Land O’ Lakes Community Services will be holding ”Living Well with Diabetes” workshops. The workshops will help participants learn skills and strategies to help manage diabetes. You will gain confidence, develop self-management skills to actively achieve your best health and wellness. You will learn how to deal with difficult emotions, stress management, and relaxations techniques. We will learn how to eat healthy, exercise appropriately, prevent complications and low blood sugar. This workshop is open to anyone living with type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes as well as their caregivers and family members. This workshop is FREE, and will be held once a week for 6 weeks, starting Wednesday May 18, 1:30-4pm at the Land O’ Lakes Community Services Board Room, 12497A Highway 41 Northbrook Ontario. Register today; space is limited; 613-336-8934 ext. 229; 1-877-679-6636 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Pathways for Children & Youth is pleased to add something new to our menu of treatment options. Starting May 11, 2016. We are offering walk-in single-session counselling. There is no referral process, no waiting for a scheduled appointment, and no fee. Just walk-in to our Mill Street location in Sydenham, at 4365 Mill St., 1 to 4p.m., Appointments start at 1 p.m. with the last appointment being 3 p.m.

A single session offered in a timely fashion to individuals and families ready to work towards a solution to a problem or concern is all many people require to decrease stress and get things moving in the right direction.

Children, youth (under 18), parents and families can use this service. The Walk-in clinics will be held every second Wednesday from 1 to 4 p.m. (last appointment at 3 p.m.)

You can expect an hour-long conversation with a Pathways counselor, which focuses on a child or youth’s behavioural, emotional, or other mental health concern and a solution focused plan.

For more information visit www.pathwayschildrenyouth.org; email Pathways intake at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or phone 613-546-1422 ext. 1

Two six-week series of free self-management workshops on Living Well with Chronic Disease and Chronic Pain are coming up in our area. The workshops will help you gain information and new skills to better manage Chronic Pain, keep active and live healthier. You will learn how to deal with emotional, physical and social aspects of living with chronic pain. This workshop helps people who have a wide range of chronic pain conditions such as musculoskeletal pain, fibromyalgia, repetitive strain injury, post stroke, neuropathic pain and other chronic conditions.

These workshops are open to anyone living with chronic pain, their family members and caregivers. You will receive a free copy of the book “Living a Healthy Life with Chronic Conditions and Chronic Pain”.

DENBIGH, Mondays, April 18 - May 23: Land O’ Lakes Community Services is holding “Living well with Chronic Pain” workshops from April 18 to May 23, 1:30-4pm at the Denbigh Hall, 222 Highway 28 Denbigh Ontario. For more information and to register, call Pam @ 613-336-8934 ext 229; 1-877-679-6636, or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Registration is limited.

VERONA, Wednesdays April 20 - May 25: Workshops will be held at the Verona Medical Clinic, 1:30-4pm, to provide help for those living with arthritis, heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, depression, lung disease, diabetes, and other diseases. To register please call Meredith Prikker 613-376-3327 at the Sydenham Clinic or Annie Campbell 613-374-3311 at the Verona Clinic.

Are you interested in having wholesale fruits and vegetables available in Sharbot Lake? Ordering in groups helps to decrease costs of fresh, healthy produce below regular store prices! If there’s enough community interest, Mike Dean’s and Sharbot Lake Family Health Team are ready to offer this deal to the community.

$10 small box includes approx. 10 items

$15 large box includes approx. 15 items

Although food prices fluctuate, the Good Food Box prices will stay the same each month and we will work to provide variety month to month.

Pay by the 1st Thursday of each month at the Sharbot Lake Family Health Team and pick it up on the 3rd Friday of each month between 2 and 4pm in the Sharbot Lake Family Health Team downstairs community room.

This program was offered several years ago and was quite popular; however, it was discontinued primarily due to lack of space for packing and storing the boxes. Our hope as a Family Health Team is that this can help make it easier for you and your family to eat healthy fruits and vegetables!

Need some motivation to start increasing your fruit and vegetable intake?

A diet rich in a variety of fruits and vegetables can lower the risk of heart disease and stroke. Individuals who eat more than five servings have about a 20% lower risk of coronary heart disease and stroke, compared with individuals who eat less than three servings per day.

