Our stories

Specialized CHEO clinic enhances care and support for families

CHEO has launched a specialized weekly community clinic that brings care and support closer to neurodiverse children and youth, and their families.

Hunter Nicholas, 13, lives with autism and has an extreme needle phobia. That means getting his annual vaccines has been traumatic.

His mom, Ananda, wanted a better solution, and she found it at a weekly clinic run by CHEO's Extensive Needs Service (ENS) in partnership with family physician,Dr. Nicole Shadbolt.

The clinic’s collaborative format provided more support, tools and...

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Celebrating 15 years of excellence: CHEO’s Complex Care team

Children and youth who are medically complex, fragile, and technology dependent are the one-percenters, visiting the hospital potentially dozens of times a year, which can leave some parents and caregivers feeling overwhelmed, wading through an equally complex health-care system.

That is why CHEO's Outpatient Complex Care program serves such a valuable and impactful role, creating one cohesive team of decision-makers — including CHEO clinicians, local community organizations and families — that focuses on proactive and preventative...

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ENS care transforms complex CHEO surgery experience

The Extensive Needs Service (ENS) program at CHEO continues to meet the evolving needs of patients, working to transform challenging medical experiences.

Through ENS, individualized and vital wrap-around support has been provided to more than1,400 children and their families. The program is run by three children’s hospitals in Ontario: CHEO, Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital and McMaster Children’s Hospital.

That support was essential for Kennedy McVey, who has Prader–Willi Syndrome, a rare genetic...

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CHEO nursing support after discharge improves equity, access to care

CHEO has launched a program that helps families after their child has been discharged from hospital to provide follow-up care and support during the transition back to home.

The Inpatient Medicine Discharge Program is delivered by CHEO’s Home and Community Care Rapid Response Nurses, a dedicated team of six nurses and one nurse practitioner.

Nurses call families within one to two days of discharge to review discharge instructions and guide caregivers, helping them through “caregiver anxiety,” a common after-effect of a...

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CHEO nurse carries daughter’s legacy to give kids courage

Each day, Brenda Fraser brings a little container to the Endocrinology Clinic at CHEO that carries a lot of meaning.

There’s a collection of bracelets with beads from the entire colour wheel. They’re called “BRAVE bracelets,” and the endocrinology nurse shares them with children to help them through difficult procedures in the clinic.

The bracelets symbolize resilience and strength, and their name comes from Fraser’s daughter, Erin, whose bravery and dedication to helping others shone bright.

Erin was a talented young musician,...

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