Your health and wellness depends on you

Recently, I read Jim Wolstenholme’s well articulated message speaking to the value of repurposing rural hospitals currently closed to fully functional use. They could and should be re-branded as providers of primary health care which could effectively fill gaps that exist within our current structure. Initial expenditures to bring these facilities up to current standards and needs would be recouped in very short order, while at the same time taking the pressure off the current systems of care that are essentially being taxed to the max. It’s a win-win that requires thinking outside the box and allowing for the very strong likelihood that it will work and work well. Those in positions to make such decisions just need to get out of their own way and really start listening to and hearing the men and women, and even children who would benefit from expanded services through revitalizing shuttered, retired medical facilities.

Primary health care teams at these site should include family practitioners, nurses, social workers, psychologists, and mental health counsellors, working collaboratively to improve the quality of life for all — from the very young to the very old.

Taken further, having a well orchestrated team in place can reduce ER congestion, and provide earlier diagnosis of serious condition/disease thereby expediting timely treatment protocols. All of these things could have been put in place years ago at the hospital of my youth — the long shuttered Northern Carleton Hospital in Bath if it had been developed into a fully functioning clinic.

A few years ago, I wrote an article in response to the intended plan to repurpose that building into senior housing. As it turned out, major headaches ensued and the plan to provide a much needed housing alternative for seniors never came to fruition. What happened? Why? Was such a carrot waved in other communities only to fall flat? Will plans with such a positive vision be revisited or is it now a case of once bitten, twice shy?

I was sorely disappointed that the plans in my hometown never materialized as the proposed senior housing would have provided a much needed service to the community and with it would have come ancillary services specific to the needs of the older folks. Secondly, it could have been expanded to include a day care center, or even function as an afterschool program venue. All plusses that would have concurrently enhanced the lives of older citizens of the community by broadening their social connectedness with the younger set. As well, it would have been a mechanism by which students, from elementary school through high school could get involved and explore the value of volunteering. Volunteerism contributes to the shaping of a community that may be struggling. But that’s for another commentary.

It’s not lost on me and many others who have interest in health and health care that rebranding outdated facilities that functioned as full-service hospitals makes a lot of sense. It’s time to stop mindlessly moving chess pieces around the board and make a full committment to walking the walk and doing something with abandoned hospitals, giving back to rural dwellers some semblance of security. Good health is not a given. It’s a gift. Some of us by virtue of how we think about life and living and how we conduct the daily business of living are better equipped to make the right choices and often have greater resources to ensure that we can live well. That being so, I believe that we should revisit user fees. Make no mistake, it’s not just those on the lower rungs of the socio-economic ladder who over-use/misuse hospital services, notably the ER; they do so out of fear, clearly.  Lots of ‘well-heeled’ citizens are frequent fliers in the ER system of care. User fees should be structured in such a way that they won’t discourage the truly needy from attending at the hospital for a real health situation/emergency. Common sense must be restored and a slap on the pocketbook is often an effective method of waking people up to their out of control behaviour and their duty to monitor the excesses that compromise their health.

As well, it’s important for us to be more aware of our community and the people in it. Being aware and alert to the needs of others impacts us in very important ways because what we do for our neighbour helps all of us. Your reassuring assistance to an ‘at risk’ neighbour breaks the cycle of ER over-use It really does. Isolated elders may need nothing more than a conversation and a cuppa. You’ve lifted their spirits, eased their minds and they no longer need to go to the ER for that people connection fix. You’ve done your part. Now keep doing it.

Carla MacInnis Rockwell is a freelance writer and disability rights advocate living outside Fredericton, NB with her aging Australian silky terrier and a rambunctious Maltese. She can be reached via email at carmacrockwell@xplornet.ca 

For young people, volunteering is character building

Junior and senior high school students in many schools across Canada are doing something that students in our province are not doing — they’re volunteering in their community as part of the high school graduating requirement.

In 2011, the Progressive Conservatives plan to introduce mandatory volunteering fell flat. The feeling was that groups relying on volunteers were not eager to accept high school students who would be ‘required’ to be there but not have wanted to be there. Were students actually consulted about what they wanted? Or, did directors of the various groups simply decided that students wouldn’t want to participate as part of a graduating requirement? Student input is critical; after all, it’s their futures on the horizon.

Put off by the name ‘volunteering’? Call it community based learning because, as a process, it makes a lot more sense, as all students, university-bound or not, would benefit from work/job shadowing experiences through junior and senior high school, as they spend time in the workplace, absorbing all the intricacies involved in how a business is run, perhaps experiencing several different components before settling on one they liked, about which they’d like to learn more. Not unlike opening the pages of a book and reading from beginning to end, learning about all the characters and plots and how the story ends. Hands-on learning has a staying power as it gives students an opportunity to determine if what they’re physically doing is something they’d like to learn more about, with a view to developing a job or career after high school is behind them.

Volunteerism has potential to open doors to university or to jobs opportunities or training programs that offer scholarship based on volunteer hours in the community. From volunteering grows self-driven learning which demonstrates to teachers and others that the student is sincere in his efforts and serious about his goals. Administrators must think outside the box and free themselves of outdated notions about how children are ‘supposed’ to learn.

Sometimes, student interns/volunteers may receive pay for their work and an internship may develop into a full-time summer job during high school. For the student who hasn’t been sufficiently encouraged, opportunities tend to slip out of reach, so volunteering opens access and allows them to realize that they can do the job, that they’re good at it, and that they could probably make a full-time career out of those early opportunities once the required book learning has been completed.

