Celebrate Pride, Progress and Belonging at Medavie

This month, we join the global community in celebrating Pride Month. It’s a time to honour and support the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, their achievements, and the progress made towards inclusion and acceptance.

Pride Month is celebrated annually to commemorate the Stonewall riots that took place in 1969 in New York City. The riots were a pivotal moment in 2SLGBTQIA+ history, sparking a wave of activism that led to the modern gay rights movement.

At Medavie, we are continually working to foster a diverse and inclusive culture at Medavie― one that is true to our values and respects and celebrates our differences.

This year’s Pride Month activities at Medavie are centered around the theme “Celebrating Pride and Progress – You Belong, Take Pride in Being You.”

Here are a few ways you can join the celebration:

• Stories of Pride and Progress: Let’s read and learn from the stories of Pride and Progress shared by our colleagues and posted on MHS Messenger throughout the month.

• Show your support and colour your world: Wear rainbow-coloured clothing or accessories to visibly display your support.
  
• Learning resources: Take the opportunity to learn more about the history, achievements, and challenges faced by the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. Explore documentaries, books, and podcasts that delve into the 2SLGBTQIA+ experiences.

• Purchase our Medavie-customized Pride shirt: Visit the Medavie Boutique and purchase your custom-designed Pride shirt today (Password: Medavie).

• Attend Pride Events:  Attend Pride events in your communities with your friends and family. Here is a list of upcoming Pride parades across Canada. This year, Medavie is the Presenting Sponsor of the River of Pride Parade in Monctonscheduled from August 25 – September 2, 2023.  

• Share on Social – We’re proudly letting our Facebook friends and LinkedIn followers know that Medavie cares for ALL Canadians. You can do the same by retweeting, liking, and sharing our social posts.

• Visit Medavie.ca – Click here to read our latest blog titled “Celebrating Pride in our Workplaces and Communities.”

Join us as we embark on this journey of celebration, education and awareness toward creating an inclusive and supportive environment for all employees.

Happy Pride Month!

At Medavie, we believe in creating an inclusive and diverse environment where everyone feels respected, valued and celebrated for who they are. As we prepare to kick off Pride Month at Medavie, we reaffirm our commitment in fostering a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion, where we live our values every day in the way we treat each other, our patients, clients, and employees and the communities we serve.

Pride Month is celebrated annually in June to honour the 1969 Stonewall riots, which took place in the United States and were the catalyst for the Gay Liberation Movement. In addition to acknowledging this important history, Pride Month is also a time to reflect on the progress the 2SLGBTQIA+ community and allies have made in inclusion and equality.  

How can you support our Pride Month Celebrations?

Our Pride Month will be centred on our theme: Celebrating Pride & Progress — You Belong. Take Pride in Being You. Once again, we are inviting you to share your stories of Pride and Progress. Add your voice to the conversation as member or an ally of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.

Your written stories will be shared with our colleagues on MHS Messenger during Pride Month and throughout the year as we recognize the progress the 2SLGBTQIA+ community has made, and to raise awareness of the work that remains to be done.

You can choose to share your story anonymously or openly, internally with colleagues or externally. The choice is yours.

Please click on this form for more information.

Below are a few suggested themes, questions, and examples to guide you―maybe even inspire you.

Why I’m proud to be me and part of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community

How do I celebrate Pride? What does Pride mean to me? i.e., Having the freedom to be unapologetically yourself, the strength within the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, being proud and having representation for future generations and an inclusive future.

How I’ve made personal progress

How I’ve overcome barriers and/or created opportunities as a member of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, i.e., Stories of coming out, transitioning, self identity, making a difference in my community.

How I’ve shown allyship to the 2SLGBTQIA+ community

Have you supported a family member or friend in the community? Care for the wellbeing of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community? i.e., Advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion, how do you celebrate Pride?

By sharing your stories, you’re helping us work towards a more inclusive workplace where everyone can feel like they belong and bring their whole selves to work.

Please complete this form by June 2 to submit your story.

Purchase your Pride shirts and wear Your Pride Colours Proudly

We invite you to join us in proudly showing your support for Pride Month by wearing your Pride colours.

You can purchase your Pride shirts on the Medavie Boutique (Password: Medavie).

Stay tuned for more information in June about our month-long Pride celebration.

During Paramedic Services Week, our focus is on all the great work paramedics do to keep us and our communities safe and healthy.

