Media
McGill University - Palliative Care Keynote
Donna Thomson: The Caregiving Effect - When Love Meets Necessity.
Donna Thomson, disability activist and author
Donna Thomson's new book, The Four Walls of My Freedom, is a riveting and redemptive memoir about her family's experience coping with her son's cerebral palsy. Her blog is www.donnathomson.blogspot.com
Donna Thomson's book launch
Donna Thomson's book launch for "The Four Walls of my Freedom", with an introduction by John Ralston Saul Donna's talk starts at 12:55
Being 'real' as a caregiver - Fit Minds Expert Interview with Donna Thomson -.
Nicole Scheidl of Fit Minds, a company that creates programs for caregivers of individuals suffering from Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia and Donna Thomson, author and activist speak about being 'real' as a caregiver.
Disability writer Donna Thomson's clear-eyed look at the value of a life
The Globe and Mail, September 5, 2010Print
Donna Thomson, wife of the Canadian high commissioner to Britain and disability-rights pot-stirrer, leads the way up a grand staircase at her official London residence and leaves one life for another...
What To Do When Everyone Says No: Advocacy Strategies to Access Treatment and Medications
The Caregiver NetworkOnline
URL: https://thecaregivernetwork.ca/event/everyone-says-advocacy-strategies-access-treatment-medications/
This three-part series will introduce patients and caregivers to how the health care funding system works and how to access the treatments they need. Health navigation knowledge and skills will be presented alongside best practice advocacy strategies, including how to successfully leverage the help and goodwill of friends, family members and health care professionals. In this highly interactive series, participants will be provided with templates, check lists and other tools to get them started in their own advocacy plan – or help them re-think their current approach.
How to Take Charge of Your Own Health Care Experience With Solution Based Advocacy
The Caregiver Network, May 18, 2016Online
URL: https://thecaregivernetwork.ca/event/take-charge-healthcare-experience-solution-based-advocacy/
We rely on health care providers to provide quality care and timely interventions. We expect that providers know the right questions to ask in order to understand our personal health situation and to obtain the appropriate resources. The reality is that many health care professionals are drowning in paperwork and case overload and cannot spend a sufficient amount of time getting to know us and our needs. As consumers, we must take our health into our own hands and advocate for what we need.
Today’s guest on Caregivers’ Circle, Donna Thomson, author of Four Walls of My Freedom: Lessons I’ve Learned from a Life of Caregiving and I discuss solution-based advocacy and how to effectively get what you need from our complex private, public and community resources.
Work/Life Balance: The Secrets of Success
Abilities Magazine, September 1, 2015Online
URL: http://abilities.ca/work-life-balance/
Managing the Demands of Employment and Care Needs.
Clinicians Improve Outcomes By Connecting to a Circle of Care
Home Care Technology Report, December 21, 2014Online
URL: http://www.homecaretechreport.com/article.asp?id=1997
Personal narrative of using Tyze Personal Networks (www.tyze.com) to coordinate complex care in the community for our son who has severe disabilities and is medically complex. Tyze is an online care coordination tool that bridges home and families to hospitals and community care providers.
Ontario's crisis of disabled adults, abandoned by the system
The Globe and Mail, May 19, 2014Online
URL: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/ontarios-crisis-of-developmental-services/article18707463/
Activists like Donna Thomson are worried about a hardening of public attitudes toward the disabled in a bottom-line society (see Doug Ford above). Ms. Thomson is the author of The Four Walls of My Freedom, a book about living with, and fighting for, her son Nicholas, who has cerebral palsy. “You’ll hear things like, ‘Why should I care? Why should I pay? I’ve got two healthy children.’ We haven’t even begun to have the conversations about disability that we need to have.”...
Advocate Now To Get What You Need
Today's Kids in Motion, September 1, 2013Online
URL: http://publications.todayskids.ca/publication/?i=166165&p=14
Best practice in advocacy strategies to succeed in advocating for a child with disabilities.
Surviving Sandwich Caregiving
Today's Kids in Motion, March 1, 2013Online
URL: http://publications.todayskids.ca/publication/?i=151810&p=4
A personal reflection on my own sandwich caregiving with tips on surviving and thriving.
The Unexpected Journey of Caring: The Transformation From Loved One to Caregiver
by Donna Thomson and Zachary White, PhD
Rowman & Littlefield
June 8, 2019
ISBN-10: 1538122235 ISBN-13: 978-1538122235
With a foreword by Judy Woodruff, The Unexpected Journey of Caring is a practical guide to finding personal meaning in the 21st century care experience.
