Dec 5, 2018
Today, your host Ellen Gardner, Communications and Marketing at HIROC, speaks with Julia Hanigsberg, President and CEO of Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital
There are many reasons that Julia Hanigsberg was drawn to a position in healthcare and she admits most of them have to do with family. Throughout her daughter’s life (born at just 29 weeks and now at 22), Julia and her family have been accessing many healthcare services that her daughter needed to be successful. Her admiration for the skill and resilience that healthcare providers bring to their jobs has grown since she joined Holland Bloorview, and today, as CEO, one of her key priorities is to break down barriers that get in their way and ensure that workers are supported and cared for. The stigma around youth and children with disabilities still exists, but under Julia’s leadership the hospital has taken a deliberate approach to reducing stigma that has made leading and modelling social change a part of their corporate strategy – the most visible element being a transformative anti-stigma campaign called Dear Everybody.
Key Takeaways:
[1:28] Why her own lack of self-confidence in science and math led Julia to become very passionate about STEM education for all young people
[5:13] The key leadership quality that Julia values in others and epitomizes herself
[8:24] How having the personal experience of accessing healthcare services has helped Julia in her role at Holland Bloorview
[13:10] How Julia and her leadership team are enabling a culture of innovation and collaboration
[16:21] The exercise of developing a risk appetite statement and moving the hospital’s level of risk tolerance to moderate, especially as it relates to taking on more complex patients and expansion of research
[20:06] Why all patients should have the right to research in the areas of their healthcare
[22:17] How scientists, researchers and engineers at Holland Bloorview are developing solutions that enable families and youth to have better functional lives
[25:00] The hospital’s approach to stigma around disability has not been one of judgment but of education and understanding
[25:35] How the Dear Everybody campaign has given children and youth the opportunity to tell the world what they wished everyone knew about them and not to define them by their disability
[29:06] How Holland Bloorview helps children develop their own self-advocacy
[32:50] A difficult moment in Julia’s career
[34:54] Julia’s priorities as leader
[37:54] Why observing the people who work in healthcare gives Julia confidence in our healthcare system and what we can accomplish collectively
[38:50] How social media has connected Julia to students, to colleagues in healthcare, to research, to patients, and expanded her circle
Mentioned in this Episode:
Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital
Dear Everybody – Campaign to end disability stigma
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