Some types of fruits and vegetables may protect against certain cancers.

Increased consumption of leafy vegetables and whole fruits is associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes. High consumption of fruit juice however, is associated with a greater risk of type 2 diabetes.

Orders for March are due Thursday March 3, 2016. Please contact Megan Burns at 613-279-2100 ext. 107 for more information or to place an order.

The Table Community Food Centre in Perth has reached out to the Sharbot Lake Family Health Team as a partner in running their wellness program called FoodFit. 

FoodFit is a 12-week program for anyone who wants to take steps towards a healthier lifestyle through moderate exercise and healthy eating. The goal is to give people the tools they need to make choices that will improve their health. The program combines fun, hands-on cooking sessions and food-based activities with take-home recipes, shared meals and snacks, easy-to-understand nutrition information, group exercise and self-directed goal-setting. We will be making soups, sauces, and salad dressings from scratch as well as healthy snacks and recipes with new and interesting flavours

With the help of a nurse from the health centre, we will track blood pressure and other health indicators at the start and end of the program, and provide pedometers so participants can monitor daily steps. A dietitian at the health centre will be involved in teaching nutritional topics as well as available to answer any specific questions.

“I am excited about running this program because it doesn’t pretend that everyone is at the same stage, it gives people room to set their own goals based on where they are at in life,” says The Table’s Community Kitchen Coordinator, Rosie Kerr. She explains that the Foodfit model is designed to respect the limits of people’s individual circumstances, and encourage everyone to “take small steps, and make changes they can live with.”

This program will be free of charge and open to any age. Childcare will be provided upon request. The program will take place at the Sharbot Lake Family Health Team Mondays from 1-4pm starting March 7. Priority will be given to community members who self identify as living in a low-income household.

For more information or to register contact Rosie Kerr, the Community Kitchen Coordinator at the Table, 613-267-6428 ext. 6 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Please register as soon as possible (preferably by March 1) for this exciting new program so organizers can prepare.

Land O’ Lakes Community Services in conjunction with Kingston Community Health Centre and Stanford University is holding educational workshops in Denbigh, at the Denbigh hall, 222 Highway 28. This workshop will help participants gain information and skills to better manage their diabetes. This free, six-week workshop starts Sept 10 - Oct 15 for 2.5 hours per week, 1 - 3:30pm (Living Well With Diabetes). You can learn new skills, and information that will help manage your diabetes daily, prevent complications and live healthier. Developing self-management skills will empower you to actively achieve your best health and wellness. You will gain the confidence and motivation to better manage your symptoms and the challenges with living with diabetes. This workshop is for people living with Type 2 diabetes as well as their caregiver and family members. You will learn about healthy lifestyles, managing stress, make action plans and set goals. The facilitators, Nancy Willis and Pam Lemke, received their training through Stanford University, and have been certified to deliver the program. If you miss this workshop, others will be offered in the future. For more information, call Pam Lemke at 613-336-8934, ext. 229, 1-877-679-6636, or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Resources and support for people with disabilities

Independent Living is a world-wide movement of people with disabilities working together to create resources and support for themselves. It is often considered a key part of the disability sector, as its focus is on the “whole person”, empowerment, and self-direction.

Delivered through Independent Living Centres, “IL” programs are designed to connect with the personal experience and need of the consumer. They tend to be longer-term and more wide-ranging than most human services programs. They also connect with community services such as medical, employment, volunteering, educational, housing, justice or seniors services.

Core programs at IL Centres are Independent Living Skills, Information and Networking, Peer Support and Community Development.

IL Skills include disability management and is designed to assist individuals and families in personal change especially - gaining awareness, developing life and social skills, building plans, taking action and whatever else it takes to change one’s life for the better.

Information and Networking often connects with IL Skills as it assists individuals and families in understanding how services work in the community, getting and using information, completing applications and working with practitioners whose assistance is required.

