Realize offers a range of educational resources focused on HIV and rehabilitation and episodic disability and employment.
Our HIV and rehabilitation resources are widely used by rehabilitation professionals such as physiotherapists, occupational therapists and speech language pathologists, students, family physicians, other clinicians including those specializing in HIV, AIDS service organizations (ASOs), and academic researchers as well as people living with HIV looking for improved quality of life.
Our episodic disability and employment resources are used by human resource professionals, business leaders, managers, public sector institutions, leadership in universities and colleges, as well as people living and working with episodic disabilities. From the effects of long COVID and pandemic-related mental health concerns in the workplace to labour shortages and the need to improve employee retention, more and more business, government, and institutional leaders are re-examining their practices on employment, disability, and wellness.
In addition to research materials and information manuals, we provide online courses, in-person courses and workshops.
Online Courses
Realize offers a number of online courses:
Courses marked with a * have been pre-approved for CPD hours by the following organizations:
*An Introduction to Episodic Disabilities – This self-directed online course is designed to augment the knowledge and understanding of human resources professionals, supervisors, and managers who form the primary support system at work for people living with episodic disabilities.
*Accommodating Workplaces: Episodic Disabilities and Leading Practices at Work – This online course for human resource professionals and employees builds on the key concepts of what episodic disabilities are and the challenges faced by people living with episodic disabilities and goes deep into communication practices, universal workplace design, accessible design, and more.
*Understanding and Supporting Employees with Episodic Disabilities – This course is designed with human resource professionals, managers, and supervisors in mind. It includes helpful guidelines on how start an accommodation plan conversation with an employee living with episodic disability. It also provides a helpful template to enact this plan that is in compliance with relevant legislation.
Living and Leading with Episodic Disabilities – This course is designed for senior executives who are looking for a space to navigate the unique challenges of living with episodic disabilities while leading an organization. It explores the dynamics of episodic disability and leadership and guides participants through the creation of a personal inventory designed to help identify challenging life areas and invite personal reflection on options to manage challenges. This course is offered in two formats – self-directed or as part of a cohort of senior leaders living with episodic disabilities.
Belonging at Work – This course builds on existing leading-edge work in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), The content presented focuses on the range of people living with episodic disabilities in the workplace, including staff, volunteers, students, clients, customers, and more who may be impacted by episodic disabilities and how well they feel supported/served in their respective roles.
Episodic Disabilities and Working on Your Own – This course is an immersive learning experience for self-employed and micro business leaders in Canada. The idea for this course came through formal and informal conversations with self-employed and micro-business leaders looking for a space to navigate the unique challenges of living with episodic disabilities while running a business. During the three weeks of the course, we’ll review one module per week. Each module will have remotely delivered content for review and participants who are part of a learning cohort, each week will also have an opportunity to build relationships and share collective wisdom through a group Zoom session.
*Working with an Episodic Disability in the Context of COVID-19 – This course is designed for human resources professionals, managers, and supervisors who want to better accommodate their diverse employees in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
*Changing Jobs in a Changing World – An online course for supervisors, human resource managers, employers and rehabilitation professionals designed to bring awareness and understanding of how to accommodate new employees living with episodic disabilities as they are hired into your organizations. It also provides some additional resources and instruction on adapting to new ways of working in the context of COVID-19 and other widespread workplace disruptions.
Supporting Post-Secondary Students With Episodic Disabilities – This course for post secondary academic staff will provide you with knowledge and strategies to help make your teaching more accessible and inclusive to students living with episodic disabilities. In addition, tips provided throughout this course may help reduce your workload in the long run.
Fostering INclusion and Environments of Support for Students with Episodic Disabilities (FINESSED) – This course provides academic staff and leaders in the secondary education sector with knowledge and strategies to help make teaching more accessible and inclusive to students living with episodic disabilities. In addition, tips provided throughout this course may help to reduce the teaching workload in the long run. This course is the result of several years of work to explore the impacts of episodic disabilities for students in the post-secondary education sector, adapted more recently to address the realities of a COVID-19 context.
Training
Episodic Disabilities at Work Training: This 2-hour Zoom workshop is designed for the workplace to provide an overview of episodic disabilities, information that promotes inclusion, best practices for becoming disability-confident employers, and an opportunity to hear from someone with lived experience of working with an episodic disability.
Workshops
Realize offers workshops across Canada to promote awareness about the role of rehabilitation in the care of HIV and other episodic disabilities. These interactive workshops bring together a variety of people involved in HIV, other episodic disabilities and rehabilitation to talk about the issues and develop strategies.
Participants include:
- people living with HIV and their caregivers
- people living with other episodic disabilities
- HIV physicians and nurses
- rehabilitation professionals
- educators
- volunteers and staff from community-based organizations
- support workers
- vocational counsellors
- policy makers
- researchers, and
- employers.
Realize works with local partner organizations to plan, promote and deliver the workshops. The local partners decide the format and content of the workshop and help to identify participants and presenters. Topic areas may include:
- expanded definitions of rehabilitation and a holistic approach to care delivery
- impact of the episodic nature of HIV
- rehabilitation skills and knowledge in the context of HIV
- role of rehabilitation in symptom and side-effect management, and
- available tools and resources.
Realize provides the following to support its local partners:
- assistance in designing the workshop
- facilitators and presenters
- Guide to Multi-Sector Workshops on Rehabilitation in the Context of HIV – Guide to Multi-sector Workshops on Rehabilitation in the Context of HIV
- list of resource materials available through Realize and/or CATIE
If you are interested in finding out more about Realize workshops or would like to hold a workshop in your organization or community, please email us or call 416-513-0440.
Other Resources
E-Module for Evidence-Informed HIV Rehabilitation
With many people with HIV living longer and facing a multitude of health challenges related to HIV, concurrent health conditions, as well as the side effects of treatment, the role for rehabilitation in the context of HIV continues to grow. This E-Module for Evidence-Informed HIV Rehabilitation (e-module) is a comprehensive online resource on HIV and rehabilitation for rehabilitation professionals and others to respond to this increasing need.
Slide Presentations
For Employers
- Understanding Episodic Disabilities and Employment
- Understanding Episodic Disabilities and Employment: A Presentation to RBC
Webinars
Episodic Disabilities