
Joanne
Maxwell,
Msc, PhD (candidate)
Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital
ON,
Canada
Joanne is VP, Experience, Transformation and Social Accountability (ETSA) at Holland Bloorview providing leadership for a number of programs including Collaborative Practice and Clinical Education, Quality, Safety & Performance, Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility & Anti-Racism (IDEAA), Client & Family Integrated Care, Transitions & Community Partnerships, and Clinical bioethics.
Joanne has led many organization-wide projects including the introduction of a Family Navigation Hub to support families with complex social needs. In all that she does, Joanne brings a commitment to adapting the environment, creating access and removing barriers.
Presenting at CAB 2025:
Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital embarked on a review of the Collaborative Practice & Clinical Education Model that has been in place for over 15 years. Through targeted focus groups, environmental scan, and literature review, four themes and recommendations for model optimization were found.
As a component of broader organizational efforts to improve equitable access to services, we introduced a Social Needs Screening (SNS) Initiative and a Family Navigation Hub in 2020. The Family Navigation Hub aims to address unmet social needs in a systematic, evidence-informed way. The model aims to:
1. IDENTIFY: Identify unmet social needs related to food security, housing stability, child care, transportation, utilities, health care costs, health literacy and supportive community connections through the use of an evidence based screening tool (adapted internally for our pediatric setting),
2. CONNECT: Enhancing our relationships with community partners to better support social needs (e.g., a series of CommunityCONNECT workshops which we co-deliver with a community agency),
3. ADDRESS: Creation of internal ‘action pathways’ to support unmet social needs, including referrals for individualized support in the Family Navigation Hub where we provide navigation interventions and warm handovers with community partners,
4. LINK: Fostering of personalized linkages to resources and services to address unmet social needs.
This systematic approach to screening for social needs ensures all families are equitably offered the opportunity to share challenges that could otherwise interfere with their ability to fully participate in, and benefit from the care and services they receive.