Peer Support is not only a program connecting individuals at a drop-in or dinner club - it’s also how things work at an IL Centre, which is an organization of people with Independent Living Centre Kingston 2 Resources and Support for People with Disabilities. Mentoring of people new to disability, giving real support to those becoming disabled, and grappling with barriers is our daily work.

Community Development, for Independent Living, means building IL into community services and assisting partner agencies or practitioners in understanding the value of consumer-direction (learning for oneself, taking ownership of a situation, connecting one’s person or one’s life to a process).

IL Centres may deliver other programs designed to build accessibility, consumer-direction, better living supports, co-operation and self-exploration.

Ontario’s “Self-Managed Attendant Services”, for instance, makes it possible for persons with mobility barriers to employ and manage their own attendants.

The Canada-wide “Navigating the Waters” project supported individuals seeking employment with wage subsidies, training dollars and longer-term personal assistance when it came to barriers in daily living.

Unique projects helping seniors and others with disabilities who are isolated are an essential component at many centres.

Workshops providing information and awareness, personal connections and practical experience about many topics are in development at IL Kingston.

IL Centres are often hubs connecting agencies and peer groups when it comes to fundamental living issues such as poverty, isolation, gaps in service, disability, abuse, addiction, underemployment and many other issues.

IL Centres are places where accessibility and accommodation, safe and confidential self exploration, co-operation and creativity make a very big difference for thousands of individuals with disabilities and their families each year.

Independent Living Canada, our national office, can be found on the Internet at www.ilcanada.ca. Our regional centre, in Kingston, can be found at www.ilckingston.com or 613-542-8353.

This article is provided by Independent Living Centre Kingston. It is intended to support self-awareness and community change. It is not intended as professional advice and is not meant to replace services by medical, legal or other practitioners. For more information, call 613-542-8353 or visit www.ilckingston.com.

Putting patients first, the South East CCAC (Community Care Access Centre) is seeking a few people who are passionate about improving health care delivery in the community. The CCAC invites patients or their family members who have received services from the South East Community Access Centre during the past three years to participate in a Patient and Family Advisory Council.

“The CCAC defines patient engagement as more fully involving patients and caregivers in program design and service planning,” said David Campbell, Public Engagement Lead for the South East CCAC. “The CCAC currently has methods of gaining patient feedback, but does not have a unified process to use this feedback to make our services more patient-centred. The goal of the Patient and Family Advisory Council is to have a more systematic method of providing patient feedback as well as provide a proactive method of providing patient and caregiver input on programs and services.”

One of the four pillars of the South East CCAC’s 2014-2017 Strategic Plan is to ensure patients and caregivers have confidence and trust in their care. One of the main components of this strategy is to more fully involve patients and caregivers in program design and service planning. The Patient and Family Advisory Council will be a central forum for patient engagement which will reflect the voice of the patient in planning our services and improving our current services from a patient perspective. The Patient and Family Advisory Council will ensure that a patient’s perspective is involved in the CCAC decision-making process.

“The patient advisor is not a patient advocate who advocates for a cause and is focused on one issue entirely from a patient’s perspective,” said Campbell. “Instead, a patient advisor is someone who can use their experience as a patient or caregiver to help offer advice on making services more patient-centred. A patient advisor can see beyond their personal experience to “see the big picture” and offer helpful suggestions to improve services.”

To view the Patient Advisory Council Handbook to discover if this council is right for you, visit www.healthcareathome.ca/southeast. If you would like to have this unique opportunity to have your voice heard at the CCAC, please contact David Campbell, CCAC Patient Engagement Lead at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 613-544-8200, ext. 4042.

TAMI (Talking About Mental Illness) is an organization whose goal is to raise awareness of and to address the myths and stereotypes associated with mental illness and mental health.

Staff of the Kingston chapter are doing just that by including those who have experienced mental illness first hand as speakers at their presentations.

On June 17, the Sharbot Lake Family Health Team (SLFHT) invited TAMI-Kingston to give one such presentation and it included two speakers, Doug and Luciele, who shared their personal stories.

Each spoke about their journey through mental illness, of how they first recognized that they were ill, their struggles as they journeyed through it, the barriers they experienced to getting treatment and their triumphs as they eventually found the right kind of medical help.

