The icing on the cake said it all - ”Pine Meadow - the Home of Caring Hands and Hearts”.

That motto was at the forefront of Pine Meadow Nursing Home's special 20th anniversary celebration, which took place at the home in Northbrook on July 7. Though inclement weather forced the celebration indoors, staff quickly prepared the dining area for the event and members of the Land O'Lakes Garden Club served residents and guests with home-made scones with lemon curd and strawberry jam, tea and fresh lemonade. Residents and guests also enjoyed live music courtesy of Ray and Friends.

Pine Meadow resident Barbara Ellsworth emceed the ceremony, in which 18 certificates of thanks were given out to various community groups, organizations, service clubs and individuals, each of whom have played an important role at Pine Meadow. Bonnie George, administrator at the home for the past five years, stressed that the home “is truly a community owned home that has a ton of community support and volunteers.” She added, “If we were to try to thank everyone, it would be nearly impossible.”

The home has 60 residents and over 70 staff, and the densely packed events board in the main foyer highlights the many regular weekly events, which include yoga, cards, bonfires, church services, birthday parties, numerous social events and club groups. A vision statement mounted on an entrance wall of the home states the staff's vision and speaks of the staff's dedication to providing “a unique and loving environment for those in need of specialized care, recognizing and nurturing the essence and integrity of the individual while striving to be on the leading edge of the evolving needs of those we care for with a commitment to continuous quality improvements ...”

North Frontenac Mayor Bud Clayton, who received one of the 18 certificates of appreciation and who is the chair of the home's management committee, spoke about the concept of staying on the cutting edge. Clayton said the facility has continually improved over the years since it opened in 1993. It now has many updated services and amenities and that trend will continue this year with the home's slated upgrade from a "B" class to an "A" class home, a project that will cost $ 6.5 million. Clayton said that the construction upgrades would “bring more dignity to the residents by doing away with the four-bed wards, which will be replaced by double ward rooms.” The upgrades, which also include a new dining room, activity space and tub room, should take roughly 18 months and are to be completed by the summer of 2015. Mayor Clayton stated that the facility is an important one in the community since it “allows local people to stay close to their families while they receive long term care”.

Funds for the project are coming from reserves at Pine Meadow, private donations, and loans from the Ontario Infrastructure and Land Corporation. Bridge financing is being offered for the project in the interim by the Bank of Montreal.

Ernest Lapchinsky, who chairs the building committee at the home and who has been involved since 1999, said construction could begin any day now. “Right now we're just waiting day to day while Infrastructure Ontario reviews our information and all of the contracts are set to go. We're just waiting for the approval letter to arrive.”

He added, “The building committees and its various members have been very patient but diligent through the years in the hopes of getting this project going and finally it's going to happen.” He expressed his thanks to the many local organizations and community citizens involved in the project along with Extendicare Canada for their continuing support.

Following the presentations residents and guests were invited to share an anniversary cake baked specially for the occasion by Mrs. Kennedy.

As another way of promoting health and fitness in the community, staff at the Sharbot Lake Family Health Team (SLFHT) held an urban pole-walking workshop on June 27 at Oso beach. Ten people participated and learned the art of urban pole walking. Staff at the Family Health Team are hoping to see more people take up the activity.

Nicole Bobbette, occupational therapist with the SLFHT, said the health benefits of urban poling are many and that it is an exercise for all ages and all fitness levels. She also said it is a "great option that is easy, affordable and fun for those with mobility issues."

