Background How do health care professionals help children, help themselves? How do patients become active participants in their own care? The prevalence of chronic conditions, such as IBD, is increasing in Canada [1, 2]. Health care systems need to look for sustainable and effective solutions to improve patient care while reducing health care costs. Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC), known collectively as IBD, are chronic relapsing and remitting diseases associated with significant medical (i.e., number of hospitalizations, frequent need for surgery, growth failure) and social (i.e., school absences, interference with pursuit of higher education) morbidity [3]. Medical and social morbidity of IBD are intertwined, and take a significant toll on the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of these patients [4-6].