Community
Primary Care Network launches ‘Year of the Garden’ to encourage more activity and healthier eating
By Mark Weber
Summer is here as is the joy of spending time outdoors – and an exciting Primary Care Network program has been designed with that goal in mind.
“The City offered us one of their garden plots on the north end in Normandeau,” explained Lynsey Hermary, a recreation therapist with the PCN, adding that space is being offered to any PCN patients or staff to use.
Essentially, it’s all about encouraging folks to get outside more, while of course growing healthy food and spending time in nature.
“It is located directly behind the Save on Foods on 67th St, access is along 68th (Nash St) and we are garden plot number B12.” The plot numbers are marked on the stakes.
“We recommend that everyone who uses it, marks off their section, and is then responsible for weeding, pruning and harvesting their area,” notes the PCN web site. It’s also an incredibly practical activity to take part in, with the ongoing high costs of food – particularly healthy food, added Hermary.
Meanwhile, there is plenty of room at the plot as well, and it’s been exciting to see people utilize the space. “This is a brand-new program – we just got it up and running (recently),” she said, adding that the City of Red Deer web site offers tips on the
gardening side of things as well.
A PCN-hosted Westerner pancake breakfast is also slated for July 20th
Looking forward into the summer, staff are also excited to announce they will be hosting a pancake breakfast on July 20 from 7 to 9 a.m. to celebrate Westerner Days. It will be held at the park beside the PCN office which is located at 5120 – 47th St.
“You’ll see our PCN staff and some of our physicians out flipping pancakes, and there will be some entertainment,” said Bonnie St. Dennis, office and IT administrator at the Red Deer PCN.
“There is no charge to attend, but donations are welcome which will go to support PCN programs involving the City’s vulnerable populations.”
Staff also wished to remind residents that they have the PCN bike corral each Saturday at the Farmer’s Market.
“We really encourage people to ride their bicycles down to the market, and they can then leave them for us to watch,” said Lorna Milkovich, the PCN’s executive director. “It’s a nice option to help people get out and get more active, too.”
And another key local event PCN staff are helping to promote is the Dr. Walter Reynolds Memorial run which is set for Sept. 18 th.
More information about the family-friendly event, which will be held at Bower Ponds, can be found at www.drreynoldsrun.ca. As the web site explains, it was in August of 2020 that, “A wonderful person was taken from us while working at the Village Mall Walk-in Clinic.
“The community of Red Deer suffered a tremendous loss when Walter was taken from us. A hole in the hearts of many as he was loved by all who knew him, from his patients to his colleagues, friends and family. The purpose of this run is to remember Dr. Walter Reynolds and what he stood for: respect, love, kindness and community.
“In Walter’s name, ALL funds raised through this race will be donated back into the community which he loved. The Red Deer Hospice Society and Red Deer Youth Sports initiatives will be the organizations benefiting from this year’s event. Our goal is to see this race become an annual event and spread the love through the community.”
Also looking ahead, St. Dennis pointed out that although the PCN’s Health Cafes won’t be running again until the fall, anyone can check out the PCN web site (under the Patient Resources tab) and view previous Health Cafes which cover a wide range of health topics with experts offering guidance and information. Meanwhile, the local PCN offers a wealth of programs aimed at bolstering virtually all aspects of healthy living.
Primary Care Networks are made up of groups of family physicians working with other health care 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, call the local PCN office at 403-343-9100 or check out www.reddeerpcn.com.
Community
SPARC Red Deer – Caring Adult Nominations open now!
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)
Addictions
‘Harm Reduction’ is killing B.C.’s addicts. There’s got to be a better way
From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy
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
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.
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