The activity was developed by an occupational therapist in Vancouver and it involves walking with two poles, one in each hand. The poles offer additional health benefits to an otherwise ordinary walk by integrating core upper body strength. The exercise is good for everyone but especially those who have issues with balance and or pain, who may have arthritis, or for those recovering from a stroke or hip or knee replacement surgery since the poles add extra stability. It is also an option for those in overall good health and who might want to up their daily workout but for whom running is not an option. The workshop was headed up by Nancy Hayes of Motion Specialties, a health care vendor, and long time master trainer of urban pole walking, Kari Galasso, who runs her Fit to the Core business in Kingston. Galasso, who has been teaching the exercise in the Kingston area for six years, began the workshop first by demonstrating how to adjust, hold and use the poles, which are not just ordinary ski poles but ones that have been specially designed for walking. The poles have a carbon tip and an optional rubber booty attachment that give the walker added stability. The handles of the poles are contoured for a comfortable grip and neutralize all of the joints in the hand, making the grip comfortable for those who may have arthritis. They are marked with a unique measuring system so that they can be adjusted according to the walker's height.

“The poles address so many health and mobility issues and I can't begin to tell you how many people have told me how they have changed their lives,” Kari explained. For those just looking for a new way to exercise the whole body, urban pole walking is a great option. It activates 90% of all the muscles in the body compared to regular walking, which only activates 50%. As a result it promotes core strengthening The exercise also promotes upright posture training and is a great cardio-vascular workout.

Following her talk Galasso invited the group outside onto the grassy lawn, where she demonstrated the activity and answered questions before setting out on a walk down the trail.

Staff at the SLFHT were pleased with the turnout for the workshop and are hoping to hold a second one in the near future. Nicole will have a set of urban poles available at the medical centre for anyone interested in having a try at the exercise. The poles, which cost $100, can be purchased by those interested in making the activity a regular part of their daily or weekly fitness program. For more information contact Nicole Bobbette at the SLFHT, 613-279-2100

County councilors, staff, residents, volunteers and community members gathered at Fairmount Home yesterday to celebrate the success of the Auditorium Revitalization fundraising campaign.

The campaign’s $200,000 fundraising goal was exceeded earlier this year, thanks in large part to major corporate donors including: Shoppers Drug Mart Bayridge Drive, Homestead Land Holdings Ltd, and the Kingston Frontenac Rotary Club. The fundraising committee, along with Fairmount residents, also hosted smaller initiatives to assist in raising funds, including making and selling fascinators, and selling plant bulbs and gift cards.

“The support Fairmount Home has received from the community for this project is remarkable,” says Warden Janet Gutowski. “It is only through this support that the County is able to revitalize the Fairmount auditorium and enrich the lives of both the residents and the surrounding community.”

Don Hart, Gord Lindsay and Clay Elston from the Kingston Frontenac Rotary Club were on hand to present the Club’s donation with the first of three cheques that will total $75,000. The donation came about after then President Murray Matheson challenged the members last year to find a project deserving of a large donation. Mr. Hart spoke fondly of the Club’s 40 year relationship with Fairmount Home and the ongoing involvement of Rotary members in many Fairmount events.

In 1971, Fairmount’s auditorium was designed as a venue to host social and educational activities for residents and their families, staff, volunteers, and community groups. In the past few years, issues with accessibility, lighting and temperature control have significantly reduced the usability of the room. When the revitalization is complete, the auditorium will once again boast a healthy schedule of events from worship services and bingos, to dances, educational sessions and large scale dinners.

Twenty-seven years ago, Dr. Peter Bell opened the Sharbot Lake Seniors Home in order to provide a residential setting for local seniors who required the level of support that only a seniors’ residence could provide.

“There were people then, as there are now, who reach a point in their lives where they need 24-hour care. Homecare services can’t manage people for 24 hours. It might be ok if there is enough family support, but there were people then as there are now who require a residential setting,” recalled Peter Bell earlier this week.

“We had lobbied for years for a public facility here in Sharbot Lake, and the best we could do was to convince the provincial government to build a seniors’ apartment. But even that fell through in the end. That’s when I decided to open the seniors’ home.

The Sharbot Lake Seniors Home can accommodate up to 35 residents, and provides room, board, and 24-hour support.

From the start, according to Peter Bell, the home has never been profitable, but he took the view that at some point the governments would realise that with the only alternative to privately run seniors’ homes being long-term care facilities, which are both full and hugely expensive to operate, a funding model to provide support for patients in small facilities would eventually be forthcoming.

