Aimed at helping people who may be at risk for developing a chronic disease, as well as for people and their families who are managing one, the inaugural chronic disease management symposium here Saturday proved to be a hit, drawing more than 170 people.
“I think it went really well,” said RN Patti-Jo LeDrew, the co-ordinator of the chronic disease management program at the Fort Frances Community Clinic/Family Health Team.
“We got a wonderful turnout,” she added. “We had some wonderful questions generated from our presenters, and I think what the participants took with them will be really wonderful for them to help manage their chronic disease, prevent chronic disease, and promote healthy living.”
LeDrew said the objective of the symposium was “to empower people to take responsibility for healthy lifestyles, chronic disease prevention, and chronic disease management.”
“In order for them to do that, we provided them with the tools, resources, and, of course, a better a understanding of the wonderful health networks we have in our community,” she explained.
The symposium highlighted the recently-developed Chronic Disease Management Network.
“There was a partnership formed between Riverside and the Family Health Team as a initiative from the LHIN to get more information out to the community about chronic disease management,” noted LeDrew.
“It just happened that I was hired around the same time for the chronic disease management program at the clinic.
“What this allowed us to do is it allowed us to meet together—myself with other health providers in the community—and form a chronic disease network.
“So, once rostered patients start seeing me through referral at the Family Health Team, I can refer them out to these agencies,” she added.
“Although that’s happening now, this allows them to have an individualized plan of care so that they can meet the other objectives, maybe the healthy living component.
“They can have more access to smoking cessation—I can direct them to the Northwestern Health Unit,” LeDrew continued. “I can make sure that their dietary needs are met through referral to the dietitian.
“It’s just ensuring that nobody falls between the cracks, and everybody can become aware of the wonderful programs,” she stressed.
RPN Beverly Thomson, the new health systems navigator at the local clinic, also was on hand Saturday. She works with LeDrew to be an advocate to provide direction to patients as to what services are available to them and what might best suit their needs.
LeDrew said the Chronic Disease Management Network will be meeting on a monthly basis to gather information as to what kind of health incentives the partners are promoting, so that the network can do media releases to let the public know what sort of activities are happening in the community that they can be involved in.
“Maybe we’ll even partner together to put some health promotion classes or groups together,” she noted. “It’s just about creating a better awareness and allowing people to be a little more accountable for their healthy lifestyle.”
The symposium, which ran from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. at the Memorial Sports Centre auditorium, featured information booths for the Fort Frances Community Clinic/Family Health Team, Fort Frances Dental Centre, Fort Frances Clinic Dispensary, Pharmasave, Northwestern Health Unit, Sunset Country Métis Association, Fort Frances Tribal Area Heath Authority, and Valley Diabetes Education Centre.
Energy Fitness Centre, Canada Safeway Pharmacy, Gizhewaadiziwin Health Access Centre, Riverside Health Care Services, Rainy River Valley Safety Coalition, and Lidkea Optometry Services also had booths there.
Representatives were able to provide information on topics ranging from healthy eating and smoking cessation to stroke prevention and dental care.
LeDrew noted that thanks to funding from the Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) for this area, many of these partners at the symposium have been provided with printed resources, displays, and other items to help them educate the public.
For example, the Valley Diabetes Education Centre had the “portion plate” to promote balance diets, as well as a “fat vest”—a 20-pound vest of simulated fat to let people experience the difficulty of being overweight and performing daily tasks like going up stairs.
“We’ve been given this so that we can provide more of an observational and hands-on educational experience with our community. It’s for every age,” said LeDrew.
There also was lineup of speakers, covering topics ranging from safe medication use to eye care to physical fitness.
Marlyss Thiessen, who along with Catherine Bock is one of the two nurse practitioners at the Fort Frances Community Clinic, gave tips on how to talk to your doctor.
She noted patients should look at their relationship with their doctor as similar to being teammates with different roles. The patients is the expert on their own body while the doctor is the expert on how to treat what’s wrong with their body.
Thiessen noted patients should feel free to ask their doctor questions and clearly communicate their symptoms, but do not tell their doctor how to do their job—after all, they have the knowledge and experience.
“You need to respect them, they need to respect you,” she stressed.
Thiessen said patients should know that they can have access to their medical test results. And if their doctor does not have the time to fully explain them, patients can request a copy and ask another health care professional to help them out.
Thiessen and Bock, for example, typically have more time than physicians to spend with patients, and patients can get a full half-hour with them. In the case of test results, among other many things, nurse practitioners can be a liaison between patients and doctors.
Canada Safeway pharmacist David Schwartz spoke on medication safety.
He said there has been major changes in medications in the past five-10 years, and while medications now can better specifically target various symptoms of health problems, it also means some patients are taking more and more pills, and these can be tough to keep track of.
Schwartz said there are helpful tools out to help with the problem, including dosettes (containers with compartments for pills doses for different times of the day and days of the week), medication blisters (a means of packaging pills into doses specific to the patients), and the new medication recorders put out by Riverside Health Care Facilities, Inc. (wallet-sized recorders for patients to keep track of all medications and dosages as outlined in last week’s Times).
Schwartz stressed medication-users should know what medications they’re on and what each of them do, and encouraged them to consult their pharmacist.
He also noted medication-users should keep their medication secure when they are using them, and dispose of their drugs when they no longer need them.
They can do this by bringing them into their local pharmacy for proper disposal.
This keeps them out of the hands of the wrong people, echoed LeDrew, adding prescription drugs, such as oxycontin, can—and are—stolen and abused by young people here and elsewhere.
Meanwhile, Dr. Bruce Lidkea talked about eye problems at Saturday’s symposium, including diabetic retinopathy, cataracts, glaucoma, and dry eye.
He outlined the symptoms that go along with each problem and how to treat them, but stressed the most important thing to remember is to see your physician and optometrist regularly.
Physical therapist/personal trainer Dee O’Sullivan spoke on the importance of strength training—and even went over a few exercises with “resistance bands” given out attendees.
“There’s many things in your life you can’t control, but you can control your own body,” O’Sullivan noted, adding it’s been proven:
•you age faster if you’re not active;
•your body ages a week for every day you spend in bed;
•60 percent of older adults are inactive;
•inactivity is as harmful to you as smoking; and
•getting weaker/losing muscle mass is not inevitable as you age if you keep up strength training.
Strength training allows older adults to stay independent, improve their quality of life, have more energy, improve their posture, have fewer aches and pains, maintain a healthy weight, sleep better, and even reduce the signs and symptoms of arthritis, diabetes, heart disease and stroke, osteoporosis, obesity, back pain and depression.
Alana McNeil, a fitness instruction specialist with Energy Fitness Centre, also touted the benefits of exercise for older adults, noting “no one thing is more important than your health.”
McNeil offered some tips on getting active, including:
•finding an “exercise friend” to make exercise a social activity as well as make you accountable to someone;
•set realistic fitness goals;
•create a reward system; and
•pick a motivational quote to live.
“The best type of exercise is whatever works for you,” noted McNeil, who also went over some low-impact warm-up exercises with attendees.
There also was a free lunch, as well as plenty of giveaways and draw prizes, for those who attended Saturday’s symposium.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
