Gail Mitchell Archives | Research & Innovation

Professor Christine Jonas-Smith premieres film on families living with perinatal loss

fmaquito — Thu, 12 May 2011 08:00:00 +0000

91��ɫ nursing Professor Christine Jonas-Simpson has always been keenly interested in loss and grief, how people experience it and how they integrate it into their lives in a continuing way. It was while doing research on daughters who had lost their mothers to Alzheimer’s disease that Jonas-Simpson experienced what she calls “the deepest loss of my life”.

Pregnant with her third child, she was conducting a series of interviews as research for the play, , on loss and how it is transformed, when she lost her son Ethan. “I was just struck by how I was immersed in this phenomena and living it at the same time,” she says. I'm Still Here was co-created with 91��ɫ nursing Professor Gail Mitchell and playwright Vrenia Ivonoffski.

Right: Christine Jonas-Simpson, holding the children's book she wrote, Ethan's Butterflies

Ethan was stillborn at 38 weeks – or, as Jonas-Simpson prefers to say, born still – causing a rent in the universe as she knew it. After the loud silence of her delivery, she remembers hearing a primal scream of agony, realizing some moments later it was coming from her.

Almost a decade later, Jonas-Simpson is about to premiere her third research-based documentary film, about how mothers and their families live with the loss of a child. The premiere will take place Sunday, May 15, from 1 to 3:30pm at the Fox Theatre, 2236 Queen St. E. in Toronto. Tickets are $25 per ticket with proceeds going to Bereaved Families of Ontario-Toronto. To buy tickets, call 416-440-0290 or e-mail info@bfotoronto.ca.

Enduring Love looks at the lives of four women, the agony of loss, the impact the death of their infant has had on them and their families and how they learned to live with their loss. It also traces the importance of recognizing their other children are also grieving, the continuing presence of their deceased child in their lives, the rituals they’ve developed and how they not only endured but have been transformed by their loss. Funded by 91��ɫ's Faculty of Health and the Health Leadership & Learning Network: Interprofessional Education Initiative Fund, the documentary answers the research question, what is the meaning of living and transforming with loss for mothers who experience the loss of their baby?

As one woman in the film says of her family, it was a “seminal event in their lives”; there was a before and an after. The women make the point that many fail to realize that losing their baby, whether at 24 weeks gestation or several weeks after delivery, is a profoundly felt loss that changes, not only them, but their husbands and their children, forever. One of the universally hard moments for these women was going home from the hospital without their baby. It feels so unnatural, says Jonas-Simpson.

It was the experience of losing her own son that guided Jonas-Simpson’s research toward providing a body of arts-based research for others who experienced perinatal loss. She had often used music in her nursing practice and research, and then began incorporating art, drama and film. “With grieving and loss it seemed appropriate to keep going with the arts.” Although, she will write papers on her latest research, she believes presenting her findings with an art-based approach makes it more accessible and touches people in a way a research paper in a journal wouldn’t. “It’s a way of showing the human experience, rather than just telling,” she says.

Being a researcher, I looked at the literature to see what was out there. I was struck by how little there was out there in light of grieving and loss about mothers’ lived experiences. My graduate student, Jennifer Noseworthy, and I are conducting a comprehensive literature review and we’ve only found a few qualitative studies focused on the human lived experience of perinatal loss.” And that moved Jonas-Simpson to conduct research and create resources for others like her.

Enduring Love is her third film. Her first was , while her second, is a short made from footage shot for Enduring Love, which focuses on the surviving children. “These children have an incredible bond and relationship with the babies,” their siblings who’ve died. Jonas-Simpson recently gave a talk and showed Why Did Baby Die? at a Women's Health and Mental Wellbeing Speakers Series event at 91��ɫ.

Some of the children, as seen in Enduring Love, have drawn family portraits years later that have included their deceased siblings. “Grieving and loss isn’t always something we talk about openly, but it is experienced by many, if not all, of us,” says Jonas-Simpson. Even after the physical death, the relationship continues. “It’s still hidden. Perinatal loss is also disenfranchised in our society.” To help grieving children with the loss of a baby sibling, she also wrote the children's book .

Jonas-Simpson started talking about her own experience of losing Ethan, born with vibrant red locks, and how her other two sons, now 11 and 13, have integrated him into their lives as a way to help others. “The children integrate this loss very well,” she says. One of her children even wrote a letter to Ethan as a school assignment, asking if there are dinosaurs in heaven and if it hurt to die. The teacher may have been uncomfortable, but Jonas-Simpson says it’s important to talk about and to understand the continuing relationship following death.

Next, she is hoping to do research on children age three to 18 who are grieving a loss of a baby sibling. Children, she says, are often forgotten about, but they too grieve. “If we can be more open about grief and loss as a natural human experience and if we can begin in the schools with that,” it could be really helpful for the children, she says. She would also like to explore the common and unique threads of grieving around the world.

For more information or to view or buy Jonas-Simpson’s films, visit the Faculty of Health’s Living and Transforming with Perinatal Loss website.

