Pictured, left to right: Nicole Aminot, President & CEO, St. Boniface Hospital; Carmine Militano, Board Chair, St. Boniface Hospital Foundation; Karen Fowler, President & CEO, St Boniface Hospital Foundation; Amber King, Senior Manager, Regional Marketing, Prairie Region, Scotiabank; David Zyla, Vice President, Manitoba East & NW Ontario, Scotiabank; April Bertrand, Interim Program Director, Women & Child, St. Boniface Hospital; Sandra Torchia, Interim Program Director, Mental Health, St. Boniface Hospital.
WINNIPEG – December 1, 2022 – The Mental Health Program at St. Boniface Hospital can do more to help patients find their footing thanks to a $150,000 gift from Scotiabank.
The donation will help St. Boniface add resources to support clients as they learn and develop life skills such as cooking, personal hygiene, and self care so that they are positioned to thrive in the community after their discharge.
“Scotiabank believes in helping communities, households, and individuals alike become more resilient in the face of ongoing challenges,” said David Zyla, District Vice President, Manitoba East and Northwestern Ontario. “We’re pleased to contribute to the impactful work St. Boniface Hospital is doing to bolster mental health supports for patients to help them re-integrate into daily life and position them for success.”
Funding will support several initiatives designed to build the skills clients need to re-integrate into daily life. These include a coping-skills activity package, updates to the practice kitchen in the McEwen Building to ensure clients can prepare their own meals in a realistic environment, renovations of two quiet rooms that offer clients a private space to use when they need a break from stimuli, informational materials, and access to a mobile application. These resources will reinforce the gains that patients have made in their life skills and social skills, through therapy emphasizing mindfulness, acceptance, and emotion regulation.
Scotiabank’s new support follows the completion in 2021 of transformational improvements to the McEwen Building. Foundation donors contributed a remarkable $1.5 M to the project’s total investment of $2.7 M. At one time a residence for medical students, the building had not undergone any significant updates since the 1980s.
“We are very grateful to Scotiabank for their generosity and their progressive understanding of best practices for mental-health treatment,” said Karen Fowler, President and CEO, St. Boniface Hospital Foundation. “Society has come a long way in recognizing that mental health is health, period, and no less an aspect of personal well-being than a healthy heart.”
“Together with the McEwen Building upgrades, which created a safer and more home-like physical environment, the new programming Scotiabank’s gift makes possible will help more Manitobans take control of their recovery.”
Over 700 inpatients are admitted every year into the Mental Health Program. Care teams also handle more than 10,000 outpatient visits annually.
“Treatment begins with the belief that recovery is possible,” said Sandra Torchia RN BN MN, Program Director, Mental Health, Palliative Care & Spiritual Health.
“Patients are more than their illness or their diagnosis,” said Torchia. “With the right support from caregivers and effective, evidence-based tools to aid in treatment and healing, our clients are able to return to, or develop, a meaningful life for themselves.”
Media Inquiries, contact:
Lisa Thomson Stifora
Director of Communications & Stewardship
St. Boniface Hospital Foundation
Ph: 204-770-3210
[email protected]
About St. Boniface Hospital Foundation
St. Boniface Hospital Foundation was founded in 1971 and is the primary fundraising organization for St. Boniface Hospital. The Foundation is dedicated to making possible the many innovations in health research and patient care taking place at the Hospital. St. Boniface Hospital is a leader in patient care excellence, delivered with genuine compassion. Research at St. Boniface Hospital is where medical discoveries are made; science is translated into practices that improve human health; and today’s best minds are shaping tomorrow’s advances in health care. For more information, visit www.bealifeline.ca.
About Scotiabank
Scotiabank is a leading bank in the Americas. Guided by our purpose: “for every future”, we help our customers, their families and their communities achieve success through a broad range of advice, products and services, including personal and commercial banking, wealth management and private banking, corporate and investment banking, and capital markets. With a team of over 90,000 employees and assets of approximately $1.3 trillion (as at July 31, 2022), Scotiabank trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: BNS) and New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: BNS). For more information, please visit http://www.scotiabank.com and follow us on Twitter @Scotiabank.