A small but attentive group attended a seminar called “Depression Hurts”, which was held at Trinity United Church in Verona on November 26. The public meeting was aimed at highlighting the common symptoms of depression and anxiety and stressing the fact that help is available through a number of service providers in the area.

Dr. Joe Burley headed up the meeting, which included the participation of professional health care providers from the Sydenham and Verona medical clinics, Frontenac Community Mental Health and Addiction Services, L&A Addictions and Community Health Services, Southern Frontenac Community Services and Providence Care Mental Health Services.

Dr. Burley began by describing the symptoms of depression and anxiety. These symptoms can commonly overlap and can include a depressed or “slowed down” mood, appetite change and/or sudden weight gain or loss, feelings of worthlessness or tiredness, inappropriate or excessive guilt, thoughts of suicide, and difficulty sleeping or concentrating.

He stated the best way to address all mental health issues is to begin first with a visit to one’s general health care provider, who can access and refer patients to other health care professionals who offer counseling and other kinds of support.

Members of the panel demonstrated through a dramatization how depression can affect a person and also members of their family and much of the meeting included personal information being offered up by those in the audience who have experienced personal mental health issues.

Dr. Burley pointed out that in many cases anxiety and /or depression can often be successfully treated or at least managed by different kind of counseling, which include talk or behavior therapy and/or therapeutic drugs, and sometimes a combination of both.

This seminar was the first of what may become a series of similar public information sessions and meetings, and it was heartening to see that people are actively looking for help and information and that there are many professionals in the community available to offer their help and services to those in need.

For those in the community who may be in crisis but are currently suffering in silence, Frontenac Community Mental Health and Addiction Services has a 24-hour Crisis Line that can be called 24 hours a day at 613-544-4229. As well, those who missed the meeting and think that they might need help should make an appointment with their local health care provider.

Hundreds of children in Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington will have a Christmas present this holiday season thanks to the Tree of Hope campaign. The toy drive and fundraising campaign is now underway across the region.

“The Tree of Hope is one of the oldest Christmas appeals in Southeastern Ontario,” said Steve Woodman, Executive Director of Family and Children’s Services of Frontenac, Lennox and Addington, which runs the Tree of Hope campaign. “We’ve been running a Christmas appeal of one kind or another since we were created 120 years ago.”

Last year, The Tree of Hope helped nearly 900 children with Christmas presents. Already, even before the launch, the campaign has matched nearly 650 children. More toys are needed, but so, too are gifts of money.

“We’re asking people to go online and make a donation to our Enrichment Fund, which can support these kids all year round with activities that they need. Toys are nice, but the best Christmas present people can give is something that will help our kids all year round,” said Woodman.

Last year, the Enrichment Fund spent nearly $15,000 sending kids to camp, paying for activities and helping them with things they required for school. This year, the campaign is also asking for donations of new baby cribs with mattresses. The agency needs up to ten cribs for deserving families with newborns. They must be new, used cribs are not required.

Information about buying a toy and making a donation is available online at www.HelpTreeOfHope.ca or by calling Family and Children’s Services at (613) 545-3227. People can also support the campaign by using the hashtag #HOPEYGK on their social media.

Next week the Community Foundation of Kingston and Area (CFKA) will be hosting an event in Kingston to present $107,000 in grants to 30 organisations.

There will be a few faces from Frontenac County at that event, as among those receiving grants are the Frontenac Stewardship Foundation, Northern Frontenac Community Services, and Southern Frontenac Community Services.

The Frontenac Stewardship Foundation will be receiving $5,000 to fund a series of public events on topics of interest to residents in 2015. Among them are four evening seminars, three concerning wetlands and one concerning grasslands. They are also planning two day-long workshops, one dealing with permaculture and one with invasive species.

The intent of the program is to promote awareness among local residents of the natural wonders in their own neighbourhoods and the threats to those natural areas. As well realistic alternatives to traditional land-uses will be looked at. The $5,000 from the CFKA will be used to cover expenses for hall rentals, speaker fees and related costs.