At Medavie, we are proud to have passionate, dedicated professionals on our emergency and health services teams. Our highly trained paramedics are also members of our community care teams who follow our mobile integrated health model to ease emergency department visits, reduce hospital admissions and expand long-term care options by delivering education and in-home care to patients who need it most.

Learn more about the unique and challenging work environments our paramedics are part of and how they work each day to support communities across Canada.

Paramedic Services Week is being celebrated May 21-27, and is an opportunity for us to recognize, honour and thank our colleagues who keep our communities safe and healthy every day.

While most of us run away from danger, paramedics run towards it. On the frontlines in our communities, paramedics play a critical role in our health system and put themselves at risk to keep us safe and healthy.

Thank you to all our Medavie paramedics for their dedication to giving care and comfort to Canadians. We hope you’ll join us in thanking them for their hard work, courage, and commitment to public service.

Medavie Blood Drive – Give the gift of life in honour of those who save lives

In honour and appreciation for the lifesaving work paramedics do daily, we are proud to launch a Medavie blood drive through Canadian Blood Services.

Give the gift of life during Paramedic Services Week at one of their locations across the country, and make sure to register as a Medavie employee. 

Schedule your blood donation appointment today – and be sure to send us a photo when making your donation to be featured on the MHS Messenger!

Thank you very much to all our Medavie paramedics for the work they do every day.

Happy Paramedic Services Week, everyone!

National Nursing Week is being celebrated from May 8 to 14.

National Nursing Week offers a chance to thank, recognize and celebrate all the nurses in our lives. This year’s theme for National Nursing Week – Our Nurses. Our Future – highlights the multitude of roles that nurses take on to care for those in need.

At Medavie, we have Registered Nurses, Licensed Practical Nurses and former nurses as part of multidisciplinary teams working to improve the wellbeing of Canadians. You can find them in our offices, in air and ground ambulances and communication centres. Some of the essential services they provide include:

• Provide clinical advice in the development of health and drug benefit solutions
• Act as RN consultants to review travel claims for illnesses or injuries experienced outside the country
• Manage disability claims to help members safely and quickly return to health and work
• Provide clinical guidance to Extra-Mural Program (EMP) clinical staff in planning care delivery
• Provide direct care to patients in their homes as Extra-Mural Nurses
• Provide critical care on the ground and in the air as Critical Care flight nurses
• Answer 811 health-related phone calls as Emergency Medical Care nurses

Thank you to all our nurses, and those in the communities where we live and work, for the care, compassion, and strength you provide every day!

In the spirit of National Nursing Week, see what some of our nurses have to say about working at Medavie:

“My experience as a nurse clinician in several critical care settings has provided me with essential skills for my work as a Disability Claim Specialist. I have a good understanding of the whole file. I use my empathy and communication strategies for difficult cases, as well as my ability to prioritize emergencies. Disability is a dynamic environment just like in health care!” – Anne-Catherine Dugal, Disability Claims Specialist, Medavie Blue Cross

“I became a nurse to help people and I truly feel like I can make a difference in the health needs of Special Authorization Unit clients. I love coming to work every day knowing that no two requests will be the same. Working in such a fast-paced role has also really allowed me the opportunity to utilize those critical thinking skills that I developed throughout my career as a registered nurse.” – Karen Esculier, Registered Nurse, MAC Pharmacy, Medavie Blue Cross

“I am proud to have had a wonderful nursing experience since 2010 that has led me to this career in Disability Management. My background in family medicine over the years has provided me with a strong ability to use my knowledge to assess medical information, while providing the best claims decisions for the employees.” – Lacey Campbell, Disability Claims Specialist, Medavie Blue Cross

“I love my role working as a Registered Nurse with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (a Medavie Blue Cross client). After working in a hospital setting for 13 years, this change was what I needed. Medavie provides such a positive work environment and a great work life balance.” – Mireille Kavanaugh, Registered Nurse, MAC Pharmacy, Medavie Blue Cross

The Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal (New Brunswick) honours New Brunswickers who have been exemplary in their service to others.

For more than 25 years, Renée-Danielle and Chris Boulay have been caring for their community through their professions in paramedicine and firefighting. Their unwavering commitment to saving lives, helping people in times of need, and fostering a stronger community have earned them both the prestigious Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal (New Brunswick).

The medal ceremony took place at the Moncton Fire Department where Rob McKee, Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Moncton Centre presented the medals. The minute after the picture was taken, Chris responded to a call.

