Your Digest

Submit your questions for the April 28 town hall

Our next live town hall event is coming up on Thursday, April 28, 1 – 2 p.m. ET. If you have a question you’d like to ask, please submit it to communications@blood.ca with the subject line ‘TOWNHALL’ or use this anonymous form. You can also submit your question live. To join the event on April 28, click the meeting link in your Outlook invitation. If you’re unable to make it, a recording of the event will be available on the employee portal and the Connect on the Go app within 24 hours. During our last town hall in March, our CEO Dr. Graham Sher and our guest panelists didn’t have enough time to respond to all pre-submitted and live questions. Visit Connect for a round-up of responses to some of the most frequently asked questions from that event.

Sign up to learn more about research at Canadian Blood Services

Our organization drives world-class innovation in blood transfusion, cellular therapy, and transplantation. In collaboration with an extended network of partners, the research team fosters discovery and clinical research, conducts product and process development research, translates knowledge through leading practices and builds capacity through training and education. If you want to learn more about the exciting research being done at Canadian Blood Services, subscribe to our Research and Education Round Up Newsletter. These monthly updates will keep you informed about the latest news, publications and events from our Medical Affairs and Innovation network.

Question of the day: Given the impact that COVID-19 is having on people’s mental health, some companies are removing caps on mental health resources such as counselling. Is Canadian Blood Services considering augmenting mental health benefits?

We understand that the past two years have presented new challenges for many of our employees, who have been forced to juggle work and home responsibilities in new ways. Along with supports to cope with every day and sustained mental health challenges, we want to ensure our employees have access to the resources they need to stay healthy, both physically and mentally. Here are a few ways we have recently augmented our resources to support employees:

• In 2020, we increased our benefits coverage for mental health services from $500 to $1500 per person per year (for people covered under the Manulife Benefits Plan).
• Also under the Manulife Benefits Plan, the list of eligible expenses was expanded to include family therapists and clinical counselors (April 2021).
• We made drop-in counselling services available to all employees (whether they have benefits coverage or not).
• We introduced new tools to support resilience and well-being (drop-in mindfulness sessions, Insight Timer app).

Maintaining a healthy balance in our lives and managing personal and professional stressors is important. Check out our well-being page on Connect for more resources.

About Your Digest

This digest highlights the latest policy and employee support measures, resources to help you manage our new reality and original content to remind us that what we do matters. This information 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.