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CIPSRT COVID-19 Readiness Resource Project (CRRP)

CRRP Virtual Town Hall Series

The COVID-19 Readiness Resource Project held virtual town halls during the COVID-19 crisis to share information and answer questions about issues related to the pandemic. You can  view recordings of past town halls. 

 

Wellness Together Canada: Basic Mental Health Care Your Way, When You Want It

Date: September 10, 2020 10:00 AM PST, 11:00 AM CST, 12:00 PM CDT, 13:00 PM EST, 14:00 PM AST, 14:30 NST

Presenter: 

Dr. Peter Cornish

Psychologist, Honorary Research Professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Founder & President of Stepped Care Solutions – the Lead Administrative Partner for Wellness Together Canada, Director Counseling and Psychological Services, University of California – Berkeley.

Moderator:

Dr. Alexandra Heber, MD FRCPC CCPE

Chief of Psychiatry, Veterans Affairs Canada, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Psychiatry, University of Ottawa, Chair, CIPSRT COVID 19 Task Force

Description:

This is an introduction to the Wellness Together Canada mental health service portal which offers free basic mental health programming to all peoples of Canada. The one-stop portal offers a wide range of youth and adult programming including educational resources, self-guided tools, coaching, a community of support, and counselling by text, phone or video. Programming is offered in French and English, access is 24/7 and there are no wait times.

Download Poster: Sept 10 VTH EN

Self-Care during Times of Crisis and Change

Date: June 22, 2020 10:00 AM PST, 11:00 AM CST, 12:00 PM CDT, 13:00 PM EST, 14:00 PM AST, 14:30 NST

Presenter: 

Meghan Provost

Director, Workplace Wellness & Employee Wellbeing

Correctional Service of Canada / Government of Canada

Description:

The Steering Committee for Mental Health Injuries at the Correctional Service of Canada is hosting a presentation and panel discussion related to supporting employees in using self-care strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic and as we work together to shape the new normal.

Download Poster: June 22 Town Hall

What the SARS Outbreak Taught us about the Psychological Needs of Healthcare Workers

Date: June 18, 2020 10:00 AM PST/ 11:00 AM CST/ 12:00 PM CDT/ 1:00 PM EST/ 2:00 PM AST/ 2:30 PM NST

Presenter: 

Dr. Ken Balderson MD,CM FRCP(C)

Description:

This Town Hall will provide a brief review of the psychological impacts on healthcare workers involved in patient care during the SARS outbreak and of the social and occupational factors associated with psychological outcomes.  The lessons learned from the SARS outbreak may help mitigate psychological impacts of workers dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

Dr. Ken Balderson MD,CM FRCP(C) is a Consultant Psychiatrist with the St. Joseph’s Operational Stress Injury Clinic and is Adjunct Professor at Western University. During the SARS outbreak he was the Medical Director of the Inpatient Mental Health Program at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto and was a Coauthor for the Impact of SARS Study.

 

Download Poster: June 18 Town Hall

 

PSP Leadership & Mental Health: Part 2 – Question and Answer Session

Date: June 11th, 2020- 10:00 AM PST, 11:00 AM CST, 12:00 PM CDT, 13:00 PM EST, 14:00 PM AST, 14:30 NST

Presenters:

Randy Mellow

Chief, Peterborough Paramedic Service

President, Paramedic Chiefs of Canada

Member, CIPSRT Public Safety Steering Committee

Dr. Ronald D. Camp II, Ph.D., ICD.D

Co-academic Director, ICD/Rotman Directors Education Program (SK)

Associate professor (leadership & Governance), UofR Hill-Levene Schools of Business

Description:

This Question and Answer Session will provide additional discussion to Virtual Town Hall held on May 7, 2020, CIPSRT titled PSP Leadership & Mental Health (to view the Part 1 recording, click here: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/recording/5231826376406792716). Part 1 focused on the stresses that PSP and their leadership face. The presenters discussed some best practices for how leaders can create positive work environments.

In this follow-up town hall, a panel of leaders will be taking your questions on how to apply those best practices to your workplace. This question and answer session, offers a unique opportunity to explore issues that you have experienced in the workplace while learning new skills that can help you improve your work environment.

