Our Stories

Read the latest stories about what's going on at St. Joseph's Health Care London.

Joyce and Earl

Walking Beside Families on Life’s Final Journey: Inside St. Joseph’s Palliative Care Program

For more than 25 years, St. Joseph’s Health Care London has walked alongside patients and families during what can be a very challenging time —end of life care. Since opening in 1999, the Palliative Care Unit (PCU) at Parkwood Institute has been a place of dignity and compassion for individuals across London and Middlesex living with life-limiting illness. St. Joseph’s Palliative Care Program provides pain management and relief of symptoms to those experiencing life-threatening, progressive or terminal illness. The PCU care team helps patients find comfort, supporting them body, mind and...
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Woman raising a dumbell with care provider's support

Putting the pieces back together

“Having a brain injury feels like none of the pieces connect anymore,” says Maura Brisbane who received care through St. Joseph’s Rehabilitation Program. “It’s like when you shake a snow globe and the sparkling snow swirls through the globe before settling somewhere completely new.” Maura says she...
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Lori Nicholson

Feeding the good wolf

Lori Nicolson has experienced homelessness four times. But In 2019, after years in and out of hospital due to a persistent mental illness, Lori’s discharge from St. Joseph’s aligned with the opening of Indwell’s Woodfield Gate Apartments; a supportive housing residence in London. Learn how Lori’s mental health outpatient team, combined with Indwell’s programming, have helped keep Lori living well in her own apartment.
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crowd at bpso event

Mount Hope celebrates BPSO pre-designation

Mount Hope Centre for Long Term care begins a three-year journey for designation as a Best Practice Spotlight Organization with the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario. St. Joseph's Mount Hope Centre for Long Term care is committed to excellence through continuous quality improvement and...
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a sustainable living wall full of plants

Your donation brightens lives in so many ways

The healing power of nature With mounting evidence of the benefits of plants to an individual’s physical and mental health, a beautiful living wall was installed at Mount Hope Centre for Long Term Care, thanks to donor support. The sustainable living wall features three panels full of plant life and...
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Sylvia O'Connell

Acts of service

Inside Sylvia O’Connell’s (née Winstanley) closet at Parkwood Institute hangs her battle dress uniform from the Second World War. The jacket’s green wool and precise stitching have remained in pristine condition since she served in the Canadian Women’s Army Corps, stationed in England. It’s the...
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Dr. Arlene MacDougall and Alec Cook sit down with a laptop computer

Standing up for mental health

At 15 years old, Alec Cook knew he couldn’t continue living with the status quo. He was struggling with gender dysphoria, unable to access the health services he needed. “There wasn’t much available to help me at the time and I sometimes felt like I wasn’t being heard by health providers,” he says...
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Dr. Ivanka Nebor

The right hand of a surgeon

Sitting around the kitchen table with her family, Dr. Ivanka Nebor heard about her parents’ lives as physicians in Ukraine. Their stories of science, of compassion, and of courage inspired her to go to medical school. They also led her to found INgenius, a non-governmental organization, and first of...
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Dr. Narinder Paul

Future vision

Dr. Narinder Paul calls it a game changer. A powerful new PET/CT scanner with the potential to personalize disease diagnosis and treatment for patients. “We’re the first in the country to have this PET/CT machine,” says Dr. Paul, Chair/Chief of Medical Imaging. “It offers the most sophisticated and...
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Paul and Kim Spriet sitting together on a couch

Running with purpose

Kim Spriet was diagnosed with Stargardt disease, an inherited form of macular degeneration, as a young adult. But it wasn’t until her late thirties that the progressive vision loss started to impact her daily life. “I started questioning, will I be able to travel? Will I see my kids get married...
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