Northern Frontenac Community Services will receive a $4,750 grant to augment its Aboriginal programming for pre-schoolers to include school-aged children between the ages 4 and 10. The new project will provide opportunities for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children in primary and junior grades to recognise/maintain pride and appreciation of First Nations culture, with focus on the unique characteristics of our community. The new programs include monthly story-telling circles in four local schools for JK/SK students, and a weekly Cultural Connection Club. Special events will include a Strawberry Moon Festival. Local elders will provide guidance and support for events.

Southern Frontenac Community Services will be receiving $1,800 to improve the infrastructure for their food bank. The Food Bank has been busy in recent years, feeding 762 households, an average of 63 households a month. The money will go towards two new stainless steel shelves, two stainless steel tables to handle produce from the agency’s greenhouse, as well as new flooring in the food packing and distribution area.

Another grant of interest to Frontenac County is one of $3,500 to the Kingston and Area Seed System Initiative (KASSI). The money will be used to train two educators in seed saving techniques – growing out plants to go to seed, and to document seed collection in 2015, and increase board efficiency. Seed distribution and the creation of a Kingston Seed Bank are long-term goals of the organisation.

The CFKA was founded in 1995. It encourages individuals and organisations to establish and grow permanent endowments to fund projects. To date, it has distributed more than $8 million in Kingston and the surrounding region.

A few weeks ago there was a municipal election, as some of us vaguely remember. However, because of the way things are set up by the province, the election is followed by a bit of a dead zone, a month or so when the soon-to-be-former councils continue to meet as the new council members wait in the wings.

In early December that will all change and the full implications of the October elections will start to be felt.

The changes that are coming are vast. Of the 16 council members in South and Central Frontenac, 12 will be new. The mayor-elects in both townships are new as well, although both Ron Vandewal (SF) and Frances Smith (CF) have significant municipal experience.

While four of the six members of North Frontenac Council are returning, the mayor-elect, Ron Higgins, has never sat on council before.

Members of council don't ride along with grader operators, inspect building sites, or cover waste sites with fill, but they do oversee budgets and take responsibility for the overall direction of the townships. They also send two members each to Frontenac County Council, the mayor and one other, who will be selected at the first meeting of the new councils in December.

Because of the changes at the township level, there could be as few as one returning member (Dennis Doyle) to the eight-member Frontenac Council, which will meet for the first time on December 17. Two other current members of the council, John McDougall from South Frontenac, and John Inglis from North Frontenac, were re-elected in their own townships, but if they are to return to the county they will have to survive a vote at their own council.

Frontenac County Council oversees a $40 million budget.

The reality that will be faced by all of these radically changed councils is that municipal operations are heavily regulated by the provincial government, and the ability for them to effect change is limited. They will also have to learn how to navigate between the expectations of the voters and the fact that the first thing they learn when they attend orientation sessions is that council's role is to develop policies, and township staff are in charge of implementing those policies under the direction of the chief administrative officer. They are warned against the urge to micro-manage township staff.

This will no doubt frustrate many new members of council, who will think, sometimes rightly so, that this kind of talk is all about protecting the status quo and blocking change.

In addition to the changes in hte municipal world, three of the largest public sector institutions serving northern Frontenac County are about to change as well.

Bonnie George, the administrator who has steered Pine Meadow Nursing Home through a multimillion dollar redevelopment project, is leaving just as the project is about to be completed. Pine Meadow is not only the largest employer in Addington Highlands, it is also the long-term care facility of choice for residents of northern Frontenac County, Addington Highlands and parts of Stone Mills township.

Don Amos, the executive director of Northern Frontenac Community Services, the largest not-for-profit agency in Frontenac County, and a major employer in the Sharbot Lake area, is also leaving, for a job in Kingston.

Just like the politicians, neither of these two individuals provide direct service to their organizations’ clients and the day they leave their jobs the staff at both agencies will simply carry on as before, but Bonnie George and Don Amos have both been the face of their organisations to the public and to provincial funders, and have both been responsible for long-term planning.

Finally, we learned this week that Lanark County OPP will no longer be overseeing the Sharbot Lake detachment (see NF Council report). That job will be going to the Frontenac OPP office, based in Hartington, a move that is long overdue. The Kingston court (and its Sharbot Lake satellite) deal with cases generated in Frontenac County so it just makes sense to have all policing under the same umbrella as well. The changeover also means that Sergeant Sharron Brown, the relatively new commander of the Frontenac detachment (as of April) will be the senior OPP official in all of Frontenac County.

