Overview
We were created in 1995 from a steering committee of the then North Bay Psychiatric Hospital. We are the voice of the patient at all of the committee and planning team meetings. We report directly to the NBRHC CEO.
We are available to all the patients in the NBRHC North Bay Campus. We work within a systemic advocacy policy (meaning 2 or more patients with a similar problem). We must be asked to come in by the patients. We are funded by the hospital but work at arms length from them. Therefore we can not be seen as showing any favoritism.
We take coffee to the wards twice weekly, help with and run some of the events such as Waterfest, Canada day, and the Secret Angel project at Christmas.
We are one of 9 Patient Councils in the province. The others are Brockville (Ottawa), Thunder Bay, Whitby, North York, CAMH (Queen St.), Hamilton, London/Ste. Thomas and Penetangushine in Midland. We meet four times a year as the O.A.P.C. , and take turns to host the meetings which last 2-3 days. The Ontario Association of Patient Councils works with provincial issues and lobbies provincially for each of us. Our representative sits on different provincial committees and is our collective voice.
The Patient Council Co-ordinator is over seen by a board of directors. The president is Frances Huard, vice president Pierre Chayer, Secretary Arif Majeed, and Treasurer Bill Wood. Our treasurer has been in the position since 1995.
We have been involved in many parts of the old and new hospital over the years. We helped with the smoking cessation project when the hospital went smoke free in 2003, the accreditation processes in the last 3 episodes, the planning and design of the new hospital, the transition of the District program to the NBGH for June of 2008, and the discovery of information for the new Recovery Model of care.