As we come to the end of the year, we reflect on what 2025 meant to us

Our Year End Message to Clients and Families

2025 has been a landmark year for VHA Home HealthCare (VHA) as we recognized our 100th year of service and trusted partnership with clients and families. This milestone has presented many opportunities for gratitude, celebration and reflection. Over the decades, our services have continually evolved to meet changing needs, guided by compassion, strengthened by science, and powered by the belief that home is where care belongs. 

Those principles drove our activities this year as we embarked on year one of our ambitious Strategic Plan 2025-2030 and made notable progress in each of our five strategic priority areas: system solutions, science, seamless service, home care specialists and sustainability. Together with you, our valued care providers, clients and families, and healthcare partners, we are leading the future of health and independence at home.  

VHA Announces Trevor Heer as VP, Integrated Client & Community Care and Chief Operating Officer

We're delighted to announce that, effective December 1st 2025, Trevor Heer has been appointed Vice President, Integrated Client & Community Care (IC&CC) and Chief Operating Officer in a permanent capacity.

Trevor took on this position on an interim basis in September 2025 and has been instrumental in guiding the IC&CC team to achieve their 2025 objectives and continue to provide high quality care and service. Following a thorough internal and external search, there was full consensus that Trevor was VHA’s top candidate and should be appointed to the permanent role.

The results for VHA’s 2024-25 Client Experience Feedback Report’s are in!

Delivering care that is high quality, reliable, and client and family-centered is always at the heart of everything we do at VHA. Our commitment to providing excellent care is made possible by measuring our performance through the data collected when we ask how we’re doing.

The feedback we receive helps us know where we’re doing well, like scoring 95% on feeling treated with courtesy and respect. It also tells us where we need to improve, such as improving involvement in care planning.

To keep a pulse on the care we’re providing, we ask our clients and caregivers to share their feedback through a survey process. Thanks to the insights you provided, we’re excited to share back the results.  

Help Shape VHA’s Care Values! Participate in our Declaration of Values Survey Now

At VHA, we believe the most important voice in shaping care is yours. That's why we're creating our first Client and Family Declaration of Values, and we need your input.

This Declaration will outline what matters most when you receive care, organized around five core values: Compassion, Transparency, Accountability, Partnership, and Respect & Dignity. For each value, we’ve drafted action statements, specific ways our staff can put these values into practice. 

Now we need your help to rank the action statements, so we know which ones matter most. Your feedback will help us focus on what truly counts. 

How to participate: Complete the short survey (about 5–10 minutes) by clicking the link below or scanning the QR code. The deadline to complete the survey is Monday, January 5th, 2025.

Managing Medications to Prevent Falls

Most older adults aged 65 or older take multiple prescription medications to manage their health, and about two-thirds take five or more different drugs each year. In long-term care settings, the numbers are even higher, since many residents live with several chronic conditions that require ongoing treatment. While medications play a vital role in maintaining health and controlling symptoms, the way they interact with the body and with each other can sometimes create new health risks. One of the most concerning is their potential to increase the likelihood of a fall.

Falls are the leading cause of injury-related hospitalizations among older Canadians, with an estimated 20 to 30 percent of seniors experiencing a fall each year. Although aging, chronic conditions, mobility issues and vision changes can all contribute to falls, medications are one of the few modifiable risk factors.

When Farbiola decided to take a job as a Personal Support Worker, she was looking for employment. She also found an opportunity to impact and extend a man’s life.

The day before her birthday in 2020, Personal Support Worker (PSW) Farbiola met her first home care client, Raphael, an 81-year old man who was dying from cancer and couldn’t eat or walk on his own. Five years later, Raphael, now 86, is still with us, and he says, it’s thanks to Farbiola. 

“I didn’t want to eat. I couldn’t get out of bed, and she made me,” Raphael recalls laughing. “She wouldn’t take no for an answer. I’m here today because of Farbiola.”

“I can be stubborn sometimes,” Farbiola shared, remembering those initial days caring for Raphael. “I could see that he was giving up, that I needed to try to get him to eat and move a little bit. His family warned me that he could be set in his ways even when he’s feeling weak, and that he didn’t like being told what to do.”

Announcing VHA's 2025 Leadership Awardees

VHA's Leadership Awards are an annual recognition program to further build and strengthen VHA’s culture of leadership excellence by recognizing individuals at all levels who demonstrate impactful leadership.

After an open nomination process, winners are determined through a selection committee comprised of their VHA peers.

We're excited to share this year's list of winners in each of our four categories. Click on the links below to read each of their stories:

• Leading the Future of Health & Independence at Home: Spotlight on Hana Asfaw
• Leading with Purpose: Featuring Leadership Award Winner Banu Sundaralingam
• Building Bonds that Matter with Leadership Award Winner Dorothy Muiruri
• Empowered Everyday: Up Close with Leadership Award Winner Darryl Pineda

From all of us at VHA, congratulations to our well-deserved winners!

Interested in contributing to the future of Integrated Care at VHA? We want to hear from you!

VHA's Research and Innovation team are creating a framework to evaluate integrated care programs to determine their progress, impact and identify areas for growth.

We are looking to hear from:

• Clients or caregivers who receive services from VHA 
• AND are available to participate in: a half-day in-person workshop (either February 18 or February 24, 2026) or a virtual focus group or interview

VHA will provide compensation and reimbursement to this who participate. Compensation is $25.00/hour. VHA will reimburse parking or mileage expenses to a maximum of $25 per day; caregiver relief up to a maximum of five hours; accessible transportation and TTC.

For more information, contact: Madison Brydges at mbrydges@vha.ca or 437-655-4032.