All of the institutions and municipalities mentioned above have long-standing responsibilities in our region and they all operate according to regulations and well established practices, and certainly not at the whim of their leaders.

Still, when they all face these kinds of changes, the institutions themselves can be altered in unexpected ways over time.

An article we ran last week about families facing financial issues as winter approaches has engendered vigorous and varied responses from readers. Because the article focussed in part on two cases of people who are struggling, the responses have included offers of help as well as questions about the details of the particular cases.

The response to the article also raises questions about what supports are available in our region and how they can be accessed, and about how sufficient the social safety net in rural Frontenac and Lennox and Addington is. These will be explored in the paper over the next few months, particularly in the context of a new program coming on stream in the new year to address the needs of individuals and families in Frontenac County who are at risk of homelessness.

All of these responses are legitimate, given the open- ended nature of the article and the issues it raised. The backdrop to the article was the coming of winter and the uncertainty that comes with that.

It is one thing being poor in the summer and quite another in the winter. Heat and hydro are truly essential services for us. Without them we would literally freeze in the dark.

Those of us who have enough money and/or physical strength to buy oil or gas or get wood together for our needs are the lucky ones.

However very few of us are more than one or two pieces of misfortune or bad judgement away from facing a starker reality. We might be able to pay for a new furnace, or finance one, we might be able to deal with the loss of one income in a family for a time, we might have supportive family and friends, but two or three setbacks piled on top of each other would devastate even those of us who think we have a secure and stable income and family life.

As we get older - and the demographics in this region are well documented - the risks to our health increases and our ability to rebound from financial misfortune decreases.

We have social programs and a health system to support us. Sometimes they are subject to abuse and at other times they are not sufficient for the needs that are out there, but they do put us way ahead of people in most countries around the world.

However, our local communities are growing slowly or not at all, and community institutions such as churches, seniors' clubs, even service clubs are all less viable than they once were, and our families are also not as strong as they were in the past.

Our local municipalities have little or no capacity to help us; we are dependent on programs administered in Toronto, Kingston or Napanee for social support.

I have been interviewing seniors in recent weeks in preparation for a series of articles commemorating the 150th anniversary of Frontenac County next year, and one of the things that has clearly come out is that life was not easy in this part of the world 50 or 100 years ago. People did freeze and they did go hungry; the effects of poverty are not new around here.

If we can help each other through it, as we tend to do, so much the better for all of us.

James Norris lives a quiet life. He has lived in a small house in Northbrook for the last 15 years, after moving there with his wife from Oshawa.

They both suffered health problems. He has Multiple Sclerosis and was forced to retire from the auto industry after injuring his back, and his wife suffered from lung disease, which ended up taking her life in 2006.

Norris lives alone now, trying to make ends meet on a Disability pension from his work, and some support from the Ontario Disability Support Program.

He receives $1085 a month, has a $285 mortgage, and he also has hydro, property tax, and phone bills to pay. That leaves only about $400 for food and day-to-day necessities. And then there is heat.

“As the weather gets colder this year, I have no oil in my furnace, and no money to buy oil,” he said on a cool, cloudy afternoon, from his candle lit kitchen. He wore a housecoat over his clothes, and I kept my coat on in his kitchen. A small space heater was on in the sitting room.

For the past seven years, ever since his wife died, James Norris has slowly built up a balance on his VISA card, to the point where he has to pay $400 each month towards the balance. He has a driver's license but could not keep a car on the road, and now faces the fact that he cannot afford oil this winter.

There is a program that he has accessed in the past through the Ontario Works department in Napanee that has covered one tank of oil per winter in the past, but he cannot access that until at least January.

Getting to January is a problem, however, and the fact that oil companies have a minimum delivery of $400 worth of oil has him basically out of luck.

“It is really tight surviving right now. I only get food that is on sale. I basically shop when I need to. I certainly could eat better,” he said. “I try to get out and volunteer as much as I can. I'd rather be out doing something than sitting at home. Between my back and MS I can't work but when I feel ok I can volunteer, but I always need to be picked up and brought home.”

