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Our 2020-2023 Strategic Plan

PAIL Network is pleased to present our 2020 - 2023 strategic plan. Guided by our enduring Mission and Vision, this plan sets out clear priorities and a path forward to achieve our overall goal for the next three years: Improving Quality: Creating a Supportive Care Experience for Ontario Families Who Experience Pregnancy and Infant Loss

Introduction

PAIL Network is pleased to present our new Strategic Plan for 2020-2023.

 

This plan sets out a clear path for PAIL Network as we continue to work towards a better care experience for families who experience pregnancy and infant loss in Ontario. It builds on our past progress and outlines clear priorities for action in four Strategic Directions:

 

  • Family Support
  • Healthcare Professionals Education
  • Awareness and Advocacy
  • High Performing Teams

 

As we embarked on the planning process, we were committed to casting a wide net for advice and ideas, honouring our provincial mandate and our commitment to be guided by the lived experiences of families who have lost a pregnancy or infant and those who care for them.  We conducted an online survey to ask families and healthcare providers for feedback on PAIL Network’s progress to date and more importantly for advice on where new needed to focus going forward. We held in person consultations with families in several communities across Ontario. We reviewed the feedback we had received from families and health care professionals after their participation in PAIL Network programs. And we consulted with our volunteers and staff about what PAIL Network could do better and new ideas for the future. And we engaged our Advisory Committee several times through the process. All of this input and feedback was collated and directly informed our decision-making about the goals, strategies and initiatives captured in this Plan.

 

PAIL Network would like to thank the many people who contributed to the development of this plan. We are excited about the path it sets out for the next three years and we look forward to working together towards achieving its goals.

Building On Our Legacy and Past Progress

Our 2020-2023 Strategic Plan honours the legacy of PAIL Network, established by families who had experienced pregnancy and infant loss, and builds on the progress we have made since becoming a provincially-funded program in 2016.   

Accomplishments under the guidance of our 2017-2020 Strategic Plan include:

  • Growing the number of peer support groups offered in Ontario from 18 to 28, with a broader geographic spread, along with new types of groups to offer support online, specific to the type of loss experienced
  • Increased the number of families receiving peer support from 450 people in 2017/18 to 882 people in 2019/20
  • Engaging with families to better understand the unique needs of partners, people who identify as LGBTQ+, and families who lose a baby suddenly and unexpectedly
  • Ongoing learning and building relationships with families, professionals, and leaders in indigenous communities about how to facilitate valued traditions and teachings after a baby has died
  • Partnered with Ontario Health-Quality (previously Health Quality Ontario) to develop a quality standard for early pregnancy complications and loss
  • Developed 3 videos for health care professionals to demonstrate the impact of their care when a family experiences pregnancy loss or infant death
  • Created 4 new booklets, and built an online library of resources for health care professionals to support the care being provided to families at the time of their loss
  • Published the first research of its kind about families’ experiences of pregnancy and infant loss in Ontario
  • Presented our work across Canada, and at the International Conference on Stillbirth, SIDS and Baby Survival
  • Supported communities to host Wave of Light events across Ontario on October 15th
  • Advocated at the federal level for a national strategy that would support bereavement leave for parents
  • Created a referral process to increase the likelihood of healthcare professionals telling families about PAIL at their time of loss and connecting consenting families to PAIL
  • Introduced a province wide Community of Practice for health and service professionals who provide bereavement care and support
  • Implemented evaluation metrics to measure the quality of our peer support program and the impact of our Compassionate Care Workshops on the care practices of professionals

It is upon this foundation that we look forward to building the next three years.

Our Planning Process

As PAIL Network embarked on the planning process for our 2020-2023 Strategic Plan, we committed to casting a wide net for advice and ideas, honouring our provincial mandate and our commitment to be guided by the lived experiences of families who have lost a pregnancy or infant and those who care for them.

  • We conducted an online survey to ask families and healthcare providers for feedback on PAIL Network’s progress to date and advice on where we needed to focus going forward.
  • We held in person consultations with families in several communities across Ontario.
  • We reviewed the feedback we had received from families and health care professionals who had received support from and participated in PAIL Network programs.
  • We consulted with our volunteers and staff about what PAIL Network could do better and new ideas for the future.
  • And finally, we engaged our Advisory Committee for advice and direction several times through the process.

All of this input and feedback was collated and directly informed our decision-making about the goals, strategies and initiatives captured in our new plan. A summary of the feedback we received from families during these consultations is available HERE.