CIPSRT is asking interested PSP and PSP leadership to submit questions or scenarios prior to the Question & Answer Session. With advanced notice, the panel will be able to provide robust and useful solutions. Privacy will be maintained for anyone who submits a question or scenario; panelists will only be given the question and identify the sector. You do not need to attend the event to have your question answered. If you are unable to attend, you can view your question and the panel’s response on the CIPSRT recording.

Time permitting, additional questions or scenarios may be allowed during the Question and Answer Session. Submit your question to the panel by emailing covid19@cipsrt-icrtsp.ca by June 4, 2020.

Download : June 11 Town Hall

Stress and Emergency Management

Date: June 4th, 2020- 10:00 AM PST, 11:00 AM CST, 12:00 PM CDT, 13:00 PM EST, 14:00 PM AST, 14:30 NSTkj

Presenter:

Jeff Sych

Registered Psychologist
CEO of the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation- Canada Inc.
Clinical Director of the Alberta Critical Incident Provincial Network

Description:

Emergency management personnel are exposed to large scale events of long duration and high intensity. Often the roles within the EOC require personnel to step out of their normal operational roles. Their roles place them at the front line of planning, organizing and implementing a response to events that rapidly change and have unpredictable outcomes.

While a certain amount of stress is normal, emergency management personnel are in a unique position of being impacted by the stress related to the event, organizational and operational stress, and by the likelihood that the events are impacting their own community and perhaps personally.

This presentation will address the aspects of stress that Emergency Management Personnel face, as well as provide pragmatic ways of increasing their resistance and resiliency to the effects of stress.

Download : June 4 Town Hall

How to help your child through the pandemic: What should you know? What should you do?

Date: May 28th, 2020 10:00 AM PST, 11:00 AM CST, 12:00 PM CDT, 13:00 PM EST, 14:00 PM AST, 14:30 NL

For everyone parenting is full of highs and lows. Parenting as public safety personnel has some added elements that can contribute to heightened emotions. In the face of the current pandemic, we live in an environment where being a parent may be even more challenging. As such, it is important for parents to be provided education and information that can help them understand the feelings and thoughts they are having as well as their children. In this short town hall attendees will learn about thoughts, feelings, and behaviour and how they are connected. The latter will be applied to the experiences and situations that are unfolding. Attendees will also be provided strategies that can be employed if they are struggling with their current situation. We will end with an opportunity to ask questions.

Download Poster: May 28 Town Hall EN

My parent is a First Responder: How do I feel about that?

Date : May 14th, 2020 10:00 AM PST, 11:00 AM CST, 12:00 PM CDT, 13:00 PM EST, 14:00 PM AST, 14:30 NST

Presented by:

Dr. Kristi Wright

Associate Professor, University of Regina

Being a child of a first responder can incite great emotion, both positive and negative. In the face of the current pandemic, we live in an environment where being a child of a first responder may be even more challenging. As such, it is important for children to be provided education and information that can help them understand the feelings and thoughts they are having. In this short webinar children will learn, in an interactive manner, about feelings, body sensations, thoughts, and behaviours. We will discuss how feelings, body sensations, thoughts, and behaviours are connected. Children will also be provided strategies that can be employed when they are struggling with their current situation. We will end with an opportunity to ask questions.

Download Poster: May 14 Town Hall EN

PSP Leadership & Mental Health

Date : May 7th, 2020 10:00 AM PST, 11:00 AM CST, 12:00 PM CDT, 13:00 PM EST, 14:00 PM AST, 14:30 NST

Presented by:

Randy Mellow

Chief, Peterborough Paramedic Service
President, Paramedic Chiefs of Canada
Member, CIPSRT Public Safety Steering Committee

Dr. Ronald D. Camp II, Ph.D., ICD.D

Director of Training, CIPSRT (R2MR)
Co-academic Director, ICD/Rotman Directors Education Program (SK)
Associate Professor (Leadership & Governance), UofR Hill-Levene Schools of Business

Under the best of circumstances, public safety personnel (PSP) operate in an environment that creates high levels of uncertainty and anxiety. For PSP, this environmentally-induced uncertainty has been increased by the current Covid-19 pandemic. While much of this uncertainty comes from the public safety environment, and is beyond the control of both PSP and their leaders, there are things leaders can do to help PSP to better cope with this volatile, uncertain environment. In this town hall webinar, Chief Randy Mellow, Peterborough Paramedic Service, and Dr. Ron Camp, Hill-Levene Schools of Business, discuss how the PSP environment creates uncertainty and anxiety for PSP, how organizations may be contributing to this situation, and what leaders can do to help PSP reduce uncertainty and anxiety.