"In long-term care facilities such as Fairmount Home, the cost of care is covered and residents pay for their board, and if they can’t afford that there are subsidies available. I have always thought the province would eventually see the advantage of providing some support for residents of homes like ours in Sharbot Lake. But after 27 years, I can’t wait any longer, and I’ve run out of time and resources,” he said.

Bell informed the staff and residents of the home on May 1 that the home will be closing as soon as all of the residents are placed in new locations, and by July 31 at the latest.

Although the closure of the home coincides with new licensing regulations, Bell said that having to follow the regulations, which he supports, was not a major factor in his decision to close it. The home has a sprinkler system in place and a number of other requirements have been met over the years.

“It’s very unfortunate to see that facility empty and for the staff to lose their jobs and the residents to have to move out of their own community,” said Bell.

He said he has no plans for the building once it is empty.

In February, I was given a truly amazing experience of going to Honduras to help those less fortunate. I would like to tell you about our general days at the brigades and some of what I saw.

First off, it is extremely difficult to explain my experience. There really are no words that explain what I saw, the feelings I had and the lessons I learned. We left the Toronto Airport Thursday, February 14 at 6:15 a.m. but had to be in line at 3 a.m. We ended up landing in Puerto Lempira, Honduras (which is the location where we stayed for our trip) at 5:30-6 p.m. This landing strip in Honduras is the second most dangerous landing strip in the world, because it is literally a dirt road that is located between the Hondurans’ houses, and the strip is not really that long in length to stop or take off. Our medical team consisted of registered nurses, doctors (cardiologist, respirologist, and emergency doctors), a physiotherapist, nursing students, interpreters (Hondurans), and a military entourage. In total we had near 30 individuals on our team.

Our “hotel” was located right by a lagoon and was the most beautiful sight. Every morning you could see palm trees and the setting sun over the water, which was amazing. The weather was gorgeous; every day it was at least 29 degrees but with the humidity and working on the brigades, it felt much hotter. We had some days that were mid-thirties and close to 40, which felt delightful seeing as though there was snow in Canada.

The place where we traveled to was called the “Mosquito Coast” and the Hondurans there spoke their indigenous language called “Miskito”. This meant that we had to have two Honduran interpreters at all of our brigades (one from English to Spanish, another from Spanish to Miskito).

Friday, February 15 was basically a packing/organizing day. We had to sort out all our medicine into categories (cardiac, analgesics, antibiotics, respiratory etc.), sort the donations of clothing and toys into their sections and separate all of the other supplies as well. After we separated the materials, we had to separate them once again into eight sections, because we were completing eight brigade days and needed a variety of supplies at each village. As you can imagine this took....a......long.....time!

Saturday, February 16 was our first medical brigade day and just before we were leaving, our hotel tragedy struck. A 12-year-old boy was literally crushed against a cement wall by a military truck. Thank goodness that we were a medical brigade team and obtained experienced doctors and nurses in these type of emergency situations. A great deal of life threatening scenarios happened to this young boy, but three of our doctors/nurses ended up saving his life in the end!

Our medical brigade days were quite similar in each of the villages we attended. We usually left our hotel by 7 a.m. because the villages were usually an hour or longer drive away. We had two villages where we HAD to take boats, so local fisherman took us on these days.

Basically a brigade day looked like this: We would set up different “stations”. We had a registration area where the Hondurans in the village would tell one of our interpreters their name, age, and date of birth. From here they went to the Triage area, and this was just like a normal triage area in a hospital where individuals described their main complaints and reasons for being at the brigade. From here either the people would be sent to the dentist or doctors, depending on their major complaints. And then the last station was the pharmacy area, where the Hondurans would pick up their prescriptions they received from the doctors, as well as food, clothing and toys.

I got to work at every station and learned more about nursing in these two weeks than actually being in placements in Canada. I believe this was because everything was hands on constantly, and I was doing assessments that I have never done before. The doctors were extremely great at getting us nursing students to come and see abnormalities within patients and explained to us what it was, why it happened and how to treat it.