By Sandra McLean, YFile writer

Republished courtesy of YFile – 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Nursing researchers collaborate with Department of Theatre to highlight patient safety issues on stage

fmaquito — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 08:00:00 +0000

When it comes to Canadian Patient Safety Week, the play’s the thing.

Researchers at 91��ɫ’s have come up with a pioneering way to convey their evidence-based research on what can happen when health-care mistakes are made – they’re putting on a play about it.

Seeing the Forest, inspired by a true story about what happens when a patient is not heard, will be staged as part of , Nov. 1 to 5.

Directed by 91��ɫ theatre studies PhD candidate Laura Jayne Nelles (BA Spec. Hons. ’84, MFA ’07) and presented by 91��ɫ's Faculty of Health and the 91��ɫ – UHN (University Health Network) Nursing Academy, the play will take place Monday, Nov. 1 at 1pm in 152 Founders Assembly Hall, Founders College, Keele campus. The event is free and open to everyone.

It will also be performed as part of a symposium at various health-care sites across the Greater Toronto Area.

91��ɫ Professors Deborah Tregunno and Liane Ginsburg of the School of Nursing, are leaders in the field of patient safety culture. They collaborated with 91��ɫ nursing Professor Gail Mitchell, who has experience with conveying research findings through the arts. This dramatic approach presents research from their studies conducted in four provinces, in cooperation with the Canadian Patient Safety Institute.

The play’s development was financially supported by the 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Health Interprofessional Education Fund (IPE). IPE programming is shared with the health-care community through the Faculty’s innovative .

Co-written by professional playwright Julia Gray (BFA Spec. Hons. ’98, MA ’07) and Mitchell, Seeing the Forest is being performed in collaboration with six organizations, including the Central Community Care Access Centre, the , , , and Unionville Home Society.

“By dramatizing research using the arts, the findings become more meaningful,” says Mitchell. “The play presents the complexity of real life from the perspective of the patient and health care professionals. The impact is much stronger than it would be if you were just reading words off the page of a research report.”

The key character in the play, Healther, goes to the hospital for routine surgery and tries to communicate specific concerns to different health-care providers, yet things go awry. Research suggests that 2.9 to 16.6 percent of patients in acute care hospitals experience one or more adverse events.

“Health care providers work hard to keep patients safe every day. However, there are often systemic issues that contribute to errors. This play is valuable because it strikes an emotional chord and engages people in conversations about improving safety,” says Tregunno.

“This play is a great example of the innovative and interdisciplinary approaches to health care led by 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Health,” adds Professor Lesley Beagrie, associate dean, professional & global programs. “Instead of tailoring health-care programs to individual silos within the health profession, we aim to keep the focus on the end user – the patient.”

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November is Research Month: 91��ɫ celebrates with a series of events

fmaquito — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 08:00:00 +0000

Research Month celebrates the achievements and diversity of 91��ɫ’s research community.

Throughout November, the Vari Hall Rotunda will play host to displays and demonstrations featuring our faculty and graduate researchers. Drop by between 10 am and 2 pm each Wednesday to learn what 91��ɫ's researchers are doing.

The Research Month index on 91��ɫ's Research website contains complete information about the researchers, research centres and research support groups participating in the event.

Social sciences and humanities research – Nov. 3

Confirmed participants include:

Institute for Science & Technology Studies
91��ɫ Centre for Education & Community

Science and engineering research – Nov. 10

Confirmed participants include:

Health research – Nov.17

Confirmed participants include:

Professor Joseph DeSouza, Faculty of Health, Department of Psychology
Professor , Faculty of Health, School of Nursing
Professor Jennifer Kuk, Faculty of Health, School of Kinesiology & Health Science
Professor Gail Mitchell, Faculty of Health, School of Nursing
Professor Jennine Rawana, Faculty of Health, Department of Psychology
Professor Rose Steele, Faculty of Health, School of Nursing
LaMarsh Centre for Research on Violence & Conflict Resolution
91��ɫ Institute for Health Research

Fine and performing arts research — Nov. 24

Confirmed participants include:

Want to participate?

Do you have completed works, prototypes, technology, or works in progress that you could demonstrate? Do you have graduate/undergraduate students working with you who could assist and help talk about the work? If you have other ideas, we would love to hear about them.

Interested faculty members or research centres should contact Elizabeth Monier-Williams in the Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation at ext. 21069 or eamw@yorku.ca. Please note that space is limited and allocated on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Other research-related events

These research-related events will also be running in November:

Nov. 6 – , featuring Professor Poonam Puri from Osgoode Hall Law School and Professor Steven Gaetz from the Faculty of Education among other speakers.
Nov. 10 – Toward a Behavioral Neuroscience of Parenting, sponsored by the Department of Psychology in the Faculty of Health.
Nov. 24 & 25 – at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre (by invitation only).
Nov. 26 – Campus visit from Suzanne Fortier, president of the .
Nov. 30 – Campus visit from David Malone, president of .

By Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer

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