Download Poster: May 7 Town Hall EN

Coping with the Stress of COVID-19 for Public Safety Personnel

Date: April 28th, 2020 10:00 AM PST, 11:00 AM CST, 12:00 PM CDT, 13:00 PM EST, 14:00 PM AST, 14:30 PM NST

Presented by Jeff Sych, Registered Psychologist
CEO of the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation- Canada Inc.
Clinical Director of the Alberta Critical Incident Provincial Network

Stress is a part of every day life.
Stress for public safety personnel is unique due to the operational and organizational demands of their job.
Stress and the possibility of psychological injury increases during a large scale event, such as a pandemic.
For many public safety personnel, the unprecedented restrictions have disrupted their normal coping strategies.
This presentation will address the unique aspects of stress that public safety personnel face during COVID-19 as well as provide pragmatic ways of increasing one’s resistance and resiliency to the effects of this stress.

Download Poster: Webinar April 28, 2020

Risk and Resilience to Moral Injury among Public Safety Personnel and Healthcare Providers

Date and Times: April 23, 2020 10:00 AM PST, 11:00 AM CST, 12:00 PM CDT, 13:00 PM EST, 14:00 PM AST, 14:30 PM NST

Many people serving in the healthcare and public safety sectors during the COVID-19 pandemic may be at risk of moral injury. That is, they may do, fail to prevent, or witness actions that violate their own moral beliefs or standards, or they may experience a sense of betrayal when they feel not adequately supported by organizations that have an obligation to do so. Reports out of Italy have already emerged, pointing towards the dire ethical choices faced by Italian physicians: e.g., should a young man in his thirties with an unclear cancer prognosis or otherwise healthy woman in her sixties receive access to the last remaining ventilator. How do our administrators and government leaders make decisions (e.g., who is redeployed to the ICU and who is redeployed to a relatively safer hospital unit? How are scarce resources distributed?) that may mean the difference between life and death for front-line personnel? Risk and resilience factors for moral injury among public safety personnel and healthcare workers will be discussed.

Download Poster: Webinar April 23, 2020

Moral Dilemmas and Moral Injury: Confronting Wicked Problems, Tricky Questions, and Tough Decisions

Date: April 21st, 2020 10:00 AM PST, 11:00 AM CST, 1:00 pm EST, 2:00 pm AST, 2:30 PM NST

The commitment of Public Safety Personnel (PSP) to serving and caring for Canadians is extraordinary. Their professionalism, skills, and personal values are the bedrock of the services that PSP provide. The current COVID-19 pandemic, however, has fundamentally changed and destabilized the service provision context. What does evidence from past pandemics and disasters teach us about the moral dilemmas and wicked problems that PSP face, and the moral injuries that can sometimes result? This presentation will focus on the current tough decisions, moral dilemmas, and wicked problems confronted by PSP working on the frontlines of the COVID crisis. Never has there been a more important time to discuss the potential impact of moral injury on the health and wellbeing of PSP. We will discuss ways to prepare for and gird oneself against the negative impact of such circumstances, and the importance of intentionally engaging in practices that enable PSP to not only cope amidst struggles, but thrive in the face of them.

Download Poster: Webinar April 21, 2020

Managing the Pandemic: Promoting the well-being of public safety personnel and their families

Date: Thursday April 16, 10:00PST, 11:00CST, 13:00EST, 14:00AST, 14:30NST

Dr. Jim Thompson will present a well-being framework that considers how a person is doing in the seven major domains of life ( health, employment/other purposeful activity, finances, life skills/preparedness, social integration, housing/physical environment and culture/social environment). The framework considers interacting wellness factors that affect a person’s well-being in each of these domains. This framework has been used to design supports for the well-being of groups like Canadian Military Veterans and can be used to help during the current Covid-19 pandemic. After a brief presentation on the frame work Dr. Thompson and a small panel of public safety personnel will take questions to help explore the ways the seven domains can help maintain the well-being of PSP.
Dr. Thompson, MD CCFP(EM) FCFP is the Research Medical Consultant with the Canadian Institute for Military & Veteran Health Research and an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences at Queen’s University.

Download Poster: Webinar April 16, 2020

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