During the brigade days the nursing students had to complete a health promotion project. So I did the basic process of how to brush your teeth.

Every single Honduran was extremely grateful for our help and many of the mothers would hug us and cry when we gave them food supplies. One of the most inspiring things I saw while in Honduras was how thankful and generous the Hondurans were. We would be going to their villages to help them because they were lacking food, clean accessible water and health care, but when we were leaving their villages they would want to give us a large portion of their coconuts, even though they were limited in food.

This experience truly changed my perspective and made me feel extremely selfish about my life back in Canada. These individuals were so happy with the small amount of resources they had, but still I never saw them without a smile on their faces. The only thing that mattered to them was their families and the love that they provided to them. It was inspiring and very emotional to see that these people living in extreme poverty loved their life so much, while people back in Canada complain about not having a MacBook or not liking the food their parents make them. I am not a picky eater, but I will never complain about any food after seeing how these Hondurans literally go without food for a few days, or are working at age five to bring in some money for their families.

The only thing I want to say is that if anyone ever gets the opportunity to go through an experience like this....do it. Do not worry about money, or anything like that. You may never get another chance to do something so meaningful and life changing ever again in your life. This was by far the best experience I have ever had and cannot wait to go back to Honduras or another Third World Country to help those in need. This experience set my mind 100% on the fact that I want to be a nurse, and this is what I am going to do for the rest of my life!

I wish to extend a huge thank you to all the people who made donations and contributed to my Honduras funding. It truly made a difference on the amount of medical supplies we were able to buy and provide to the Hondurans. And a special thanks to Art Goodfellow, Lisa Hamilton, Judy Bertrim and Jane Neadow who generously gave back their prize money they “won” from the $100 calendar at my chili dinner.

Annette Gray-Jackson, a registered massage therapist who has been working out of her home in Mountain Grove, has set up a clinic in the former dining room of the Sharbot Lake Country Inn. She will be seeing clients four days a week, Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday.

She is being joined in the new clinic by Sean Rodgers, of Westport Chiropractic, who will be holding his regular Sharbot Lake Thursday clinic in the new space. Rodgers has been serving Sharbot Lake for years, most recently in a small room next to the Treasure Trunk.

Also, on Wednesdays and Fridays a physiotherapist from Perth Physiotherapy will be available at the new clinic. This is a first for Sharbot Lake.

“Our services complement one another,” said Annette Gray-Jackson as she was setting up the clinic with Sean Rodgers last week. “I regularly find myself recommending physiotherapy and massage for my patients, and it will be ideal to be able to refer people to the same clinic. It’s also a lot easier for people from Plevna or Arden to get to Sharbot Lake than to Perth for massage or physio. The 45-minute drive home can erase a lot of the good that comes from a treatment.”

The therapy room, which is on the main floor at the Country Inn, is bright and has a view of the lake. A smaller gift shop remains open next door. Patients can wait in the front hallway, or they can visit the restaurant downstairs.

“The idea for the clinic came from Sandra White [co-owner of the Country Inn with her husband Frank]. She thought it would be a good use of the space, and when I looked at it I couldn’t help but agree. It is also an opportunity to bring something new to Sharbot Lake, to go along with all the other services available here,”
said Annette Gray-Jackson.

For her own massage therapy business, the move has already started to pay off as she has already increased her client base.

While Physiotherapy, Chiropractic and Massage Therapy are not covered by OHIP, most extended benefit health plans do cover them. Although the three services are jointly being operated in the space, they are independent and each will be booking its own clients.

To contact Annette Gray-Jackson, call 613-449-0060 or got to annettegrayjackson.com. Her clinic is open from 10-8 Mondays, 10-5 Tuesdays, 1-5 Fridays and 9-12 on Saturdays.

To contact Perth Physiotherapy call 613-267-6789 or go to perthphysiotherapy.ca. Sharbot Lake hours are Wednesdays from 9-5 and Fridays from 9-12.