 

The spirit of volunteering actually must begin in the home with parents leading by example. From the time a child comes into the world, the stage is set for youngsters to see community service in action through their parents, their first teachers. Over time, when they age into their place as a contributing member of society, children should already have a set of skills and aptitudes that can be moulded into a means by which they can contribute in a meaningful way, so that come junior and senior high school, meeting the requisite number of hours of volunteerism/community service is relatively easy. Lots of students are well acquainted with volunteering as it was part of the fabric of their upbringing from the time they could walk; they may have accompanied Mom or Dad to community sponsored fund raising events; bake sales, service club sponsored sit down meals in the church hall, library book drive, and so on.

Most volunteering schemes in schools in other provinces expect students to complete 25-40 hours of community service to meet the graduation requirement and some schoolboards have outlined acceptable venues in which to accommodate volunteering. The library is often a great resource to establish a list of venues that welcome volunteers. 

Again, I have to say, the goal should really be more about students being able to choose their own path and be allowed to demonstrate a maturity that illustrates that they know what they’re doing. Students fall across different parts of the spectrum when it comes to eagerness about mandatory volunteering. Take out the ‘mandatory’ and the landscape changes significantly. Lots of students don’t think twice about it, especially if they grew up in it, aware that their contribution to community life does matter.

I believe that there is a place and there is a need for volunteerism in our junior and high school curriculum, incorporating it into the fabric of the current learning processes and applying it as credit hours towards graduation.  Many of a community’s old guard is aging out and really could use younger bodies, steadier hands and feet to work along side them, so what better way to meet the demand? Our young people are the future of community life, especially those with aging populations that simply can’t keep pace with the demands of participation. Talk to young people in your world about the value of volunteering.

Carla MacInnis Rockwell is a freelance writer and disability rights advocate living outside Fredericton, NB with her aging Australian silky terrier and a rambunctious Maltese. She can be reached via email at carmacrockwell@xplornet.ca 

Online community get-togethers can take you places

“The loneliest people in NB,” read the headline of Stephen Llewellyn’ recent contribution to Brunswick News. It struck a chord. The article was developed out of an interview with retired St. Thomas University Professor Dan Gleason. I extended an invitation to Dan to come out to Chez Rockwell for coffee and cake. Given I was one of his  students during my first year at STU, it would be fun to reconnect. I cautioned Mr. Digby, the tenacious one, to be on his best behaviour.

Being alone, on my own, was rooted very early when I was a toddler, separate and apart from siblings, doing my own thing, while they did theirs. I had plenty of play time with my brothers and sisters and others, but artsy craftsy pursuits held my interest. The physical challenges of cerebral palsy can’t be held up as what isolated me; it was more a matter of temperament. I was into more solitary brain bending activities and that is still true today. As I’ve said in earlier discussions, alone and loneliness are not synonymous.

Admittedly, being removed from the hub of activity that city living affords has been a challenge and is becoming even more vexing. My world would be significantly broader were I to move back to where I spent much of my adult life and had readier access to points of interest like libraries, eateries, museums, etc. Perhaps I’m due for a change sooner rather than later. We shall see.

Thus far,  I am able to maintain social connections in a unique way — infrequent but planned city outings coupled with an established routine of internet exchanges with folks of like mind — discussions about books, music, politics and so on; invariably discussion turns into sharing favourite tried and true recipes and banter about what new ones we’re considering. A gal’s gotta eat! 

Text based ‘conversation’ has filled in the gaps for the truly shut in; many go on to video chat using downloadable chat ‘apps’ like Skype or Facetime. Some have even organized real life, in person get-togethers. And then there are those who have found a connection that has taken them on the journey of dating and mating.

Years ago, I and another fellow Canadian, also living with cerebral palsy, were joint operators of a chat room that was a welcoming place for persons with disability. I was more a mentor to the then 18 year old young man from Ontario who started the channel. We would chat about a range of issues that affected the daily living of persons with disability. Sometimes, we were called upon to help someone in crisis; that person new to disability who was looking for a job; the woman with amputation who was being abused and didn’t know what to do or how to get out; the guy who liked a girl at work but didn’t know how to approach her — he lived with fully involved quadriplegia and she was one of those Madison Avenue pretty girl types. Internet text based chat, then as now, serves a valuable function with regard to social connectedness amongst the disenfranchised.

Recently, I have been reconnected with chat pals from ‘back in the day’, and it occurred to me that perhaps there is still a place for ‘conversation’ that involves banging away on a keyboard. And so was born #seniorchat on Dalnet server via Mirc or X-chat (Mac users). There are a number of other chat programs that are still available and would accommodate access to the chat space I’ve created. Please feel free to email me for instructions on setting up so you may join us and toss in your 2 cents; 10, if you’re feeling particularly inspired.

I heartily agree with Prof. Deborah van den Hoonaard’s assessment when she speaks of how seniors are treated within various ‘helping’ systems. Our senior care programs should seriously consider adding another layer to the currently available services that go beyond custodial work. Because of frequent rotations of workers making home visits to clean the bathroom and dust the living room tables, there is little in the way of what I call ‘people polishing’.  People need to be acknowledged as thinking, feeling human beings. To fill in a gap, the Red Cross’ Senior Check-in program is laudable but there needs to be so much more on a sustained basis; each and every day there must be some mechanism of connectedness put in place for those who are skirting the fringes. I believe my new chat space might be just the ticket for some old geezers and geezerettes such as I to ‘get connected’.

Carla MacInnis Rockwell is a freelance writer and disability rights advocate living outside Fredericton, NB with her aging Australian silky terrier and a rambunctious Maltese. She can be reached via email at carmacrockwell@xplornet.ca