lives. Want to know more about the A.S.I.S.T. program? Click here to be taken to the Livingworks website. Workshops will be made available by CareGivers in the near future.

Chad Perrin
Program Manager