He says that his situation is not unique.

“There are many other people like me and worse. Costs go up but benefits don't. At $1085 a month, it doesn't add up for someone like me to get through the winter,” he said.

Ann Marie Langan works for the Legal Clinic, which provides legal services for residents of Lanark, Frontenac and Lennox and Addington from an office at Northern Frontenac Community Services in Sharbot Lake. She has been providing legal advice to clients facing financial difficulties as well.

“More and more families in the area are facing a lot of financial hardship,” she said, “and it only escalates when winter comes.”

Kendra Godfrey lives in Mountain Grove with her husband Sean. Between them they have seven children ranging from five to 20 years of age, and six of them are living at home.

Sean receives Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) support and Kelly works at the Maples in Sharbot Lake. They have had financial struggles, and not only do they face the coming winter and the cost of oil for their rental home, Ontario Hydro is threatening to pull the plug on their electricity.

“Since we moved here two years ago, ODSP has been paying $240 a month to Hydro from Sean's funds all that time. I have been after Hydro One to send us bills that whole time, and each time gave them our address but the bill never came, so I had no way of knowing if we were paying enough,” she said.

On October 2, a letter came to their home by Purolator, saying they owed $6,900 were going to have their power cut us off unless they made arrangements within 10 days to start paying off the debt. Hydro One is looking for $600 per month for service and $240 per month for two and a half years to pay off the debt.

Anne Marie Langan is working on the case with Kendra Godfrey, and last week put in a demand for the bills but has not received them.

Meanwhile in a subsequent phone call with a representative from Hydro One, Kendra found out that it is no longer $6,900 that Hydro is asking for in back payments. “I talked to someone on October 27 and she said that it is $8,500 that is owing, so I don't know what is going on at all now.”

Not only are the potential hydro costs spiralling out of control, oil costs are very high in their home, leading Godfrey to wonder how they will keep the home warm and bright this winter.

“We live as carefully as we can, don't leave lights on, and we close off part of the house in the winter to save money,

but this hydro mess has made it impossible for us to budget,” she said.

Michele Zigman administers a number of emergency funding programs for Frontenac County residents out of her office in Sydenham with Southern Frontenac Community Services. She is also worried about the coming winter.

“We are still working with people who are trying to recover from last winter, which was cold and long and particularly hard on those who heat with propane. This coming winter could be really devastating to a lot of people,” she said.

Wigman pointed out that most of the money she is able to access to support families struggling with costs is subject to strict conditions, one of them being that the families do not receive social assistance. She also said that the funds she makes use of are provincial dollars administered by the City of Kingston.

“Frontenac County, based on its share of the regional population, should receive more funding than it does for these programs,” she said.

A new homelessness initiative will bring a change in the supports for families in situations such as those faced by James Norris and Kendra Godfrey's family, but funding remains an issue.

“The goal is for people to have sustainable housing in the long term,” said Zigman, “and my fear is that people will be forced to give up their houses if this winter is as bad as last winter was.”

Mike Procter, adult protective services worker at Northern Frontenac Community Services in Sharbot Lake, was all smiles following a celebration on October 15 marking the 18th year of the weekly Wednesday drop-in lunch, which has grown markedly over close to two decades.

In 1996, the Province of Ontario closed the Adult Rehabilitation Centre Industries (ARCs), which brought an end to one of the sheltered workshop adult day programs that ran in Mountain Grove and was geared to community members with developmental disabilities.

Mike Procter founded the weekly drop-ins as a response to the closures. He said, "When that happened there was not much for our clients to do in the community so I decided to start this weekly lunch as a way for people to get together, enjoy some food, socialize and get a chance to develop friendships.”

