Send us Fan Mail

Dr. Leslie Roos (CHF Manitoba) and Adam Starkman (Canada’s Children’s Hospital Foundations) look ahead to a more connected, prevention-focused mental health system. They discuss closing regional gaps, strengthening collaboration between hospitals and communities, and the role of corporate investment in expanding access to care nationwide.

Enjoyed the episode? Leave us a rating or review, share with your colleagues, and be sure to subscribe!

Send us Fan Mail

National Patient Youth Ambassador Jenna Kedy shares her personal mental health journey, offering a lived-experience perspective on the emotional and practical barriers young people face navigating care. She reflects on what earlier support could have changed and what lessons families and youth can carry forward from her experience.

Enjoyed the episode? Leave us a rating or review, share with your colleagues, and be sure to subscribe!

Send us Fan Mail

Renée Hopfner (Empire Company Limited) and Adam Starkman (Canada’s Children’s Hospital Foundations) unpack what early intervention actually means, why it's becoming an urgent priority across Canada, and what happens when children and families don't get support until they're already in crisis. The episode highlights system gaps and the promise of proactive, prevention-focused care.

Enjoyed the episode? Leave us a rating or review, share with your colleagues, and be sure to subscribe!

Send us Fan Mail

*Please note that this episode contains glitches that we've (unsuccessfully) attempted to fix.

Families navigate fragmented healthcare and education systems while managing invisible labour that systems and professionals often don't recognize: coordinating care, translating information across sectors, and advocating for their children's needs. In this episode, researchers, a clinician, and parent partners discuss how lived experience must become integrated expertise driving system change, not just testimony, and how meaningful family participation in co-design creates solutions that actually work. The conversation highlights that building continuity across sectors and empowering families is essential to creating systems that serve children and youth with disabilities across their lifetimes.

Enjoyed the episode? Leave us a rating or review, share with your colleagues, and be sure to subscribe!

Send us Fan Mail

Children with congenital heart disease face developmental challenges similar to those born prematurely, yet follow-up care in Canada depends on where a child is born and lacks the systematic approach that exists for other at-risk populations. In this episode, guest Dr. Keiko Shikako and the speakers discuss the Bright Pathways project, which is adapting evidence-based recommendations to establish consistent developmental monitoring across Canada, and highlight how fragmented care forces families to become system navigators. The conversation reveals the urgent need for healthcare and education systems to collaborate and include patients and families in solutions.

Enjoyed the episode? Leave us a rating or review, share with your colleagues, and be sure to subscribe!

Send us Fan Mail

Early identification and intervention can transform outcomes for children with disabilities and their families, yet Canada's fragmented health and education systems create barriers that leave parents navigating alone. In this episode, guest Dr. Keiko Shikako speaks with researchers and parent partners about the impact of early identification, current system gaps, and promising approaches like the Childbright Coaching Research Project. This is the first in our miniseries on childhood disability, health system improvement, and family-centered care.

Enjoyed the episode? Leave us a rating or review, share with your colleagues, and be sure to subscribe!

Send us Fan Mail

Children's Healthcare Canada is proud to bring you SPARK Conversations in a new mini-series format — going deeper on the issues that matter most to children, youth, and their families. Each mini-series is designed to inform and advance healthcare systems that are innovative, accessible, equitable, integrated, and built with children in mind. This is where the conversation starts.

Enjoyed the episode? Leave us a rating or review, share with your colleagues, and be sure to subscribe!

Send us Fan Mail

In this special capstone episode of SPARK: Conversations, host Dr. Katharine Smart speaks with Emily Gruenwoldt, President and CEO of Children’s Healthcare Canada, to reflect on two years of exploring what it means to right-size children’s healthcare systems in Canada. They look back on key themes from the series — from timely access to care, community-based services, equity, partnerships, and family-centred care to workforce and data challenges — and connect these insights to the broader work ahead. Emily shares how these conversations are shaping Children’s Healthcare Canada’s strategic priorities, including advancing a National Children’s Healthcare Strategy and evidence-informed policy solutions that can improve health and wellbeing for children, youth and families across the country. This episode marks both a closing chapter of the right-sizing series and a beginning of new opportunities to inform systems change.

Enjoyed the episode? Leave us a rating or review, share with your colleagues, and be sure to subscribe!