Decisions about our future directions and priorities were also guided by our commitment to align with the 2018-2021 Strategic Plan of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre of which we are a part.

PAIL Network would like to thank the many people who contributed to the development of this plan. We are excited about the path it sets out for the next three years and we look forward to working together towards achieving its goals.

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The Mission of PAIL Network is:

To improve care and support for families who experience the loss of a pregnancy or infant through high quality and evidence-based peer support programs, advocacy, and education of health care professionals and the public.

Vision

The vision of PAIL Network is an Ontario where…

Families who suffer the loss of a pregnancy or infant are cared for and feel supported automatically.

Babies are remembered and honoured, and the entire family is embraced by their community.

Health care professionals have the knowledge, resources and support they need to provide skilled and compassionate care to families who experience the loss of a pregnancy or infant.

Communities are informed about pregnancy and infant loss and bereavement and are able to wrap around families who experience it with compassion and without stigma.

Leaders, funders and decision-makers recognize and support effective and properly resourced care for pregnancy and infant loss and bereavement as an essential part of a high quality, person- and family-centred health care system.

The health care system offers a standard of care that is comprehensive and effective so that every family who experiences the loss of a pregnancy or infant receives the care and support they need.

Aligned with Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre of which we are a part, the Values that guide us are:

  1. Excellence
  2. Collaboration
  3. Accountability
  4. Respect
  5. Engagement

Three in three

The following three themes will guide PAIL Network for the next three years – they are our collective “three in three.”

1

Support & education to make a difference

We will increase our focus on care provider education to make family support and provider education equal areas of focus for PAIL Network. While PAIL Network has taught a respected care provider program for a number of years, we heard clearly and consistently in the provincial consultations that more needs to be done. Families told us that the number one opportunity to improve support for families experiencing pregnancy or infant loss is to provide more training and education for care providers. Care providers also confirmed the need for more and better training, a wider range of evidence-based resources for both families and care providers, and easier access to training and educational materials including online modalities.

2

Be transformative

The passion and success of PAIL Network over 20+ years and its leadership in advocating for Bill 141 were critical to the significant investment the Ministry of Health now has made to expand the services PAIL Network provides. PAIL Network has a powerful legacy upon which to build but our focus forward needs to be more than “the same just bigger.” To be truly transformative we will actively seek and respond to new opportunities and challenges, and most of all to the new and emerging needs of the families experiencing pregnancy or infant loss, and those who care for them.

3

Demonstrate impact

We will to build evaluation and outcome measurement into everything we do. The need to report to our funders on the impact of their current investment is an important reason to evaluate and measure. Embedding measurement and evaluation into our work will also enable us to continually improve the quality of our programs to best meet the needs of families and care providers. We want to be able to clearly demonstrate that better support for families and better education for care providers has a direct impact on the quality of care and overall experiences of families.

These three themes reflect on the impact and past success of PAIL Network and what we have heard over the last few months about where we must focus going forward.

2020-2023 strategic priorities

PAIL Network is pleased to present our 2020 – 2023 strategic plan. Guided by our enduring Mission and Vision, this plan sets out clear priorities and a path forward to achieve our overall goal for the next three years:

Improving Quality: Creating a Supportive Care Experience for Ontario

Families Who Experience Pregnancy and Infant Loss

Family Support
  • Develop and implement a plan to expand digital resources for families
  • Expand written resources based on identification of gaps and specifically family needs
  • Enhance equitable access to PAIL supports for families
Healthcare Professionals Education
  • Adapt current Compassionate Care Workshop content to new learning formats
  • Expand training and continuous learning opportunities and resources for health care professionals
  • Establish mechanisms to recognize health care professionals who exemplify compassionate care for families during loss
  • Support implementation of the provincial Quality Standards for Early Pregnancy Complications and Loss
Awareness & Advocacy
  • Evolve our approach to supporting and delivering events through third parties wherever possible
  • Continue to expand awareness of PAIL Network through public speaking, partnerships and networking
  • Plan and deliver PAIL Network’s first conference in 2023
High Performing Teams
  • Maximize our internal resources, including volunteers, to expand programs and support across Ontario
  • Expand collaboration and relationships with other organizations aligned with PAIL Network’s Vision and priorities
  • Grow the role of Regional Representatives
  • Continue to build a culture of evaluation and continuous improvement
  • Articulate and embed a commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-racism