Blog

New “Chill and Chat” program helping kids with Autism stay social during the pandemic

From the launch of the Virtual Emergency Department — the first of its kind in Canada — to outpatient clinic visits through Zoom or drive-thru, CHEO has hit the ground running to make our services more accessible to families during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As part of this shift, CHEO’s Autism Program recently launched “Chill and Chat”, a virtual hangout program to help teens with autism cope with the social isolation of the pandemic.

“My favourite part of the group is being able to tell...

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Happy holidays 2020

To celebrate the unusual 2020 holiday season Alex Munter, CHEO's President and CEO,  shared the following message with staff:

It wouldn’t be 2020 if I didn’t end the year with a nod to the most popular communication tool of the year - a Zoom message!

Whether you celebrate Hanukah this week, or Christmas...

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Volunteers bringing crafts & smiles to kids in new Heart Cart role

There’s nothing our volunteers like more than bringing smiles and laughter to kids at CHEO. Our safety precautions mean that a visit to CHEO looks a little bit different these days, but that doesn’t mean it can’t still be fun! Our new Heart Cart volunteers are bringing play back to CHEO visits in a safe and physically-distanced way.

The Heart Cart is a travelling cart with to-go bags of crafts, activities and books for kids to bring home. Our Heart Cart volunteers visit clinic waiting rooms to say...

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Partnering during a pandemic

This blog post was written by Britt-Mari Sykes – CHEO Family Advisor

I became a family advisor following a five-year period during which my son accessed health care services at CHEO. We were what CHEO calls “frequent flyers”.

For me as a parent, engaging with the health care system on such a regular basis was an eye-opening experience. You develop a relationship with health care because it becomes so much a part of your life. You start looking at the health care system from a variety of perspectives,...

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Declan’s life in colour

Declan’s life in colour: CHEO’s autism services hit home for rural families

When Liana packed up her life for Adam’s latest military posting in Deep River, she had the same worries anyone would have moving to an isolated area. How would she adjust to life in a small, remote town? How hard would it be to raise a family away from relatives? How would she cope being alone while Adam was away?

Shortly after settling into the routine of rural life, Adam and Liana welcomed baby boy Declan into their lives...

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