Connect with us

Community

Primary Care Network introducing new programs for youth and women

Published

5 minute read

By Mark Weber 

New programs at the Red Deer based Primary Care Network are geared specifically to bolster the well-being of youth and women.

“We have our regular collection of workshops that we continue to offer,” explained Julia Vallance, one of the PCN’s Program Managers.  “But the two new programs that we are bringing this month are a Menopause Series for Women and a Youth Anxiety to Calm program which is for youth ages 12 to 17,” she explained. The youth program goes for six weeks.

And while it might be too late to join this month, both programs will continue to be offered, she said.  In regard to the youth program, the inaugural session is being offered virtually.

Vallance said the PCN team is also working with Red Deer Public Schools, which will offer this program to students. The program is similar to the PCN’s Anxiety to Calm program which has been offered for several years. But this program will focus on youth-related themes, including the impacts of social media.

“This program isn’t only being offered in Red Deer. It’s also being offered through other PCNs across the province.

“So if people are interested, I would suggest that they contact their local PCN or they can go to the Alberta Find a Doctor website where we try to keep up-to-date details on what’s happening (with programs) across the province,” she said.

The PCN’s website describes Youth Anxiety to Calm as a means to, “Practice exercises to help manage anxiety, understand your thoughts, behaviours and emotions more deeply, and learn healthy lifestyle choices that will benefit you for years to come.”

“We are super excited to be bringing this program in. We haven’t worked with youth before so this will be a great new opportunity for us to learn what their needs are, and to try and tailor programs for them.”

Meanwhile, the Menopause Series for Women begins this month as well.

“This will be a four-week series, and it will be an in-person series,” said Vallance.  Down the road, both in-person and virtual opportunities will be available. “It will vary throughout the years.”

Vallance said women don’t necessarily have to be going through menopause to register for the series.

“For those going through perimenopause, (when the body is making the natural transition to menopause), it’s a great time for them to learn about their bodies and what they may experience as they go through menopause.

“We will also be talking about perimenopause and what to expect with that as well,” she said.

“We will also be looking at a variety of things that can go on throughout that menopause journey including some health conditions that can affect women after menopause as well.” Vallance noted there will also be discussions about various pharmacological treatments and other ways to manage symptoms.

“I think it’s been something that people don’t really want to talk about but it’s so important. So we are really looking forward to having that opportunity to discuss this and give them more information.

“Sometimes there is misinformation about menopause, or people are seeking support and don’t know where to go. We want to make sure that they are also reaching out to their healthcare professionals and knowing when to reach out.”

Primary Care Networks are made up of groups of family physicians working with other healthcare professionals such as nurses, pharmacists, nurse practitioners, exercise specialists, social workers, and mental health professionals.

Red Deer PCN supports the communities of Red Deer, Blackfalds, and Penhold.

For more information about these programs, call the local PCN office at 403-343-9100 or check out www.reddeerpcn.com.

Born and raised in Red Deer, Mark Weber is an award-winning freelance writer who is committed to the community. He worked as a reporter for the Red Deer Express for 18 years including six years as co-editor. During that time, he mainly covered arts and entertainment plus a spectrum of areas from city news and health stories to business profiles and human interest features. Mark also spent a year working for the regional publication Town and Country in northern Alberta, along with stints at the Ponoka News and the Stettler Independent. He’s thrilled to be a Todayville contributor, as it allows him many more opportunities to continue to focus on the city and community he not only has a passion for, but calls home as well.

Follow Author

Community

SPARC Red Deer – Caring Adult Nominations open now!

Published on

Red Deer community let’s give a round of applause to the incredible adults shaping the future of our kids. Whether they’re a coach, neighbour, teacher, mentor, instructor, or someone special, we want to know about them!

Tell us the inspiring story of how your nominee is helping kids grow up great. We will honour the first 100 local nominees for their outstanding contributions to youth development. It’s time to highlight those who consistently go above and beyond!

To nominate, visit Events (sparcreddeer.ca)

Continue Reading

Addictions

‘Harm Reduction’ is killing B.C.’s addicts. There’s got to be a better way

Published on

From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy

By Susan Martinuk 

B.C. recently decriminalized the possession of small amounts of illicit drugs. The resulting explosion of addicts using drugs in public spaces, including parks and playgrounds, recently led the province’s NDP government to attempt to backtrack on this policy

Since 2016, more than 40,000 Canadians have died from opioid drug overdoses — almost as many as died during the Second World War.
Governments, health care professionals and addiction experts all acknowledge that widespread use of opioids has created a public health crisis in Canada. Yet they agree on virtually nothing else about this crisis, including its causes, possible remedies and whether addicts should be regarded as passive victims or accountable moral agents.