Procter got the necessary agencies together, acquired the initial letters of support and the necessary funding, and through a partnership with Northern Frontenac Community Services (NFCS), Community Living-North Frontenac and the Northern Connections Literacy Centre, the weekly lunches were initiated. The agencies each put in a bit of money to buy the first meal and on its first day in 1996, 13 people showed up. On October 15, 32 people attended and on average 25 people come every week to enjoy the lunches, which take place Wednesdays at St. Andrew's Anglican Church in Sharbot Lake from 10am until 2pm. The meetings include a hot, home-made healthy meal, juice, coffee, dessert - all for only $4. Procter usually cooks the meal but often volunteers also offer him a hand. “If for some reason I cannot be here the program stills runs by itself,” which Proctor said is a good thing. “I will not be here for ever so it is nice to know that the program will be able to continue.” When the event began, it attracted mostly clients from NFCS but Proctor said that that has changed. “Now about 25% of our guests are members of the community at large.” Proctor also stressed that the meetings are much more about socializing than just about having a meal. “People come early and some often stay all day. For many people it is the highlight of their week and when a regular visitor is missing, others notice immediately and will often check up on that person to make sure that he or she is okay.”

The $4 cost covers the expense of the food and renting the hall. For attendees without transportation guests will often carpool. Those wishing to attend the Wednesday drop in but who do not have transportation can contact Mike Procter at 613-279-3151. The monthly menus are posted on Facebook at What's Happening Central Frontenac.

Family and Children's Services of Frontenac, Lennox and Addington (FACSFLA) is searching the city and countryside alike for families who are able and willing to provide foster care for teenagers.

FACSFLA, which is the new name for the 120-year-old Children's Aid Society, has a large cohort of teenagers under its care right now.

According to Executive Director Steve Woodman, that includes 30 who would be best served in a positive foster home environment.

The alternative to fostering for the teens is a group home environment, which, Woodman said, “does not provide the example of life in a family environment that can set up teenagers for a successful future. We currently have a number of teenagers in group homes who would be suitable for fostering, and that is why we are putting a call out for foster families now.”

The shortfall is also the result of some changes the agency has recently made.

Its new “Vision for Fostering and Adoption" puts family-based care at the forefront of service. Woodman's fear is that if new foster families are not found, some teens will have to be moved out of the region because of the limited number of group home spaces that are available.

“Fostering is not for everyone,” Woodman, said, “but the changing face of fostering means it is open to different family structures, such as same sex families and one parent families.”

The process of becoming a foster family takes about six months, and includes a home visit, financial and police checks, and a ten-week training program. With a goal of finding 30 families by March of next year, the call is going out now.

“This is something that we can’t do without the community’s help. We need everyone’s help to find the foster parents we need,” said Woodman. “Even though we know most people don’t want to be foster parents, chances are most of us will know someone who could help. We’re asking people to spread the word and tell everyone they know.”

For further information, go to FACSFLA.ca, phone 613-545-3227, or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  

By Ontario Community Support Association (OCSA) and Sonja Alcock

October is Community Support Month. This is intended to increase awareness and celebrate the achievements of what community support services are and why they are an important part of the health care system. Home and Community Services are critical in helping family caregivers and supporting seniors and persons with physical disabilities to remain in their homes. Land O’ Lakes Community Services (LOLCS) in Northbrook is one of 600 agencies in this province alone, which provides a wide variety of services such as adult day programs, Meals on Wheels, transportation to medical appointments, Home Care, Diners’ Club/Congregate Dining programs, caregiver support services; Diners’ Club; Home Help/Homemaking.

The inability to keep up with the growing health budget is a concern for government and Ontarians alike; by supporting a strong and robust home and community care sector, the government gets better value for the dollars they spend. Home and community support services such as Land O’ Lakes Community Services are the key to a sustainable healthcare system.

Community Support agencies are working with their partners: the Local Health Integration Networks (LHIN), Community Care Access Centres (CCAC) and other health care providers to integrate care for Ontarians. Their services help alleviate backlogs in emergency rooms and get people out of hospital beds and back home with programs that help them manage their chronic diseases, and reduce demand on long-term care homes and acute care health services.

Basic Facts about Home and Community Support agencies:

• They work to strengthen and promote home and community support as the foundation of a sustainable health care system.

• There are over 600 community based organizations providing services…which include over 25,000 paid staff…and 100,000 volunteers across Ontario!

• These agencies are community governed and not-for-profit; many are charities like LOLCS. This means that when surpluses occur they are reinvested back into services/programs for clients.

• In addition to program funding from the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care, our agencies also fundraise in the community and often charge low client fees for some services to help offset what is not covered by the government funding and fundraising efforts.

