Your digest

August 17, 2021

We want to make it easy for employees to access the latest from Canadian Blood Services.  Every Tuesday and Friday, we will be bringing you important COVID-19 updates along with valuable information and inspiring stories about other parts of our operations.

We know things are rapidly changing; please remember you can always reach out to communications@blood.ca with your questions and suggestions on how we can better help employees.

Here is the latest.

See past digests

Statement on Canadian Blood Services’ Cord Blood Bank

You may have read in the news recently that a private, Toronto-based company, called the Cord Blood Bank of Canada, is facing a lawsuit related to allegedly failing to properly store umbilical cord samples. In light of the growing media coverage about this company, Canadian Blood Services has released a statement to help distinguish our public cord blood bank from private, pay-for-storage cord blood banks. In Canada, mothers-to-be have the option to publicly donate their babies’ umbilical cord blood to Canadian Blood Services' Cord Blood Bank, thereby offering hope to thousands of patients in Canada and across the globe. As a national, publicly funded and accountable cord blood bank that recruits healthy, eligible volunteer mothers delivering at designated hospitals, our cord blood bank is unique compared to private cord blood banks. Learn more at blood.ca.

Financial donors surprise young cancer survivor on her seventh birthday

Earlier this year, we shared a story with our community of financial donors about a young patient named Abigale, who is undergoing treatment for an aggressive form of cancer of the blood and bone marrow. Abigale has relied on frequent blood and platelet transfusions to make it through her cancer treatments. She has so much gratitude for the donors who have helped save her life that her sixth birthday wish last year was for friends and family to donate to Canada’s Lifeline to help other kids like her. When our financial donors recently heard about Abigale’s birthday wish, they were so inspired that they gave both from their wallets and their hearts. Many donors took the time to mail birthday cards to Abigale ahead of her seventh birthday in June 2021, expressing their well wishes for her as she continues treatment and sharing how moved they were by her wish to help others. Read more about Abigale’s seventh birthday surprise on Connect.

Reminder: Save the date for upcoming wellness webinars

Whether you have children heading back to school next month, or you are preparing for another busy season of work (or both!), September can be a stressful time. That’s why this month’s offering of well-being resources, workshops and events are focused on helping you and your loved ones maintain balance and manage anxiety. Save the date for these upcoming wellness webinars:

Ask the Expert sessions give you real-time access to the world’s leading experts on topics that affect your everyday life, on a completely anonymous and confidential basis.

Visit Connect to learn more about these events and other available resources to support your and your family’s well-being this fall.

Question of the day: What steps are being taken to make our donation process more accessible and functional for donors who have vision loss, hearing loss and/or who require the use of a wheelchair?

Canadian Blood Services welcomes and encourages individuals with disabilities, including physical and invisible disabilities to be regular donors.  

We provide support to donors with disabilities in a number of ways, including using interpreters, translating documents into braille, and permitting a donor’s support person to assist the donor with a physical disability into bleeding beds.

We permit service animals to accompany donors while making a donation and provide qualified sign-language interpreters at no cost to donors who are deaf, deafened or hard-of-hearing (as long as three weeks’ notice is provided).  

Through our diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) program, we are currently taking steps to identify all existing donor barriers and engage stakeholders with lived experience to help us find meaningful solutions. 

Our executive team also approved the adoption of Universal Design (UD) principles in February 2020. UD is defined as the design and composition of an environment so that it can be accessed, understood and used to the greatest extent possible by all people regardless of their age, size, or ability.

Preliminary assessments and enhancements have been undertaken at our sites in Calgary and Toronto. This fall, we are planning to assess all our sites for gaps and identify how we can best prioritize and close these.

Job Alert! Sign up for automatic notifications with our new mobile-friend employee career portal.

 

About your digest

This digest highlights the latest policy and employee support measures, resources to help you manage our new reality and original content like articles and videos to remind us that what we do matters.  No access to email? No problem — all this information and more can be found on blood.ca/employees from any device, no login required.     

Click here to read past editions of your digest. 

Have questions? Check out blood.ca/employees or email us at communications@blood.ca