Subin Park, on a recent trip to Brussels. By Louise Kinross At age 15, Toronto resident Subin Park became a volunteer at Holland Bloorview. “I began as a respite swim volunteer and later helped out with the recreational programs and March Break camps as well,” she says. “I also worked...
Khadijah Roberts-Abdullah (left) as Signora Locascio and Debbie Patterson as Signora Zampa in Grand Magic. Stratford Festival 2023. Photo by David Hou. By Louise Kinross For the first time, Stratford Festival has a disabled actor on stage. This season Debbie Patterson, who uses a wheelchair, plays Signora Zampa in Grand Magic and...
By Louise Kinross Shane Neilson describes himself as a mad/autistic poet, physician and scholar. Saving is his memoir about how he found himself on the receiving end of care when his son developed intractable seizures and his daughter was diagnosed with depression. You might think being a doctor would be an...
Jayeden Walker (left) and Luke Anderson. Photo by Kathleen Rea. By Louise Kinross Luke Anderson is constantly reinventing himself. In 2002, the engineer was an extreme athlete who moved to British Columbia to pursue his passion for mountain biking. When he rode off a platform to jump a 25-foot gap and...
By Louise Kinross Last month Dr. Harvey Max Chocinov gave a fascinating lecture at King’s College, London, called Intensive Caring: Reminding Patients They Matter (click to watch and fast forward to 11:50). Harvey is a professor of psychiatry at the University of Manitoba and a world-renowned scientist who studies the emotional and...
By Louise Kinross Read the latest issue of BLOOM! Here are some quotes to draw you into the content. -From a blind mother of a newborn in an NICU who was afraid to touch her baby because staff hadn’t oriented her to where the baby was attached to wires: “It’s...
Photo of Gabriella Carafa with baby Giovanna. Read Gabriella’s story of her journey to parenthood. By Louise Kinross Disabled Ontario women say their health care crumbled after they gave birth, according to a qualitative study published in March in the Journal of Advanced Nursing. The study, one of the first to look...
By Louise Kinross Jennifer Low (photo right) works a full day as a behaviour support specialist at a private school in Toronto. Then she hops on the TTC to get to her second job at Sarang Kitchen. It’s a Korean fried chicken restaurant she opened in Dovercourt Village in March with...
This piece originally appeared on Holland Bloorview’s website. Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital is proud to acknowledge and celebrate Louise Kinross, BLOOM editor and special projects manager, as a recent recipient of the 2023 Tribute Award for Advocacy presented by Empowered Kids Ontario (EKO). The award recognizes the contribution and impact of leaders and role models...
Photo by Daria Obymaha By Louise Kinross A large body of research shows mothers of disabled children have poorer mental and physical health. A new study published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior finds that the relationship between poor maternal health and a child’s disability exists only in...
By Louise Kinross This year AdoptOntario will seek adoptive families for 40 to 50 children, many of whom have disabilities. Almost half have autism, most are boys, and their average age is 10. “We’re seeing less children overall who need adoptive homes, but a higher percentage of those who do...
By Louise Kinross Happy spring! Here’s the latest issue of BLOOM. To draw you into the content, here are some quotes: From the parent of a child with an acquired brain injury: “We need to recognize that there is no cure for this trauma…My therapist reminded me that this isn’t something...
By Louise Kinross Black people in American counties with more Black primary-care doctors live longer, particularly in areas with high poverty rates, according to a population-based study published last week in JAMA Network Open. The study is the first of its kind. It found Black residents in counties with more Black...
By Louise Kinross Frankie is an 11-year-old Irish girl who feels like an alien. She can’t stop talking and blurts out things at the wrong time, earning her the nickname “Freak” at school. “It feels like I’m speaking a different language,” she tells her mother. Frankie is the protagonist of...
Photo of Jennifer Nunes (left) with son Dominic By Louise Kinross When Jennifer Nunes put her son Dominic to bed one night in 2018, he was a happy, healthy baby. So she was terrified to find herself riding in an ambulance with him the next morning. He’d suffered a severe...
Photo of Marcy White with son Jacob By Marcy White Food insecurity is something I never thought I’d experience. My family doesn’t struggle on a fixed income, and my 20-year-old son Jacob isn’t a fussy eater. He is medically fragile, and relies entirely on liquid nutrition. Since birth, Jacob has...
By Louise Kinross Becoming You is a new 35-page book about sexuality and disability produced at Holland Bloorview. Makumbu Lumbu (photo above), who identifies as non-binary and queer, says they really could have used it growing up. “Navigating adolescence while having disabilities is difficult as it is,” says the Humber...
By Louise Kinross As a lay person, you might imagine that autistic children have brains that work in similar ways. And that children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) each have their own “signature” brain biology. After all, these conditions are known as brain-based disabilities....
Photo of Giseli Bignardi (right) with husband Rodolfo and son Cauã. By Louise Kinross Giseli Bignardi felt like a piece of her died when her son Cauã was diagnosed with autism at Holland Bloorview. But not for the reason you may think. “I realized I had fed the ableism in society,”...
