"Volunteerism is the voice of the people put into action"
At Hearing and Speech Nova Scotia (HSNS), we can’t think of a better way to celebrate National Volunteer Week than by highlighting the Partners in Care advisory committee.
Photograph taken of Partner in Care members at St. Martha’s Hospital in Antigonish in 2019. Back row L to R: Susan Wozniak (retired), Karen MacDonald, Jenny McDonald, Robert Murphy, Kim Jacquard, Leah MacEachern, Erin Woodbury, Erin Burke, Angela Ryan, Carla Haley-Baxter. Front row L to R: Vanda Stevens, Andrea Thomson (*), Shaun Cadden (*), Robert MacIsaac (*), Erin Lamond, Teresa Alexander-Arab. Missing from photo: Véronique Trottier (*), Cheryle Gaston (*), Erin Feener, Ferne Mardlin-Smith (*), Keith Burton (*), Courtney Douglas (*), and Alayne MacDonald (*Volunteer)
Partners in Care (PIC) was launched in 2016 to support HSNS’ dedication to putting clients, patients and their families at the center of decisions about their own health and care. Essential to the future of HSNS, their voices and experiences support and guide the development and assessment of our services.
Made up of clients, staff and volunteers, PIC’s motto is “nothing about us without us,” allowing those involved to share their thoughts and opinions on services and any developments at our 35 clinical sites across the Province. This provides us with the opportunity to assess what’s been done in the past, listen to their ideas, and better understand what needs to be done in the future so that we can move forward together, providing better care for families and communities.
L to R: Shaun Cadden and Ferne Mardlin-Smith, PiC volunteers who presented at the HSNS board meeting in April
Although there is no shortage of praise to be said about our PIC members, Helen Dyer, American biochemist and cancer researcher, depicts our thoughts perfectly in this quote: “Volunteerism is the voice of the people put into action. These actions shape and mold the present into a future of which we can all be proud.”
Thank you to our Partners in Care members, for bringing your voice and experiences to help us shape our patient-centred care into a future of which we can all be proud.
We are a partnership, but we are also a family.