Catherine Suridjan is the Director of Policy and Knowledge Translation at the Canadian Home Care Association and Carers Canada. She focuses on advocacy, strategic partnerships, and knowledge translation to promote awareness and discussion of the often-overlooked needs of family and friend caregivers across Canada. Through evidence and experience-driven research, Catherine provides leadership in the advancement of the Canadian Carer Strategy.
For the past 6 years, Catherine has developed and coordinated annual pan-Canadian awareness campaign including National Caregiver Day that resulted in the engagement of 2,000+ audiences, collaborations with 200+ partner organizations, the involvement of 40+ Members of Parliament, and federal endorsements from the Prime Minister, Minister of Seniors and Minister of Health. Globally, Catherine led the launch of “Innovative Carer Practices” (evidence-informed models to support physical-psycho-social needs of caregivers) that have been widely shared in practices across Canada, UK, Ireland, France, Taiwan and 10 other countries. Catherine also supports the communication secretariat function of the International Alliance of Carer Organization (IACO) and a key member of the IACO’s Policy and Stakeholder Relations Committee.
Catherine holds a Master of Social Work and an Honours Bachelor of Science from the University of Toronto, as well as an Honours Bachelor of Social Work from Lakehead University.
Director of Policy & Knowledge Translation at the Canadian Home Care Association and Carers Canada