Meet the injury prevention leads
From top left to bottom right: Olivia Aguiar, Shianne Bains, Tobin Copley, and Jeanette Foreman.
We are pleased to introduce the individuals who are leading injury prevention initiatives in each of the regional health authorities. Olivia Aguiar, Shianne Bains, Tobin Copley, and Jeanette Foreman hold the role of Lead, Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion.
These positions, created in 2022, are BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) postings embedded within the regional health authorities that will complement and support health authority injury prevention priorities and efforts. The Leads will collaborate with provincial, regional, and local stakeholders in the development, implementation, and evaluation of injury prevention strategies, working with BCCDC and health authority colleagues, Indigenous and local communities, the BCIRPU and others. The leads are also members of the BCIRPU, who support the leads by providing expertise and resources.
Meet the leads:
Olivia Aguiar, Island Health Authority
Olivia Aguiar (she/her) is an Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion Lead with the BC Centre for Disease Control embedded in Island Health and member of the BCIRPU. She has a PhD in Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology, from the Injury Prevention and Mobility Lab at Simon Fraser University, and a certificate in Biomedical Visualization and Communication. Olivia is a multidisciplinary researcher with experience in quantitative and qualitative methods and analyses, science and scholarly communication, data visualization, and community outreach. She brings expertise in sport-related head impacts and concussions, fall prevention, and fall-related injuries.
Shianne Bains, Interior Health Authority
Prior to joining the BCCDC, Shianne was the Coordinator for the Fall Prevention Team at Fraser Health where she led the Mobile Clinic. She completed her BSc in Health Sciences from Simon Fraser University in 2018, and is currently working towards her MA in Community Development from the University of Victoria. Among other extracurriculars, Shianne is a Board Member for the Canadian Red Cross Council for First Aid Education. Outside of work, Shianne loves to go on outdoor adventures, travel and play soccer.
Tobin Copley, Fraser Health Authority
Tobin has a MA in Medical Geography from McMaster University. Prior to coming to Fraser Health in 2015, Tobin had been a career-long population health researcher with a focus on prevention, both at UBC at the Centre for Health Services and Policy Research and later spending over a decade running his own applied social research firm.
In his new role, Tobin will work with the Fraser Health Environmental Health Services & Healthy Built Environment Program, and provincial, local, and regional key partners. He will receive co-leadership from Megan Oakey, BCCDC Provincial Injury Prevention Manager, and Sandra Gill, Fraser Health Manager for Environmental Health Services & Healthy Built Environment Program.
Tobin lives in Vancouver. He lives to be active and outside. Tobin has spent decades riding bicycles for transportation, recreation and competition, and supporting youth high performance athlete development. He used to be fast. He also enjoys skeleton, and skate skiing badly.
Jeanette Foreman, Northern Health Authority
JJeanette has a BA (Hons) in psychology and an MPH in health promotion, completing her practicum in rural injury prevention and unintentional poisonings in children. She has been in the Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion Lead role since April 2022, serving the Northern Health region.
Previously, Jeanette has worked in applied health services research, evaluation, and knowledge translation roles. She has trained health professionals in evidence-informed practice and quality improvement skills, and facilitated priority improvement projects in system quality and patient safety.
Jeanette brings over ten years of fall prevention experience into the role and has since gained new experience working in life promotion and suicide and self-harm prevention. She earned her Road Safety Professional 1 (RSP1) designation in 2024. Jeanette is dedicated to implementing socioecological health promotion approaches to achieve health equity and to reduce the burden of injury among rural populations.
Vancouver Coastal Health – Vacant
- distress when a child was in pain and when a family was grieving; and
- sadness in the event they were not able to save a child in their care.
- concern for the injured child and the child’s family;
Particularly traumatic events, such as those involving vivid sights and sounds (e.g., families holding each other and having extreme reactions), stuck with the practitioners, having long-lasting impressions on them and causing them to re-live these events in the years following their exposure.
Even after their shift was over, practitioners said that they changed how they approached parenting and how they perceived safety during play as a result of witnessing these traumatic events. They reported having more knowledge of the causes and consequences of severe injuries, such as those that require hospitalization or emergency care. For example, practitioners were more likely to enforce boundaries around where their children could play, such as by forbidding their child to play near busy streets. They also were more likely to tell their child about safe play environments and equipment, and put this equipment on their child before play, such as explaining the benefits of using helmets while riding bikes.
Practitioners were more likely to enforce boundaries around where their children could play, and use safety equipment, such as bike helmets.
Practitioners also described being concerned about their children’s play near open windows, around large bodies of water unsupervised, and in environments where firearms were present. They also expressed worry about their children’s play on trampolines and on motorized vehicles, such as ATVs. Findings related to trampoline play safety concerns were published in the journal Injury Prevention.
Observing family grief due to child injury or death affected the mental well-being of health care practitioners, drawing attention to the need for mental health supports for those involved in caring for severely injured and dying patients.
"Raise more resilient children through play...watch and see how your child handles challenging tasks without intervening right away." —Dr. Michelle Bauer
Building resilience through play
How can parents help their children build resilience? By letting them play!
The experiences that practitioners witnessed encouraged them to support their children in building resilience through play; specifically, by supporting children in learning to cope with failure, overcome fear, build self-confidence, develop distress tolerance, and regulate negative emotions. Findings related to building resilience through play were published in the journal Child: Care, Health, and Development.
Parents fostered resilience in their kids by:
- helping their kids get back on bikes after they fell off and wanted to try again;
- sitting on their hands so they did not instinctively reach for their children when their children fell down; and
- encouraging participation in challenging and thrilling activities in forests and water while safety equipment was used.
"There are a few ways that parents can raise more resilient children through play that are supported by literature and our study findings," said Dr. Bauer. "One: watch and see how your child handles challenging tasks without intervening right away."
"Two: Ask your child how they want you to help—let them tell you what makes them feel safe and happy during play. Let them lead. And three: make play both safe and exciting by encouraging risk-taking, teaching them how to avoid hazards, and using safety equipment.”
This research was supported through Drs. Bauer’s and Gilley’s receipt of a clinical and translational research seed grant from the BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute (BCCHR), Dr. Bauer’s BCCHR postdoctoral fellowship award, and additional training provided to Dr. Bauer through her participation in the Programs and Institutions Looking to Launch Academic Researchers (PILLAR) program through ENRICH, a national organization training perinatal and child health researchers.
Learn more about the study through two infographic posters:
Graphics and posters by Milica Radosavljevic
