The inauguration of the Institute of Community and Family Psychiatry in 1969 was a pivotal event in the 73-year history of the JGH Department of Psychiatry.

Red noses and belly laughs were abundant in the JGH lobby, as Dr. Clown’s zaniest merry-makers marked 15 years of visits to the hospital.

With support from Hope & Cope, the JGH has become the first hospital in Quebec to use virtual reality goggles to boost the spirits of Palliative Care patients by enabling them to “travel” to foreign locales.

Want better health care? Then complain when it falls short, says Maude Laliberté, the new Ombudsman for CIUSSS West-Central Montreal. She believes complaints aren’t necessarily negative, since they shine a much-needed light on areas that need improvement

Dr. Michael Pollak, Director of the Stroll Cancer Prevention Centre at the JGH, has been chosen to serve as one of two leaders of a new Canada-wide team, aimed at translating fundamental research about breast cancer into effective treatment options for patients.

In 2006, Nancy Rubin was on the brink of retiring, when a new opportunity up-ended her plans. Twelve years later, she’s still is at the helm of The JGH Auxiliary, where she works with a dedicated team of volunteers and professionals for the well-being of patients.

In 1981, Hope & Cope was launched under the auspices of the JGH Auxiliary to use specially trained volunteers (many of whom were cancer survivors) to support and counsel cancer patients and their families.

If you haven’t organized your medicine cabinet in a while, don’t delay; your expired or unused drugs need to go. Opioid abuse can occur in homes where unused drugs are discovered and consumed by children.

Danielle Leggett, an expert in human resources management, has been appointed Executive Director of Hope & Cope and will succeed the retiring Suzanne O’Brien.

Aren’t those teenagers at the JGH awfully young to be medical trainees? Actually, they’re high schoolers in the Auxiliary’s Hospital Opportunity Program for Students. Here’s what some notable HOPS “graduates” have been doing lately.