New POGO Satellite Clinic brings care closer to home for children with cancer in Peterborough area
On Monday, September 24, the Pediatric Oncology (POGO) Satellite Clinic at Peterborough Regional Health Centre (PRHC) officially opened its doors to provide care for children with cancer right in their community.
For these patients and their families, care closer to home means a reduction in travel time, costs to receive care elsewhere are avoided, and less loss of income and separation from home and community, all while maintaining confidence that their child is receiving the best quality care.
Mario, Anthony and Theresa
“Having a POGO clinic close to us makes life as a parent a whole lot easier,” says Theresa Serracino-Inglott, whose son Anthony is currently receiving treatment at PRHC after being diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in August 2017. “Feeling financially strapped is a common thread among families of children with cancer, and these satellite clinics give some relief to that. I want to say how grateful we are to POGO and to Peterborough Regional Health Centre for taking on this partnership to bring a POGO Satellite Clinic to our community. I can’t help but think of future ‘POGO families’ in our area, and how the availability of this clinic will ease their journey.”
POGO now supports highly coordinated care at eight Satellite Clinics across the province, each linked to one of the five major hospitals with a pediatric cancer program. In addition to the benefits for patients and their families, shifting thousands of visits and hundreds of inpatient days to POGO Satellite Clinics each year provides additional capacity for specialized care in these hospitals’ pediatric cancer programs.
POGO Interlink Nurse Marilyn Cassidy is a recipient of a 2017 Canada Cares Professional Caregiver Award. In the 42 years that Marilyn has been a nurse, she has worked at CHEO for 24 of those years and has championed childhood cancer care as a POGO Interlink Nurse at CHEO for 19 years.
According to Marilyn, “One of the things I love most about my work is the daily opportunity and challenge of trying to make the difficult journeys for patients and their families even just a little bit easier in my role as a POGO Interlink nurse, as well as the definite privilege of working with the most amazingly resilient children and their families. I am probably most proud of the CHEO Buddy Program, Quality in the Community, that we have developed over the years. The program is supported by Camp Quality and we partner with the University of Ottawa medical students to provide buddies for approximately 20 patients per year. This program has brightened the days of so many of our patients, provides respite for parents and provides med students, our future physicians, with a wonderful perspective on the family experience during treatment.”
Marilyn’s nominators had this to say:
Marilyn is compassionate, her work is knowledge based, family centred and highly principled and she enriches each of us who are given the opportunity to work with her.
Marilyn’s work with the Interlink team involves advancing the quality of life for children with cancer and their families and forging diverse community partnerships including social services, parent groups and schools. She has been involved relentlessly in school support and reintegration for children and their siblings.
She has been a mentor to many over her 40-year nursing career, including nursing and medical students; preceptorship and teaching to the greater health care community with in-services, presentations and involvement in pediatric oncology research.
Families from CHEO who come to Toronto for care praise her gentle, kind, knowledgeable work. Families come prepared and supported and remain connected to her while they are away from their principle treatment centre. She is respectful and flexible and has an innate ability to understand the nature of being a child with cancer, a parent watching their child go through treatment, and the sibling who often feels left out. She goes above and beyond, advocating for families on a personal and community level, helping drive provincial policies.
Her work with POGO highlights her ability to see the big picture and her committee work is the driving force that keeps the work moving along. She identifies needs and gaps and works to find resources and supports to fill the gaps. Currently, she is involved in several initiatives in POGO’s Provincial Pediatric Oncology Plan that advances the existing childhood cancer system.
As her POGO Interlink colleagues, we value her ability to think outside the box and therefore advocate beautifully for the oncology patients. Her wisdom and drive not only benefit her patients but all children with cancer in Ontario.
Marilyn has so many qualities but I think her main strengths are sustained energy, creativity and a drive to never stop improving service to patients, families and the community. She is a natural leader, leading by example for us all to benefit. Marilyn is exceptional! I cannot think of a better person to aspire to and to acknowledge in this way.
Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario is delighted to announce the appointment of Dr. David Hodgson as Medical Director of POGO and next incumbent of the POGO Chair in Childhood Cancer Control at the University of Toronto.
Dr. Hodgson’s stellar accomplishments, expertise and experience in the care of children with malignant disease and pediatric cancer control will strengthen POGO’s many efforts to champion childhood cancer control and POGO’s mandate to advance pediatric cancer care and control in Ontario and internationally. Dr. Hodgson assumed his new roles November 1, 2016.
Dr. Hodgson is an internationally recognized pediatric radiation oncologist who has made significant clinical and research contributions through his role at SickKids and his work at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre where he is the Site Group Lead for Pediatrics in the Department of Radiation Oncology and the Director of POGO’s Adult Pediatric AfterCare Clinic. He is a Professor in the Departments of Radiation Oncology, and Health Policy Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. He serves as Vice-chair of the Children’s Oncology Group (COG) Hodgkin Lymphoma Steering Committee and as a member of the Childhood Cancer Survivorship (CCSS) External Advisory Board. He has a stellar and long-standing track record in health services research and is cross-appointed to the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES), having previously served as Associate Director of Clinical Epidemiology and Health Care Research at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (HPME). Dr. Hodgson comes to the POGO leadership position with a major clinical interest in lymphoma, in particular Hodgkin lymphoma, and in the late effects of cancer and the treatment of pediatric cancer survivors.