Renée-Danielle and Chris both found their passion to serve their communities early in life. As a student, Renée-Danielle knew she wanted to work in health care and could not wait to launch her career in paramedicine. Her husband, Chris, began volunteering with his local fire station at the age of 15, and has never looked back. Chris is a lieutenant with the Moncton Fire Department and has been there for nearly 15 years.

Currently, Renée-Danielle is a Quality Assurance Coordinator with Medavie Health Services New Brunswick, where she reviews all Advanced Care Paramedic patient care reports and supports training. She met Chris in Yellowknife – where she worked on Medflight air ambulance as a Critical Care Paramedic, which was specialized in critical care, high-risk obstetrics and pediatric intensive care – and they eventually moved back to Atlantic Canada. After working as an ACP in Nova Scotia and in New Brunswick, Renée-Danielle began to teach more and took on her role in quality assurance.

Renée-Danielle and Chris have two little girls at home who are their pride and joy. Back when Renée-Danielle entered the paramedicine profession, it was mostly a male-dominated field, and she did not have many female colleagues; however, she lucked out finding some amazing mentors throughout the years. Renée-Danielle’s perseverance and dedication to serving others is a testament to her success as a paramedic, leader, and community member. She tells her daughters, “Whatever you want to do, you can do it.”

Congratulations Renée-Danielle and Chris for this well-deserved recognition. Thank you, and all those on the frontlines, for keeping our communities safe and healthy.

About 4-in-5 Canadians are likely to be directly affected by chronic disease in their lifetime. Although they are a leading cause of death and disability, chronic diseases are largely preventable.

One of our core values under Medavie EXCEL is responsive, which entails having the courage to act and adapt. We know that chronic diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease, are prevalent amongst our people. We want to help you be responsive by enabling you to make healthy choices to reduce your likelihood of getting a chronic disease, improve your quality of life and even live longer.

• Eat Healthy: Healthy eating decreases your risk of obesity, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and certain cancers. A balanced, healthy diet includes a variety of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean protein and low-fat dairy products, while limiting added sugars, saturated fats, and sodium.

• Be Active: Regular physical activity can help prevent, delay, or manage chronic diseases. Set a goal to do moderate-intensity physical activity (like brisk walking or gardening) at least 20 minutes daily or 150 minutes weekly and muscle-strengthening activities twice a week.

• Sleep Well: Lack of sleep has been linked to the development and poor management of diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and depression. Adults should get at least 7 hours of shuteye every night.

• Get Screened: You can prevent chronic diseases or catch them early through preventive services such as cancer screening tests, prediabetes and diabetes testing. Speak to your doctor or primary care provider about scheduling a test.

• Research your Family History: Does your family have a history of chronic diseases? If so, you may be at risk of developing that disease yourself. Make sure to share your family’s health history with your primary care provider. They can recommend steps you can take to prevent or detect and delay the onset of these conditions.

• Limit alcohol consumption: In addition to adopting healthy lifestyle habits, you can increase your odds of preventing chronic disease by reducing risk behaviours like drinking excessively. Over time, excessive drinking can lead to high blood pressure, various cancers, heart disease, stroke, and liver disease. If you don’t drink, don’t start, and if you do drink, drink in moderation.

• Quit Smoking: Stopping smoking (or never starting) lowers the risk of developing a chronic illness, such as heart disease, cancer, type 2 diabetes, lung disease, and premature death—even for long-time smokers. It’s never too late to break a habit. More than 60% of adults who’ve smoked cigarettes have been able to give them up.

Available Resources to Help You Prevent, Delay and Manage Chronic Disease

360 TotalCare Program
This innovative program is designed to help you manage chronic conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, obesity and high cholesterol, and empower you to live a healthier life. You can access this program through Connected Care (Medavie Mobile app or the cardholder section of Medaviebc.ca) or via 360care.ca/medavie. The program cost will be billed directly to Medavie with 80% covered under the Managing Chronic Disease benefit.

Personal Wellness Account
PWA enables you to get reimbursed for a number of wellbeing expenses including nutrition counselling, weight management programs, addiction treatment, cooking courses, and much more! This benefit gives you greater choice – and control – over how you contribute to your well-being and spend your benefit dollars.

inConfidence
Through inConfidence, our Employee and Family Assistance Program, you and your dependents have 24/7 access to confidential support and resources, at no cost, to manage virtually any personal or professional issue. inConfidence provides a wide range of health resources such as: building conscious eating habits, simple steps to cut cancer risk, supporting a loved one with a chronic condition, and tobacco and nicotine cessation toolkit. Click here to access inConfidence. Enter “Medavie” for the username and “inconfidence” for the password.

