A highlight of the BC Care Providers’ annual conference is SafeCare BC’s Safety Den, in which four organizations pitch their health and safety ideas to a panel of four judges. Earlier this year, a call went for submissions to the Safety Den. The submissions received this year were very creative and showed employees' and organizations' commitment and passion for creating safe workplaces. A committee reviewed the submissions and narrowed them to four finalists, who will present on May 29 at the Safety Den. Here are the finalists.


Kinsmen Lodge
Kathleen Kennedy-Strath, the Lodge’s CEO recognizes the importance of staff stretching before and after a shift to help reduce the risk of injury. Her ask to staff was that they create a fun, educational and practical tool. Staffers Jenn and Yen stretched their creativity and created a fun exercise video for staff. “They did a great job with this initiative,” says Kathleen. “We got a great response from our staff. It’s visual and fun and a great learning tool.” Kathleen adds that it only takes a few minutes to get your body warmed up with some easy stretches, and you can do it anywhere.

Yana Health Systems
Taj Baidwan and his partners, Duncan Campbell and Dr. Drew Digney, all have experience in BC’s health system, and the high rate of injury among healthcare employees motivates them. “The way we break our staff is not sustainable,” says Baidwan. “We know we have to do something different.” Inspired by the work of a small U.S. company that uses musculoskeletal movement analysis in performance athletics, the trio felt there was a similar application for health care. This functional imaging technology can guide rehab, but even better it can identify potential injuries before they happen.

Chilliwack Society for Community Living
The Chilliwack Society for Community Living has participated in the North American Occupational Safety and Health Week for the past few years. “Our goal has been how to take serious policy and shift it into something that is fun,” says Jeff Gilbank, the Society’s Director of continuous quality improvement. Last year, they introduced the concept of a comic book as a tool for learning. The staff came up with a group of villainous characters. It was such a hit that they recently introduced a new comic book featuring superheroes. “I can’t think of another initiative that we have done that has garnered this kind of attention from our staff,” says Gilbank. “There were some hidden talents amongst our staff because the entire comic book was created internally.”

Vancouver Coastal
Lilian Hung sees many patients in her unit with dementia. Being in the hospital can be stressful for these individuals, and this anxiety can often trigger responsive behaviours. Hung and her colleagues always look for non-pharmaceutical interventions to help calm patients. One idea that has had particular success is to take pre-recorded messages from family members, load them onto an iPad, and then show the message to a patient when needed. The messages are usually specific to a task, taking medication, for example. “We have seen a significant reduction in behavioural issues since we began this initiative,” says Hung. “We see how individuals transform from being upset to being agreeable. It’s so simple and low cost, yet has had a very positive impact on our patients and their families and our staff.”