Personal transformation is usually an experience we actively seek out—not one that hunts us down. Becoming a caregiver is one transformation that comes at us, requiring us to rethink everything we once knew. Everything changes—responsibilities, beliefs, hopes, expectations, and relationships. Caregiving is not just a role reserved for “saints”—eventually, everyone is drafted into the caregiver role. It’s not a role people medically train for; it’s a new type of relationship initiated by a loved one’s need for care. And it’s a role that cannot be quarantined to home because it infuses all aspects of our lives.
Caregivers today find themselves in need of a crash course in new and unfamiliar skills. They must not only care for a loved one, but also access hidden community resources, collaborate with medical professionals, craft new narratives consistent with the changing nature of their care role, coordinate care with family, seek information and peer support using a variety of digital platforms, and negotiate social support—all while attempting to manage conflicts between work, life, and relationship roles. The moments that mark us in the transition from loved one to caregiver matter because if we don’t make sense of how we are being transformed, we risk undervaluing our care experiences, denying our evolving beliefs, becoming trapped by other’s misunderstandings, and feeling underappreciated, burned out, and overwhelmed.
Informed by original caregiver research and proven advocacy strategies, this book speaks to caregiving as it unfolds, in all of its confusion, chaos, and messiness. Readers won’t find well-intentioned clichés or care stereotypes in this book. There are no promises to help caregivers return to a life they knew before caregiving. No, this book greets caregivers where they are in their journey—new or chronic—not where others expect (or want) them to be.
The Four Walls of my Freedom
by Donna Thomson
The House of Anansi
The ‘ouR-HOPE’ approach for ethics and communication about neonatal neurological injury
Published by Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology
Predicting neurological outcomes of neonates with acute brain injury is an essential component of shared decision-making, in order to guide the development of treatment goals and appropriate care plans.
The ‘ouR-HOPE’ approach for ethics and communication about neonatal neurological injury
by Eric Racine, Emily Bell, Barbara Farlow, Steven Miller, Antoine Payot, Lisa Anne Rasmussen, Michael Shevell, Donna Thomson and Pia Wintermark
Published by Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology
Predicting neurological outcomes of neonates with acute brain injury is an essential component of shared decision-making, in order to guide the development of treatment goals and appropriate care plans.
Biography
Donna Thomson is the co-author (with Zachary White, PhD) of The Unexpected Journey of Caring: The Transformation From Loved One to Caregiver (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019) and the author of The Four Walls of My Freedom: Lessons I’ve Learned From a Life of Caregiving (The House of Anansi Press, 2014). She is also the co-designer and co-instructor of the Family Engagement in Research Certificate Program at CanChild, McMaster University and instructs the online course, Caregiving Essentials, also at McMaster. Donna is a board director of the National accessArts Centre.
Additional Titles and Affiliations
PRO GUIDE at Huddol.com
Huddol is a Canadian national online support network for patients and families. The Pro role involves monitoring online support groups and providing online one to one coaching and health navigation to family caregivers.
Senior Advisor, CHILD-BRIGHT SPOR Research Project
Past Board Director and Vice-Chair, Kids Brain Health Network (NeuroDevNet)
Kids Brain Health Network (KBHN) is a Canadian Network Centre of Excellence supporting research in the area of childhood disability. https://kidsbrainhealth.ca/
Past Talks
Keynote - Chambers Family Lifespan Address
AACPDM 70th Annual Meeting
Hollywood, FLA, September 22, 2016
Keynote: Innovation and Ethics
Festival of International Conferences on Caregiving, Disability, Aging and Technology
Toronto, ON
Family Participation and Exchange: An Ongoing Priority
7th Annual Brain Development Conference
Calgary, AB, September 28, 2016
CPIM Family Engagement Event: Living Life and Fulfilling Potential
7th Annual Brain Development Conference
Calgary, AB, September 30, 2016
Book Reading with Intro by J.R. Saul, IFOA
International Festival of Authors, Harbourfront http://www.openbooktoronto.com/events/ifoa_disability_activist_donna_thomson_conversation_with_john_ralston_saul
Toronto, ON, October 23, 2010
Research Grants
Child Bright SPOR
Organization: McGill UniversityDate: March 31, 2016
Grant amount: CIHR $12.5M
Details:
Co-Author and Patient/Family Advisor
More information: https://muhc.ca/newsroom/news/ri-muhc-leads-innovative-network-support-children-brain-based-developmental-disabilities-and-th