The OIIQ Foundation Awards Its Second $250,000 Grant to the Fondation du Dr Julien and the CSSS Lucille-Teasdale, to Support Community Social Pediatrics

MONTREAL, March 17, 2015 /CNW Telbec/ - The Fondation de l'Ordre des infirmières et infirmiers du Québec (OIIQ) is proud to announce today that it will be awarding the 2015 Because We Care (Pour mieux soigner) grant to the Fondation du D^r Julien and the CSSS Lucille-Teasdale. The $250,000 grant will make it possible to support the development of the community social pediatrics movement in Quebec, by offering clinical nurses valuable training in community social pediatrics and a new practice setting.

"The Foundation is pleased to meet a pressing need for local healthcare professionals to work with disadvantaged populations," emphasized Nancy Hammond, President of the OIIQ Foundation. "The project selected will benefit both the nursing profession and these children in need. Clinical nurses will be trained in the interdisciplinary practice of community social pediatrics and will play a key role, in co-operation with doctors, in assessing, guiding and ensuring clinical follow-up for these clienteles."

Community social pediatrics, a unique approach
Developed by pediatrician Gilles Julien in the 1990s, community social pediatrics is an integrated approach to social medicine like none other in the world. It focuses on vulnerable children's overall health in disadvantaged urban and rural settings. Community social pediatrics centres welcome, care for and equip children by giving them access to a complete diagnosis and resources so that they can develop to their full potential, by monitoring them continually from birth to age 14, in conjunction with local partners.

Nurses: meeting growing needs
"Community social pediatrics is an innovative approach that lets clinical nurses practise in an interdisciplinary setting with an uncommonly open attitude to services. We offer them a stimulating training environment in our community social pediatrics centres, where they can develop strong skills in working with disadvantaged clienteles. Their expertise in local care will also contribute to the development of our practice model. It's a win-win partnership that we hope will lead to improved access to care for our most disadvantaged children and their families," explained Dr. Julien, founding President of the Fondation du D^r Julien.

Aiming for better access to care for disadvantaged children and their families
Four thousand children – 13% of the children deemed vulnerable in Quebec – are now being monitored in community social pediatrics centres. Since the Fondation du D^r Julien would like to see this number rise to 20,000 children over the next five years, this addition of clinical nurses to the interdisciplinary team comes at exactly the right time and will make it possible to increase access to local care for these thousands of children from disadvantaged environments.

At present, there are 16 community social pediatrics centres in Quebec, five of them with nurses on staff. The project supported by the OIIQ Foundation will first involve training some fifty clinical nurses in community social pediatrics. Starting with this first phase, a clinical nurse from the CSSS Lucille-Teasdale, supervised by the Director of Nursing and the Front-line and Public Health Services Department, will be integrated full-time in the community social pediatrics centre in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve neighbourhood of Montreal, the very first premier community social pediatrics centre founded by Dr. Julien.

Other clinical nurses will later be integrated in community social pediatrics teams, where they will play a key role. "The main outcome of the project will be a pool of nurses trained in community social pediatrics, ready to integrate existing practice settings," added Lyne Tremblay, RN, Director of Nursing and acting Director of Adult Mental Health Services at the CSSS Champlain–Charles-Le Moyne and a member of the Board of the OIIQ Foundation.

"Local nursing, as carried out through community social pediatrics, is essential to improve children's living conditions. We are delighted to take part in this pilot project, which will later be deployed throughout Quebec, to ensure monitoring of children who are harder to reach with a traditional approach. From this perspective, this contribution to the development of community social pediatrics is a privilege for the CSSS Lucille-Teasdale," maintained Daniel Corbeil, Executive Director of the CSSS Lucille-Teasdale.

Lastly, the project will be evaluated right from the start by a group of Quebec researchers. This evaluation will look at the issues and challenges involved in integrating nurses into community social pediatrics and network services.

The Because We Care (Pour mieux soigner) program
The Foundation's Because We Care program, launched in 2013, awards grants of up to $250,000 to encourage advances in nursing, by supporting concrete initiatives that highlight nurses' contribution to monitoring patients during the entire continuum of care and services, or at the end of life, and make it possible to improve the quality of healthcare for the public. The OIIQ Foundation awarded a $250,000 grant to the CSSS du Nord-de-Lanaudière in 2014, to set up a local nursing consultation team, which improved access to front-line healthcare within the public healthcare system.

About the Fondation de l'Ordre des infirmières et infirmiers du Québec
The mission of the Fondation de l'Ordre des infirmières et infirmiers du Québec is to promote interest in and the advancement of nursing science and nursing care, for the benefit of patients. Since 1987, the OIIQ Foundation (formerly FRESIQ) has contributed nearly $5 million to advancing nursing science.

About the Fondation du D^r Julien
The Fondation du D^r Julien is a social organization whose mission is to allow disadvantaged children to reach their full potential in accordance with the terms of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. It provides direct services to over 2,000 disadvantaged children and their families each year through its two community social pediatrics centres and the Garage à musique. It also seeks to transmit knowledge to students, professionals in various fields and to the community at large to help influence ways of doing things in working with disadvantaged populations. Lastly, it supports the development of the community social pediatrics movement in Canada and worldwide.

SOURCE Ordre des infirmières et infirmiers du Québec

Diane Jeannotte, 514 772-8019, [e-mail] ; Diep Truong, 514 524-7348, [e-mail]