SUBJECTS OF THIS PAGE
Historical
In the early 2000s, family doctors who delivered babies and healthcare professionals at the CSSS de la Montagne came to a realization: they had little real impact on the lives of the vulnerable families they served. The healthcare system struggled to reach these families and maintain meaningful relationships with them, which jeopardized their access to the psychosocial and healthcare services they needed, as well as to preventive interventions that required continuity.
Dr. Vania Jimenez, a family doctor and obstetrician, and Amélie Sigouin, an early childhood educator, then created a non-profit organization (NPO), La Maison Bleue, to bring together doctors, professionals, and practitioners from the CSSS de la Montagne and GMF Côte-des-Neiges in a hybrid structure offering greater freedom and flexibility.
An interdisciplinary interventiom model and an integrated approach
La Maison Bleue helps pregnant women and their families living in situations of vulnerability. Its mission is to reduce social inequalities and to promote the optimal development of the child,
from the time of their mother’s pregnancy until the age of 5.
The approach is particularly aimed at families living in a context of multiple and complex vulnerability. It closely combines medical monitoring of pregnancy and infancy with educational, psychosocial and legal support for the mother and her family.
This human scale intervention model promotes a positive experience of pregnancy, childbirth and parenthood; stopping the isolation; and providing families with tools to support their well-being and that of their children.
Teaching and Knowledge Transfer
La Maison Bleue shares its expertise
and trains the next generation
At the heart of its social perinatal model, La Maison Bleue holds a deep commitment to the training of young practitioners and to the outreach of its approach, whether by hosting interns or by participating in knowledge transfer activities on topics related to our intervention in the hope of sharing our expertise.
Community of practice
Bringing together professionals from all Maison Bleue sites and different care backgrounds, helps this committee develop internal knowledge transfer tools and ensure the harmonization of practices.
In-field training
La Maison Bleue applies its innovative expertise to serve the student community and provide them with the opportunity to experience truly unique interdisciplinary collaborative work and integrated services. Thanks to the close ties that La Maison Bleue holds with its institutional and academic partners, we offer trainings and internships specific to many interns coming from different fields of study.
In 2024-2025, more than 181 interns passed through the doors of La Maison Bleue. These experiences have enabled students to discover a motivating interdisciplinary work environment:
Medicine : 85 trainees – 417 hours
- Medical internship : 49 trainees – 251.5 hours
Community medicine : 24 trainees – 360 hours
- Nursing care : 10 trainees – 492 hours
Social work : 5 trainees – 1,865 hours
Special education and psycho-education : 3 trainees – 882 hours
- Midwifery practice : 2 trainees – 123 hours
Other disciplines : 2 trainees – 69 hours
- Right : 1 trainee – 196 hours
Knowledge disseminator
La Maison Bleue shares its innovative approach and practices
In order to extend the knowledge of what are the best practices in perinatal and early childhood care to families in situations of vulnerability and thus improve the local service offering, La Maison Bleue gives special importance to knowledge transfer in action.
Clientele
The first condition to begin a relationship with La Maison Bleue’s team is pregnancy.
This is the first step to access our services for families, and our services will continue until the last child is 5 years old. The families followed at La Maison Bleue often combine many vulnerability factors and present extremely varied life paths and needs.
There are many vulnerability factors, which may include:
- A precarious financial situation
- Low education levels
- Unwanted pregnancy or adolescent pregnancy
- Isolation
- Mental health or addiction problems
- Abuse, neglect or violence
- Precarious migration status or difficult migration journey
- The involvement of the DYP
- Single parenthood
- Marital difficulties, etc.
THE RESEAU LA MAISON BLEUE
The first La Maison Bleue was established in May 2007, in the Côte-des-Neiges borough in Montreal to stop the isolation of pregnant women living in situations of vulnerability and to provide them with the necessary tools so that their child could be born and raised in the most favorable conditions for his or her development.
Inspired by the courage of these mothers, the founders created a home for them and their families. This home brings together a “village”, a support network consisting of health and social services professionals (family doctors, midwife, nurse, social worker, specialized educator, psychoeducator), therapists and volunteers to offer pregnant women and their families a welcoming environment where they can access health care and services provided by an intervention model built on a human scale.
Empowered by the recognition and success, a second La Maison Bleue opened in May 2011 to welcome families from the Montreal Parc-Extension borough, at the request of the CSSS de la Montagne which witnessed the effectiveness and efficiency of this approach in delivering the services that this population significantly needs.
In 2017, La Maison Bleue celebrated its 10th anniversary and inaugurated a third La Maison Bleue in the Saint-Michel borough thanks to a donation from the Marcelle and Jean Coutu Foundation and the recurrent support announced by the Ministry of Health and Social Services. The inauguration of this new La Maison Bleue in March 2017 is an opportunity to highlight the support of the essential partners in this project, namely the CIUSSS de l’Est-de-l’Île-de-Montréal and the Family Medicine Group – Maisonneuve-Rosemont family medicine unit. This third site, developed in a completely new institutional context, not only strengthens the sustainability of the model, but also its replicability and export potential.
La Maison Bleue opened its fourth social perinatal care center in the Verdun sector in Montréal in January 2020, thanks to a partnership with the CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal and the GMF de Verdun. As it’s the case for the other ones, La Maison Bleue in Verdun gather under one roof a set of integrated medical, psychosocial and educational services making it possible to have a positive impact on babies’ health, children’s development, as well as strengthening parental skills. This new Maison Bleue reinforce perinatal services and work closely with existing local services.
In January 2024, La Maison Bleue Montréal-Nord is officially launched. This new La Maison Bleue site is the result of a partnership with the Pas-à-Pas Family Medicine Group and the CIUSSS du Nord-de-l’Île-de-Montréal. This partnership helps provide families with tailored services, promoting a better response to health disparities in the population.