Mary Vachon

Affiliation

Consultant and Psychotherapist (Private Practice)
Professor, Department of Psychiatry, and Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto
Clinical Consultant, Wellspring

Committee membership

Standing Committee on Ethics

Biography

Mary Vachon is a nurse, clinical sociologist, psychotherapist, researcher, educator and cancer survivor. She is currently a Consultant and Psychotherapist in Private Practice, Professor in the Department ( remove s ) of Psychiatry and Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto and Clinical Consultant at Wellspring. From 1997-2001 she was a consumer member of the Bayer Advisory Council on Bioethics, which addressed the bioethical issues related to plasma products for Canada. From 2001-2005 she was a member of the Privacy Advisory Committee which produced the CIHR Best Practices for Protecting Privacy in Health Research in 2005.

From 1992-2000 she was Consultant in Psychosocial Oncology and Palliative Care at Toronto-Sunnybrook Regional Cancer Centre. She has also been employed by the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry (1969-1992) and Massachusetts General Hospital (1965-1969).

Dr. Vachon is a graduate of Massachusetts General Hospital School of Nursing from which she received an Alumnae Achievement Award in 1998. She received her Bachelor of Science degree from Boston University, her Master of Arts in sociology from the University of Toronto and her PhD from York University.

She has published over 170 scientific articles and book chapters on issues related to bereavement, occupational stress in health care professionals, cancer survivorship, family stress dealing with life-threatening illness, spirituality and palliative care. Dr. Vachon has delivered over 1,600 lectures around the world on topics related to bereavement, occupational stress, life-threatening illness, palliative care, survivorship and spirituality.

She is the recipient of many awards including the Mara Morgenson Flaherty Lectureship of the Oncology Nursing Society for Excellence in Psychosocial Oncology in 1985; the Dorothy Ley Award for Excellence in Palliative Care received from the Ontario Palliative Care Association in April 1997; the National (US) Hospice and Palliative Care Organization's 2001 Distinguished Researcher Award and has received the 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Journal of Palliative Nursing.