Sarah Kaplan

Sarah Kaplan is a social worker, caregiver and passionate advocate for caregivers and equity in the health and social care systems. After obtaining her master’s degree in social work from McGill University in 1991, Sarah went on to work in a community clinic in Montreal, Quebec, providing services to newcomer and refugee populations, women’s shelters. Sarah later moved to Cornwall, Ontario, where she worked in various positions from 1998 to 2022 at Cornwall Community Hospital.

Throughout her tenure at Cornwall Community Hospital, Sarah oversaw the development and implementation of many important programs and initiatives to improve patient experiences and outcomes, including developing the Assault and Sexual Abuse Program, developing best practice guidelines with the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario for universal screening of intimate partner violence, leading a multi-tiered transformational project in the hospital’s Inpatient Mental Health Unit, lead the implementation of the Ontario Breast Cancer Screening at the hospital and took part in a three-year project led by the Change Foundation focusing on caregiver inclusion in healthcare settings. In addition to her clinical work, Sarah also co-produced and co-hosted the “Women’s Health Show” for a local station and had a regular newspaper column called “Abuse Insight.”

Sarah retired in January 2022 but remains active as a consultant on issues of healthcare transformation as well as being a published writer focusing on the caregiver experience. She is currently working on her first book regarding the health impact of caregiving with special focus on post-traumatic stress disorder. In February 2023, she participated in a panel interview on the CBC The National to discuss the current state of the healthcare system.

Sarah is the mother of twin girls and the full-time caregiver of her husband. Sarah is often quoted as saying that “we can heal the world through chocolate.”