We want to hear from you!

As always, we appreciate your feedback and if you have any questions or topics you’d like to learn more about, feel free to email us at WellnessNewsNouvellesMieuxEtre@medavie.ca.

Sources:

• Living Well Hub

Transgender Day of Visibility is an annual event which occurs every March 31. The day is dedicated to celebrating transgender people and raising awareness of discrimination faced by transgender people worldwide. It is also a celebration of their contributions to society.

Today recognizes the struggles, sacrifices and achievements of those who fought, and continue to fight for gender equity.

The international Transgender Day of Visibility reminds us that we can all be allies and work together to stand up for the protection and promotion of the rights of people who are transgender and non-binary.

As part of our values of being caring and community-minded, we should continue to show support by spreading knowledge for the trans community to help stop transphobia and discrimination impacting the trans community.

Available Resources

Explore the Canadian Centre of Diversity and Inclusion’s (CCDI) knowledge repository that all Medavie employees have access to. It has various materials on DEI related topics, including articles such as:

• How to Talk about Pronouns at Work: A Visual Guide, Harvard Business Review
• Affirming and Inclusive Language, Egale
• Fatal Violence Against the Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Community in 2022,

       Human Rights Campaign

• The struggle of trans and gender-diverse persons, United Nations Human Rights
• Tips for Allies of Transgender People, GLAAD

Books you can explore

• Becoming a Visible Man (Jamison Green)
• Beyond the Gender Binary (Alok Vaid-Menon)
• Love Lives Here (Amanda Jetté Knox)
• The Kaleidoscope book list (by Alex)

Supporting NBCC’s Going Beyond Campaign.

Medavie, through the Medavie Foundation, invests in community initiatives and organizations that improve the wellbeing of Canadians. Check out our latest announcement:

• Medavie, through the Medavie Foundation, proudly donated $100,000 to the New Brunswick Community College’s Going Beyond Campaign. The donation will help train more health care workers through NBCC’s School of Health & Wellness through a health simulation lab, now the Medavie Nursing Lab. Ginette Pellerin, VP, Extra-Mural Program Operations, Medavie Health Services New Brunswick was onsite in Fredericton to visit the lab and connect with the students, Dean of Faculty and College President. Read more here.
• Media coverage: CTV News Atlantic & CHSJ-FM.

Research has shown that women have lower scores than men across all areas of financial wellbeing. Listen to one of CPA Canada’s on-demand webinars to help you gain the confidence, accountability and understanding you need to overcome the toughest obstacles and become a money-smart force to be reckoned with.

We joined millions around the globe to celebrate International Women’s Day. The theme for 2023 was Embrace Equity. Research has shown that women have lower scores than men across all areas of financial wellbeing¹.

To further Embrace Equity, we’d like to share with you a series of on-demand webinars by CPA Canada Financial Literacy. We talk about accountability as one of our core values, these webinars are all about empowering women to become accountable for their finances.

Click here to watch to one of the webinars listed below.

Owning your financial identity webinar series

What I would tell my younger self	The self-worth in net worth	Money for new moms
Time flies, and in our fast-paced world, many important lessons can go right over our heads. Establishing strong financial goals and habits early in life is key to avoiding a trip back in time to talk some sense into your younger self.	Rise up SHEroes! Get the facts and confidence you need to start your journey on the path to financial empowerment and success and understand how looking within yourself can help you find the answers.	So you’re going to have a baby! Learn everything you need to know to be on top of your finances before and after welcoming your bundle of joy.
Purposefully uncoupling	The strong woman investor	Just widowed
Divorce is not something we like to think about, but it happens. The question is, will you be ready if it happens to you? Preparing yourself financially can help ease the process.	Learn the ropes of investing and choose the most effective strategies to make your money work for you. With the right preparation and understanding, you can see for yourself how to become an investment superstar.	Losing a partner can create unexpected and difficult challenges, but it doesn’t have to hurt your financial confidence. Learn everything you need to know now to help you move forward when you are ready.

We want to hear from you!
As always, we appreciate your feedback and if you have any questions or topics you’d like to learn more about, feel free to email us at WellnessNewsNouvellesMieuxEtre@medavie.ca.

Let us know in the comment section below which webinar you attended and your key takeaways.

Sources

1. Telus Health