The CHU Sainte-Justine announces the creation of Québec's 1st Integrated Mother-Child Centre for Eating Disorders with support from Bell Let's Talk

$500,000 donation grows Bell's support for mental health care access in Québec

MONTREAL, Jan. 26, 2015 /CNW Telbec/ - CHU Sainte-Justine and Bell today announced a gift of $500,000 from Bell Let's Talk to support Québec's first Integrated Mother-Child Centre for Eating Disorders.

Eating disorders: A steadily growing problem among children and teens in Quebec
Over the past four years, the number of young patients admitted to Sainte-Justine for an eating disorder has increased by 44%, from 83 to 120 hospitalizations per year. Sainte-Justine treats the highest proportion of hospitalized patients with eating disorders in Québec, 75% of whom are referred to the hospital from outside the Montréal area.

"This is a project of paramount importance for Québec," said Dr. Fabrice Brunet, Chief Executive Officer of CHU Sainte-Justine. "Sainte-Justine has been a leader in the field of eating disorders for more than 30 years. With Bell's support, we will further expand the solutions available to address a problem that is increasing at an alarming rate, and work with our partners across the province to reach out to hundreds of families in order to ensure their children can benefit from services that are among the best in the world."

The contribution from Bell Let's Talk will help CHU Sainte-Justine move forward with the first step in the development of this integrated facility, the opening of a day hospital that will provide an intermediate level of care between full hospitalization and outpatient services. This new approach will ensure a more targeted and personalized level of intervention for young patients and their families in an effort to decrease the number and duration of hospital stays and offer enhanced support for families as youth reintegrate to normal living. Ultimately, the day hospital will help prevent the development of eating disorders, reduce their length and improve patients' overall prognosis.

"We are very pleased to partner with CHU Sainte-Justine to support Québec's first Integrated Mother-Child Centre for Eating Disorders. This key centre will address a critical need for increased access to care for young people with serious eating disorders and much-needed support for their families, not only in the Montréal area but across the province," said Martine Turcotte, Vice Chair Québec at Bell. "Bell Let's Talk's has committed approximately $27 million to expanding care options and driving new research in mental health care in Québec, along with ending the stigma of mental illness. We are proud to support CHU Sainte-Justine and many other hospitals and institutions all across Québec in the tremendous work they are doing."

Concrete solutions to meet an urgent need
The new centre will serve as a referral facility and a comprehensive, specialized platform for the diagnosis, treatment and support of patients aged 6 to 18 with eating disorders, as well as young mothers-to-be. It will also help advance teaching and research in this field. Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of all mental illnesses amongst young people. The disease affects school, work and social life and is associated with serious medical consequences and other psychiatric disorders.

"The challenges before us are great," said Dr. Danielle Taddeo, a pediatrician and the head of adolescent medicine at Sainte-Justine's Department of Pediatrics and the co-director of the integrated centre. "This new facility will enable us to consolidate our expertise in a single location and bring the necessary resources together to overcome these challenges."

"In the short term, we will also strive to better align the care provided by the adolescent medicine and psychiatric units, adapt our services to the growing number of youths aged 18 and younger with an eating disorder, promote the optimal continuity of care and facilitate the transition toward adult services," added Dr. Pierre-Olivier Nadeau, a child and adolescent psychiatrist in Sainte-Justine's Department of Psychiatry and the centre's other co-director.

The donation from Bell Let's Talk is part of the CHU Sainte-Justine Foundation's Healing More Better campaign, ongoing until 2018.

"We are fortunate to be able to count on Bell's invaluable support and major commitment to this ambitious, forward-looking initiative aimed at continuously improving the health of our children," concluded Maud Cohen, President and Executive Director of the CHU Sainte-Justine Foundation.

Bell Let's Talk Day is January 28
On January 28, for every text message, wireless and long distance call made by Bell Canada and Bell Aliant customers, every tweet using #BellLetsTalk, and every Facebook share of that day's Bell Let's Talk Day image at Facebook.com/BellLetsTalk, Bell will donate 5 cents more to Canadian mental health programs.

In 2014, Canadians answered the call with a total of 109,451,718 messages including texts, wireless and long distance calls, tweets and Facebook shares, meaning Bell added another $5,472,585.90 to its Bell Let's Talk funding commitment. Based on its original $50 million donation and the results of the last 4 Bell Let's Talk Days, Bell has now committed more than $67.5 million to Canadian mental health.

Bell's donations are made at no extra charge to Bell Let's Talk Day participants, though normal long distance or text charges, if any, apply.

The Bell Let's Talk mental health initiative
Bell Let's Talk promotes mental health based on 4 action pillars - anti-stigma, care and access, research, and workplace best practices. The initiative supports mental health leaders across the country including l'Institut universitaire en santé mentale de Montréal, Hôpital Charles-LeMoyne, Montreal Jewish Hospital, the Douglas Mental Health University Institute, La Fondation du Centre hospitalier universitaire de Québec, Concordia University, Université Laval Foundation, CHU Sainte-Justine, the Royal Ottawa Hospital, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), the University of British Columbia, Queen's University, Brain Canada, Kids Help Phone, Sunnybrook Hospital and Vancouver General Hospital.

The annual Bell Let's Talk Community Fund supports front-line mental health organizations in every region of the country. The Fund has provided grants of $5,000 to $50,000 to hundreds of community organizations focused on improving access to programs and services that support people living with mental health issues.

To learn more about the Bell Let's Talk campaign, and to download the Bell Let's Talk toolkit to help get the conversation started, please visit Bell.ca/LetsTalk

About Bell
Bell is Canada's largest communications company, providing consumers and business customers with wireless, TV, Internet, home phone and business communications services. Bell Media is Canada's premier multimedia company with leading assets in television, radio, out of home, and digital media. Bell is wholly owned by Montréal's BCE Inc. (TSX, NYSE: BCE). For more information, please visit Bell.ca

About CHU Sainte-Justine
The Sainte-Justine university hospital centre (CHU Sainte-Justine) is the largest mother-child centre in Canada and the second largest pediatric hospital in North America. A member of the Université de Montréal extended network of excellence in health (RUIS), Sainte-Justine has 5,664 employees, including 1,578 nurses and nursing assistants; 1,117 other healthcare professionals; 502 physicians, dentists and pharmacists; 822 residents; and more than 200 researchers, 300 volunteers and 3,400 interns and students in a wide range of disciplines. Sainte-Justine has 484 beds, including 35 at the Centre de réadaptation Marie Enfant, the only exclusively pediatric rehabilitation centre in Quebec. The World Health Organization has recognized CHU Sainte-Justine as a "health promoting hospital." chusj.org

About the CHU Sainte-Justine Foundation
The Foundation's mission is to engage the community and support CHU Sainte-Justine in its commitment to developing better ways to heal more children in Quebec and provide them with one of the highest levels of healthcare in the world. www.fondation-sainte-justine.org.

SOURCE Bell Canada