Ste. Anne's Hospital - VAC Centre of Excellence

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Ste. Anne's Hospital's mission is to provide a continuum of high quality care and services as well as a vast range of programs to veterans and eligible civilians, while respecting their dignity and autonomy. These cutting-edge programs meet the needs of both our clients and their families.

The Hospital specializes in three important research domains: Mental Health and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Chronic Pain and Dementia Care.

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Ste. Anne's Research News

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

This year, a part-time researcher and a full-time post-doctoral intern were added to the Ste. Anne's Centre research team. Stéphane Guay, Ph.D., researcher, is working on the role of social support in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and on the effectiveness of cognitive behavioural interventions for PTSD.

Deniz Fikretoglu, Ph.D., a post-doctoral intern at McGill, is interested in the relationship between PTSD and health services use.

Two students, Ms. Anne Préfontaine and Isabelle Cabot, have also undertaken research under the co-direction of Dr. Alain Brunet. The following is an overview of the research projects under way at SAC.

Ste. Anne's Hospital, VAC Centre of Excellence
16 January 2004, Maryse Savoie

Ste. Anne's Centre of Excellence has completed stage 1 of a 3 stage pain project. The results of this research will be submitted to an American nursing journal in January 2004. In early spring 2004, the results will be presented in Vancouver as part of the international conference hosted by the Canadian Pain Society (CPS) and the American Pain Society (APS) and later on at the McGill University Pain Day. Stage 2 of this project will involve a knowledge transfer project as the researchers have applied for a grant to create an e-learning module for nurses, which will be widely distributed. Researchers have applied for a grant and are awaiting its approval. The preliminary results of the first stage of the project were presented last October at the 2nd International Conference on Elder Care in Toronto. Finally, the researchers have won an award from the Canadian Pain Society (CPS) for their study.

As a followup to this project, Vet-Link is currently replicating the Ste. Anne's Hospital findings at test sites in Halifax, Nova Scotia and London, Ontario. For more information contact Maryse Savoie at the following adress: masavoie@vac-acc.gc.ca .

Ste. Anne's Hospital, VAC Centre of Excellence
16 January 2004, Maryse Savoie

Ste. Anne's Centre of Excellence, along with a group of researchers from Laval University (Quebec City) have applied for a $100,000 Canadian Institute on Health Research (CIHR) grant. This grant would allow researchers to establish a systematic program to assess pain in dementia patients who are in long-term care. Results of this contest will be known in February 2004. For more information contact Maryse Savoie at the following adress: masavoie@vac-acc.gc.ca.

Ste. Anne's Hospital, VAC Centre of Excellence
16 January 2004, Maryse Savoie

Ste. Anne's Centre of Excellence, along with researchers from the University of Regina (Dr Thomas Hadjistavropoulos) are currently working on a pilot project to translate and validate, in French, an internationally recognized pain assessment tool known as "PACSLAC" (Pain Assessment Checklist for Seniors with Limited Ability to Communicate). At present, the selection of patients is being undertaken at Ste. Anne's Hospital. The tool " PACSLAC" has been validated in English. For more information contact Maryse Savoie at the following adress: masavoie@vac-acc.gc.ca.

Ste. Anne's Hospital, VAC Centre of Excellence
16 January 2004, Dr. Serge Gauthier

Ste. Anne's Centre of Excellence : Multi-Site Collaborative Study for Genotype-Phenotype Associations in Alzheimer's Disease. This nation wide study is conducted by a group of researchers directed by Dr. Serge Gauthier, from the McGill Centre for Studies in Aging. The study is funded by GlaxoSmithKline. Ste. Anne's Hospital is the first test site in Canada and currently a registered nurse from the McGill research team is screening patients to determine who can participate in the project. A report is due by late January 2004.

Knowledge Transfer Activities
16 January 2004, Maryse Savoie

Ste. Anne's Centre of Excellence has put together a flier and a poster dedicated to researchers and post-graduate students in order to promote Ste. Anne's research priorities and attract interest. The fliers and posters were sent to all research centres and appropriate faculties of varied universities in Quebec and the Ottawa region.

Finally, Ste. Anne's Centre of Excellence has held 4 basic research training seminars during the past year. The Hospital will also start a Research Journal Club in early spring and plan to organize a Research Day in May.