• Home and community health service providers deliver compassionate, cost effective health and home care to one million Ontarians per year. These services support people to live independently in their own home, thereby delaying or avoiding the need for long-term care or reducing the need for more expensive health services such as hospital care. Thus improving their quality of life.

• Most, if not all, these agencies would not function at all without the many volunteers that willingly give of their time, talent, and trust to help those in their community.

• The population is aging and the prevalence of chronic conditions and disabilities is on the rise. Ontario’s senior population is expected to double in the next 15 years. Almost 80% of Ontarians over the age of 45 have a chronic condition, and of those, about 70% suffer from two or more chronic conditions. And persons with disabilities develop age-related diseases much earlier than the general population – at 50 years of age. They also have much higher incidents of chronic diseases.

On a happy note: the quality of life is improved when individuals can receive a range of personal and medical care services at home and in their community. The impact of community support and supportive housing on clients has been researched in Ontario [Lun, Simonne, & Williams, 2005]. Some of the indicators arising from that research include: reduction of emergency department visits; reduction of 911 calls; reduction of caregiver burden; improved mental well-being [peace of mind]; increase in personal perception of health and social connectedness.

By Sonja Alcock (referenced from Wikipedia)

It all really started during WWII in England during the “Blitz”, the bombing of the UK by German forces, which destroyed the homes of many people. Therefore they were unable to cook meals on their own. A group of ladies from the Women’s Volunteer Service (WVS) provided and delivered food for those who were unable to provide for themselves. The name “Meals on Wheels” came about by the WVS bringing meals to servicemen.

The first home delivery during the war was made in Hertfordshire, England in 1943!! Baby prams were “the wheels” and straw bales or felt hats were used to keep the meals warm during delivery. Eventually the news of what the WVS ladies' “Meals on Wheels” program spread around the world. The program began in Australia in 1952 where the meals were delivered via a tricycle by one lady, until the Red Cross stepped in to help.

In 1954 the first home-delivered meal began in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Here most of the volunteers were teens and they were given the nickname “Platter Angels”. These teens would cook, pack and deliver the meals to elderly and disabled people in their town.

Eventually it spread across the nation so the organization, “Meals on Wheels Association of America” was established.

In 1963, 20 years after the war, seniors in Brampton, Ontario were the first to receive their meals in Canada!! Brampton Meals on Wheels started with delivering six meals a day!!

Seventy-one years later the delivery of meals is completely different, but the concept is still the same. Meals, either hot or frozen are prepared by volunteers and delivered to shut ins, seniors, and disabled people all across the land. The program has gone from delivering meals by prams and tricycles to cars; from keeping the food warm by using straw bales to modern containers that keep the food fresh and hot in one, or cool and frozen in another.

It has gone from just providing meals to providing companionship as well. Often the only person a senior may see for that day is the one who is delivering them a meal. Depending on the program, some volunteers are paid to drive, but most is done by volunteers. Within each volunteer is a heart for the person to whom they are delivering the meal. They are often the ears and eyes that check on the health and safety of each client, so it goes deeper than just providing a meal; it’s also about providing friendship, support, and care.

Here in the Land O’ Lakes area, Land O’ Lakes Community Services is one of those caring providers who have been running the Meals on Wheels program ever since 1997. There are 20 volunteers, from cooks, to drivers providing between 40 to 50 meals per week for about 36 to 40 seniors in our area. (This data will vary from week to week).

And to add to our little history lesson about Meals on Wheels, it goes in a full circle. When it first started during the second war, meals were delivered to servicemen. Today one of our delivery volunteers is a retired serviceman!! So when he comes to your door give him a hug for his service to our country, and to our community.

If you are interested in getting Meals On Wheels for yourself or a family member please do not hesitate to call Marlene Dacuk at Land O’ Lakes Community Services at 613-336-8934 ext 233; by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. The service is for seniors 55 and over, persons recovering from illness, surgery or with physical disabilities. Clients can order a hot meal that is delivered every Thursday. Meals in the south are prepared at Barrie Hall or Kaladar hall by volunteer cooks. The cost is $6 - Northbrook, Cloyne, Flinton, Kaladar, Denbigh