About Us

Child Health BC, an initiative of BC Children's Hospital, is dedicated to ensuring the one million children and youth in British Columbia have access to a consistent and high standard of health care, wherever they live in the province.

Our network, linking the province's five regional health authorities, the Provincial Health Services Authority, health professionals and care facilities, is committed to excellence in the care of infants, children and youth. Child Health BC's collaborative approach ensures a quality of care beyond what any one agency can provide alone.

Our work results in improved services and resources across the province. For families, this will mean reduced travel and better health outcomes for their children.

For further information and to download our annual reports please visit Guidelines & Resources.

As you will learn from our site, Child Health BC is a young, exciting initiative with a broad mandate to optimize the health of BC children and youth and to build an integrated and accessible system of pediatric care in BC. Working with the network members and partners over the last few years, our activities focused on implementation of a consistent, high quality standard for pediatric care throughout the health authorities. In 2006, we successfully launched a series of interprofessional best practice workshops on specialized pediatric care.

In January 2007, the Overwaitea Food Group became the lead benefactor of Child Health BC with a donation pledge of $20 million. With these funds Child Health BC is able to support the enhancement of pediatric services throughout BC including the construction or renovation of pediatric facilities, the purchase of equipment and the training, and education of medical professionals across the province.

We are moving ahead quickly to support regional pediatric services, and would like to thank the many highly skilled and dedicated health professionals and families throughout BC and at BC Children's Hospital and Sunny Hill Health Centre for Children for their contributions to this work. We hope you will return often to our website and follow our initiatives as we progress.

Structure & Leadership

Child Health BC is located at BC Children's Hospital. Its operations are supported by the Provincial Health Services Authority, and its projects are funded through support from the BC Children's Hospital Foundation.

The administration of Child Health BC is handled by Acting Director Dr. Bob Armstrong, Manager Mary Lou Matthews, Administrative Assistants Garnett Bucknor and Pamela Swanson and web strategist Omid Kiamanesh. They work with the Child Health BC Steering Committee, which provides direction on Child Health BC 's activities and advises on matters related to child and youth health services in each of the province's health regions.

Child Health BC's Steering Committee members are child health service program directors and medical directors from each health authority's designated pediatric health facility, and representatives of many partner agencies and organizations for child and youth health in BC. The committee meets regularly to identify priorities for Child Health BC.

The province's health authorities (listed below) make up the Child Health BC network, and are accountable to each other for working towards the network's goals.

• Fraser Health Authority
• Vancouver Coastal Authority
• Vancouver Island Health Authority
• Interior Health Authority
• Northern Health Authority
• Provincial Health Services Authority

Partnerships

Child Health BC operates in partnership with the Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia, the BC Ministry of Health Services, the Ministry of Healthy Living and Sport, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Child and Family Development, the BC Pediatric Society, the First Nations Health Council, the Provincial Specialized Perinatal Services Program and other heath care and service organizations dedicated to improving the health of children. Child Health BC was created with a spirit of collaboration, and is always open to partnering with other organizations on joint initiatives.

Support of Child Health BC

In January 2007, Overwaitea Food Group gave a $20-million pledge of support to the BC Children's Hospital Foundation, for Child Health BC. This generous contribution is the largest single donation ever made to the foundation.

The BC Children's Hospital Foundation is committed to raising $50 million to implement the work of Child Health BC in the province's health regions. Funds will be used to meet the needs of health authorities as they initiate or enhance services dedicated to children and youth.