Fuelled by the deadly manufactured opioid fentanyl, Canada’s national drug overdose rate stood at 19.3 people per 100,000 in 2022, a shockingly high number when compared to the European Union’s rate of just 1.8. But national statistics hide considerable geographic variation. British Columbia and Alberta together account for only a quarter of Canada’s population yet nearly half of all opioid deaths. B.C.’s 2022 death rate of 45.2/100,000 is more than double the national average, with Alberta close behind at 33.3/100,00.

In response to the drug crisis, Canada’s two western-most provinces have taken markedly divergent approaches, and in doing so have created a natural experiment with national implications.

B.C. has emphasized harm reduction, which seeks to eliminate the damaging effects of illicit drugs without actually removing them from the equation. The strategy focuses on creating access to clean drugs and includes such measures as “safe” injection sites, needle exchange programs, crack-pipe giveaways and even drug-dispensing vending machines. The approach goes so far as to distribute drugs like heroin and cocaine free of charge in the hope addicts will no longer be tempted by potentially tainted street drugs and may eventually seek help.

But safe-supply policies create many unexpected consequences. A National Post investigation found, for example, that government-supplied hydromorphone pills handed out to addicts in Vancouver are often re-sold on the street to other addicts. The sellers then use the money to purchase a street drug that provides a better high — namely, fentanyl.

Doubling down on safe supply, B.C. recently decriminalized the possession of small amounts of illicit drugs. The resulting explosion of addicts using drugs in public spaces, including parks and playgrounds, recently led the province’s NDP government to attempt to backtrack on this policy — though for now that effort has been stymied by the courts.

According to Vancouver city councillor Brian Montague, “The stats tell us that harm reduction isn’t working.” In an interview, he calls decriminalization “a disaster” and proposes a policy shift that recognizes the connection between mental illness and addiction. The province, he says, needs “massive numbers of beds in treatment facilities that deal with both addictions and long-term mental health problems (plus) access to free counselling and housing.”

In fact, Montague’s wish is coming true — one province east, in Alberta. Since the United Conservative Party was elected in 2019, Alberta has been transforming its drug addiction policy away from harm reduction and towards publicly-funded treatment and recovery efforts.

Instead of offering safe-injection sites and free drugs, Alberta is building a network of 10 therapeutic communities across the province where patients can stay for up to a year, receiving therapy and medical treatment and developing skills that will enable them to build a life outside the drug culture. All for free. The province’s first two new recovery centres opened last year in Lethbridge and Red Deer. There are currently over 29,000 addiction treatment spaces in the province.

This treatment-based strategy is in large part the work of Marshall Smith, current chief of staff to Alberta’s premier and a former addict himself, whose life story is a testament to the importance of treatment and recovery.

The sharply contrasting policies of B.C. and Alberta allow a comparison of what works and what doesn’t. A first, tentative report card on this natural experiment was produced last year in a study from Stanford University’s network on addiction policy (SNAP). Noting “a lack of policy innovation in B.C.,” where harm reduction has become the dominant policy approach, the report argues that in fact “Alberta is currently experiencing a reduction in key addiction-related harms.” But it concludes that “Canada overall, and B.C. in particular, is not yet showing the progress that the public and those impacted by drug addiction deserve.”

The report is admittedly an early analysis of these two contrasting approaches. Most of Alberta’s recovery homes are still under construction, and B.C.’s decriminalization policy is only a year old. And since the report was published, opioid death rates have inched higher in both provinces.

Still, the early returns do seem to favour Alberta’s approach. That should be regarded as good news. Society certainly has an obligation to try to help drug users. But that duty must involve more than offering addicts free drugs. Addicted people need treatment so they can kick their potentially deadly habit and go on to live healthy, meaningful lives. Dignity comes from a life of purpose and self-control, not a government-funded fix.

Susan Martinuk is a senior fellow at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy and author of the 2021 book Patients at Risk: Exposing Canada’s Health Care Crisis. A longer version of this article recently appeared at C2CJournal.ca.

Continue Reading

Trending

X