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| Health Co-op Chair Debby Zeeben reminds us what an amazing year of accomplishments we have to celebrate |
The Community First Health Coop AGM was held on June 9, 2015
with a good number of members in attendance, After a welcome by Deb Zeeben,,
where she gave us highlights for the year, the West Kootenay TEETH Low cost
dental clinic is up and running Apple Tree Maternity is a collaboration of
doctors, midwives and doulas to support families from pre pregnancy to post,
and the Passport for Wellness Health Fair, she introduced our guest speakers
for the evening. Julius Halaschek-Wiener, Dr. Trevor Janz and Grace Nakano representing the Kootenay Boundary
Division of Family Practice.
The Kootenay Boundary Division of Family Practice has 100% of family
physicians in the area developing a vision for sustaining health communities
with health care providers in the region.
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| Debby introducing our speakers |
Julius spoke about working together with practitioners,
IHA and Ministry of Health and local community doctors to look at the best ways
to provide care for the community. The Division is 5 years old and operated on
consensus and true collaboration, a place where the right people are needed to
work together.
He also spoke on the GP for Me initiative to recruit and
retain family doctors so that everyone can have a doctor. It also involves improving practice
efficiency of practices, optimizing Integrated Primary Community Care, team-based care and a GP for Me Hotline.
Currently there are 4 residents in Trail and 2 in Nelson who
are interested in rural medicine and in coming to work in our communities. There will be a community-supported initiative
to put together a team to work on recruitment of physicians to our area. There
are currently 2 doctors in the Nelson area taking new patients, but they are
becoming full quite quickly.
IPCC ( Integrated Primary Community Care) would include a
nurse, dietitian, social worker along with the doctor. Team-based care would see a social worker
embedded in each medical clinic. Currently there is a social worker at the
Nelson Medical Clinic under the direction of Dr. Lee McKay. They are looking at the sustainability of
this pilot project. The GP for Me Hotline is given out at emergency if the
patient does not have a family doctor or through Mental Health, and when they
call the number, a person will try to
hook them up with a physician in their area.
These are exciting initiatives as BC looks to envision a new
way to work with primary care.
The next speaker was Dr. Trevor Janz, who has been an ER
doctor in Nelson for over 25 years and is also responsible for the elderly
frail in care homes in the area. He is
interested in improving the quality of care for “frail” seniors. His work in the area of polypharmacy was
both fascinating and substantiated in making a difference. He explained that polypharmacy is "when the total negative effect of medications is more than the
positive effect on the illness”.
The
statistics that he gave on the use of anti psychotic drugs was mind boggling.
In Canada if you are 65 and older and living in your own home, then 26% will be
on 10 or more medications and 15% will be on 15 or more medications. However, if you are in a long-term care
facility, then 61% will be on 10 or more medications and 21% will be on 15 or
more.
Before the work on reducing the medication began in the
Kootenay area it was found that 65% of patients in Castlegar, 53% in Trail and
16% in Nelson in long term care homes were using 10 or more medications. Currently that number has now been reduced to
12% in Castlegar, 22% in Trail and 9% in Nelson.
This is an initiative that is across BC and Share Care, where
practitioners are conferencing once a month, up to 75 of them, both nurses and
doctors, and working on using many experts to make a difference.
It is more difficult he admits, to dealing with seniors in
their own homes and in assisted living facilities, but they are chipping away
at it.
Grace Nakano is a Nurse Practitioner based with Mental
health in Nelson and Trail who support the most vulnerable people with mental
health issues on the streets, in shelters and at food banks.
A nurse practitioner will have extended training after
nursing and is able to write prescriptions, refer patients to specialists,
order x-rays and perform extended nursing duties.
She works with high risk clients and meets them at the
Salvation army, Food cupboard, Our Daily Bread or on the streets or shelters.
She is also at LV Rogers high school once a week to meet with students who have mental
health challenges that are referred by the school counselors.
There was excitement in the air after the presentations as
people were optimistic about a new level of care for all.
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| Julius shared with us the Strategic Initiatives for 2014-15 including their Core Principles |
The AGM was very brief, and with a quorum present all was
approved.
A big thank you was extended
to our 3 board members who have filled their terms or have retired from the
board, Sharon Browning, Sarah Popoff and Joan Reichardt
A welcome extended
to our two new Board members: Karen
Hornby, who is a nurse and Erin Morrison who is a health coach. We look forward
to a good year for CFHC.
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| Karen |
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| Erin |
We have one more meeting before September and so we wish you
all the great summer and, although we may do one or two more blogs, we too will
take some time to relax and recharge.
Marion and Eric