Doug spoke first of his experience with schizophrenia. He first became ill when he was practicing law and told of his personal journey, of overcoming the obstacles his illness presented, and finally after finding the right diagnosis and treatment, returning to practice law for 12 years.

Luciele spoke emotionally about her experience with bi-polar disorder, the ups and downs she experienced as a mature student studying psychology at Queen's University and as a mother of five and the painful years of not knowing what was wrong. She spoke candidly and openly of how, at her lowest point she contemplated taking her own life before eventually being properly diagnosed and getting the right treatment. Both likened their diseases to diabetes, an illness that you will always have but that with the right treatment can be successfully managed.

Katrina McDonald, a steering committee member and presentation facilitator with TAMI-Kingston spoke to me about TAMI, a program that originally came out of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto. The program was first geared to high school students, since early signs of mental illness often first present in young adults. The idea was that students, after hearing from people with mental illness, would be able to break down some of the stereotypes and myths associated with it. “Historically we have had this sense that people with mental illness are different or scary or dangerous and that they are not contributing members of society. The idea we want to get across through TAMI is to get real people who have experienced mental illness first hand talking about it, answering people's questions and letting people see that someone with a mental illness is a real person who with the right treatment can become a healthy and contributing member of society.”

McDonald also stressed the idea that mental illness is just like any other illness. “Once it is properly identified and the right treatment is provided, people can continue to live healthy, productive lives.”

Laura Baldwin, program manager at the SLFHT, was pleased with the turnout at the presentation which she said “fostered a rich discussion.”

McDonald said that the more we can reduce the stigma of mental illness by talking about it, the more people will come forward and get the help they need. Any local schools interested in bringing a TAMI presentation to their school can email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Max Sedmihradsky is a bright and funny four-year-old boy who loves to laugh. His parents, Kerry and Andrew, love him to bits.

Max was born in Australia and the family later moved to Hamilton, where Andrew had been raised. A couple of years ago, they noticed that although Max was very active and had high energy, he seemed to have trouble jumping and was a little awkward on his feet.

Doctors confirmed there was a problem and it was worse than Kerry and Andrew could imagine. Max has Duchenne Muscular Distrophy (DMD), a disorder that afflicts about one in 3,600 males. A degenerative genetic disorder, DMD continually restricts movement in people who have it, limiting their life span to about 25 years. There is no cure, so research is the only answer.

The news of his son's condition was understandably devastating to Andrew, but about a year later, he learned about another father who was facing the same circumstance, John Davidson. Some 20 years ago Davidson pushed his son Jessie across Ontario and began “Jessie's Journey” a non-stop fund raising campaign that has now raised $6 million for research into DMD.

One quote from John Davidson struck a chord with Andrew: “You can roll over and play dead, or you can roll up your sleeves and get busy.”

Max's Ride is Andrew and Kerry's way of “getting busy”.

The ride started in Ottawa on Sunday. Andrew is riding a bike that is fitted with a front cargo container on wheels. Max is the cargo. Andrew is riding along the Trans-Canada Trail from Ottawa to Hamilton and is bound and determined to get there by Canada Day. As for Kerry, she is providing all the necessary logistical support, driving ahead in a van, arranging food and lodging, contacting media along the way and helping Max's Ride make some money for research.

On Tuesday, June 23, that meant waiting at the Caboose in the Central Frontenac Railroad Park at noon, only to find out that the trail had washed out between Maberly and Sharbot Lake and Andrew was turning back and heading along Hwy, 7 until he could get past the washout. She headed out in the van to find her two men, and helped them figure out how to get to Sharbot Lake and get back on schedule as they were set to push on to Arden by the end of the day.

Just before 2pm they arrived at Sharbot Lake, in time for a photograph or two and a bite of lunch before heading off again.

“The best way for people to learn more about the ride is to go to Maxsbigride.com,” said Kerry. “It explains what we are doing and includes a map that shows their progress and talks about the journey.”

There is also a donation button on the site. All proceeds are going to Jessie's Journey, and will automatically generate a charitable tax receipt.

The money has been used for some promising efforts using cutting edge medical science to seek treatments for DMD.