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Your health, simplified.

Finding information about your health shouldn’t be complicated. Healthy Tomorrows is a collection of health stories, insights and tips from experts at The Ottawa Hospital to help you and your family live healthier lives.

Mackenzie Daybutch
“No one should feel alone at work”: New network helps Indigenous hospital employees feel connected

A place to connect, share and listen, the Indigenous Employee Network at The Ottawa Hospital supports Indigenous staff. Mackenzie Daybutch, Program Coordinator, Indigenous woman, and trailblazer of the network explains why all hospitals should have one.

Gwen Barton
Inuit cancer patients receive care in Nunavut thanks to ongoing hospital partnership

Although Inuit patients from Nunavut typically come to The Ottawa Hospital for cancer care, they can now receive more care close to home. It’s part of an ongoing partnership between The Ottawa Hospital and Qikiqtani General Hospital.

Smudging
Smudge procedure gives comfort to Indigenous patients and families

For many patients and families, spiritual practices can help manage the stress of time spent in hospital. For First Nations and Métis patients and families, these practices might include smudging ceremonies. The Ottawa Hospital now has a procedure in place to be able to respond to requests from patients and families for smudging ceremonies.

Nina Kautuq (centre) and six-year-old son Jutanie, . Carolyn Roberts (left), and Kerri-Lynn Whyte (right)
Nunavut mom met nurses who held her dying daughter’s hand

Nina Kautuq’s body is still healing from the 2015 tent fire that claimed the lives of her husband and three of her four children. But her emotional healing finally began in February, when she met the nurses and doctor who cared for her dying children.

Ceporah Evic (red jacket) and Vanessa Evic (purple jacket)
The Ottawa Hospital and Ottawa Senators team up to lift spirits of Inuit cancer patients

Patients travelling far from home for cancer treatment can feel isolated, but The Ottawa Hospital and Ottawa Senators are working together to help lift patients’ spirits and give them an experience they will never forget.

Megan Ellis, Aboriginal Program Coordinator, wears her red sash to show her Métis heritage
Blanket Exercise boosts staff awareness about colonization effects on Indigenous patients

It moves some to tears. Others are shocked, yet hopeful. Anger, guilt and shame can also come with the heightened awareness hospital staff members have after taking part in the KAIROS Blanket Exercise, which retells 500 years of Canada’s history through the perspective of First Nations, Inuit and Métis.

This website gives you common facts, advice and tips. Some of it may not apply to you. Please talk to your doctor, nurse or other health-care team member to see if this information will work for you. They can also answer your questions and concerns.