To contact Sharbot Lake Chiropractic call 613-279-3100. Sean’s clinic is open from 8-5 on Thursdays.

The Sharbot Lake Health and Wellness clinic is now open. There will be a grand opening celebration on Monday, April 29 between 4 and 7 pm. 

n an effort to stem a continual increase in the cost of running the ambulance service, Frontenac County will be cutting a 12-hour ambulance in the City of Kingston. The cut will relegate four full-time paramedics to part-time status.

The cost of running the service went up by over 15% between 2009 and 2012.

Cutting a busy shift was not the county’s first choice as a method of stemming the increases in costs. On January 16, the County announced a new sick time strategy. Noting that replacing sick and injured workers was costing the service more and more each year, the decision was made to pull cars off the road during selected shifts when paramedics called in sick. The goal of that strategy was to save the cost of 5,000 hours in 2013.

However, early in March, OPSEU Local 462, which represents Frontenac County Paramedics, announced that it was going to launch a grievance against the County’s sick time strategy to the Ontario Labour Relations Board.

Instead of entering into a grievance process, County Council abandoned the sick time strategy and opted instead for a decisive course of action.

“Rather than engage in potentially protracted and expensive litigation regarding an initiative designed to reduce costs, County Council determined that cost reductions had to be found elsewhere. Council determined the savings would be achieved through the transition of four full-time paramedics to part-time positions and the reduction of service by one 12-hour per day vehicle located at Palace Road in Kingston. The strategy will come into effect on May 6, 2013,” said a County press release last week.

By cutting a 12-hour day shift from the busiest ambulance base in the City of Kingston, on Palace Road, the county will realise savings in equipment replacement costs, as well as over 6,800 hours of labour costs in 2013. Four full time paramedics will be relegated to part-time status and according to Dave Parkhill, Vice President of Local 462, “Those paramedics will, in reality, be laid off. There have been very few shifts for part-timers as it is, and adding four more to the list will only make times even leaner for all of them.”

The County expressed regret at taking the action.

“This was a very difficult decision. However, action was required to stem the escalating costs while at the same time maintaining effective service and this was the best option available to the County as permissible in accordance with the restrictions of the collective agreement,” said the county release.

In a telephone interview, Paul Charbonneau, the Chief of Paramedic Services for Frontenac County, said that cutting the shift will have an “impact on response times in the city during daytime hours, but we are confident that we can maintain the response time targets that were set by the County.”

Charbonneau also said that the cost increases faced by the ambulance service are not solely the result of increased sick time. “Sick time was only a contributing factor,” he said, “along with wage and benefit increases, and other costs.”

One of the anomalies of municipal governance is the fact that the ambulance service, which handles approximately 18,000 calls per year in Kingston, answers to Frontenac County Council, where about 3,000 calls per year are located.

Provincial funding covers 50% of ambulance costs; Kingston residents also pay about 40% of the cost of the ambulance service through their property taxes; while Frontenac County residents pay about 10%. But through a quirk of municipal jurisdiction, Frontenac land ambulance is managed entirely by Frontenac County.

“Yet, the impact of these new measures will be felt entirely by the residents of Kingston,” said Dave Parkhill.

Paul Charbonneau said that “The City has been informed of the measures that we are taking.” He also said that his office has had little direct contact with OPSEU Local 462 since October, when the Frontenac County Land Ambulance Service reported itself to the Ontario Labour Board amid concerns over the safety of some ambulance calls.

Parkhill said, “We had been talking with the County about the safety issue for months, and we thought we had developed a pretty strong relationship in working towards a solution. But then they self-reported to the Labour Board without our knowledge, and that strained our relations.”

This latest measure is sure to strain those relations further, and indicates that the county is likely to take a hard line in upcoming contract negotiations with the union. The collective agreement between Local 462 and the County expires at the end of 2013.

“I will not speculate about how this may or may not affect contract negotiations,” said Charbonneau. “They are still nine months away.”