POGO created the linked position of POGO Chair in Childhood Cancer Control and Medical Director in 2000 so that Ontario would always have dedicated, seasoned, visionary leadership to ensure a well-integrated, evidence-based cancer delivery system for children with malignant disease. The organization works collaboratively with all stakeholders to implement this vision, generating successive long-range Provincial Pediatric Oncology Plans (PPOPs) that have, over many years, greatly enhanced Ontario’s childhood cancer care system.
“Dr. David Hodgson is a skilled researcher and physician,” says Dr. Trevor Young, Dean of Medicine, University of Toronto and Vice Provost, Relations with Health Care Institutions. “Thanks to his extensive experience and determined leadership, he will help POGO advance childhood cancer care through strong collaborations in research and education. This work will benefit the almost 4,000 families in Ontario who have a child receiving cancer treatment or follow-up care. On behalf of the University of Toronto, I congratulate Dr. Hodgson on his new role and I am pleased with his continued association with the Faculty of Medicine.”
POGO believes the Chair and Medical Director must lead with extraordinary wisdom and charisma to achieve informed and whole-hearted consensus among providers, hospitals and other key stakeholders. Dr. Hodgson brings to POGO tables not only an academic outlook, clinical acumen and a unique grasp of research, education and health care delivery savvy, but also the rare ability to ignite a passion to work on behalf of the population and to inspire collaboration. Dr. Hodgson will hold the central role in POGO’s medical directorate—responsible for maintaining the keen interest and participation of the professional pediatric oncology community in endeavours that ensure a continuing state-of-the-art system.
The Canadian Welding Association (CWA) Foundation has partnered with POGO to provide funding for seven aspiring welding professionals. The $2,500 scholarships will be available to childhood cancer survivors, and their immediate family members, who are currently enrolled in a welding program at a participating Ontario college*.
Treatment for some childhood cancers can last up to three years. Kids are absent from school for a significant period of time, parents quit their jobs or put their careers on hold, siblings’ lives are disrupted. The intent is to provide the opportunity to Ontario families impacted by childhood cancer to pursue a post-secondary education in the welding field.
“These scholarships will open new doors for our survivor population and increase their ability to achieve personal and financial independence,” says Dr. Mark Greenberg, Senior Adviser, Policy & Clinical Affairs for POGO. “What many people don’t know is that the impacts of childhood cancer don’t end when your child is cancer-free. As many as 60% of survivors will face long-term complications as a result of their disease or the treatment that saved them. Treatments that affect the brain during the critical developmental years, along with the amount of school many kids must miss, can have a profound effect on the learning and employment attainments of young survivors. POGO counsellors work one-on-one with childhood cancer survivors to help them set attainable career goals, develop a plan and seek out appropriate opportunities that will help them achieve success. It is our pleasure to embark on this new partnership with the CWA Foundation.”
“It’s a true pleasure to help support POGO in providing funding to students who have experienced childhood cancer to pursue their dreams of getting into the welding profession and truly succeeding,” said Deborah Mates, Executive Director of the CWA Foundation. “This partnership is unique and I’m looking forward to hearing the success stories. The Foundation is here for partnerships like this and further reiterates our commitment to the Canadian welding profession.”
For more information about how to access the scholarship, please contact the Awards and Scholarships office at participating colleges.
Claimants can now collect up to 26 weeks of benefits, up from 6 weeks.
Excerpted from Government of Canada Press Release
January 4, 2016 – The Honourable MaryAnn Mihychuk, Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour, today highlighted the coming into force of a previously announced increase in the duration of the Employment Insurance (EI) compassionate care benefit, which will provide additional financial security to Canadian workers and their families in times of need.
The Minister also said today that the Government will work towards providing more generous leave for caregivers in the future. The Government has committed to making the compassionate care benefit more flexible, easier to access and more inclusive, she said.
Compassionate care benefits provide temporary income support to eligible individuals who must be away from work to provide care for a gravely ill family member at risk of death.
Effective January 3, 2016, the enhanced benefit, announced in 2015, allows claimants to collect up to 26 weeks of benefits, up from the current 6 weeks. Further, the period during which benefits can be taken is expanded to 52 weeks (up from 26 weeks). Benefits can be shared between family members.
Eligibility for compassionate care benefits remains the same, including the requirement for a medical certificate signed by a doctor attesting to the family member’s condition.
Corresponding changes to the Canada Labour Code will come into force at the same time to ensure that the jobs of employees in federally regulated enterprises remain protected while they avail themselves of compassionate care benefits under the EI program.
