What's Up Huntsville Lake of Bays July 2011 - Whatsupmuskoka.com

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Looking to the future Bracebridge and Muskoka Lakes Secondary School will be offering a specialized high skills major program in health and wellness, allowing senior students to work in co-op positions in local health care outlets. The program received final approval from the Ministry on June 28. “Our school was already offering all the courses to supply the strands necessary for the course,” says teacher Jason Sprathoff, who is head of health, physical education and family studies for the school. “We were offering the academics part, so I did a little bit of research to see where a lot of our kids are going, to see if there was an interest.” Out of graduating classes that range from 150 to 200, he found, 30 to 40 students per year were going into health or wellness related fields, including nursing, fitness, early childhood education and others. So, after consulting with teachers in other schools that had already put high skills majors in place, and with help at the school board level, Sprathoff went ahead with the application to provide the course. What makes a high skills major special is the co-op placements it requires, giving students a leg up both into post-secondary programs and the workplace. “We needed to identify locations where our students would be able to get four months of experience in the sector,” says Steve Spiers, a pathways consultant with the school board, who aided in the application. So far about 30 students have signed up for the course, and that will be narrowed down to 20 in interviews, mostly students going into Grade 11. High skills major programs run for two years, in Grades 11 and 12, so next year’s Grade 12 students have been cautioned that they won’t get the full certification – though they’ll still get the experience. The program will be expanded more in future years. “My hope is that these kids that are interested in health and wellness will take it, and it will draw more into health and wellness,” Sprathoff notes. “The long-term goal is to get them interested in health and wellness earlier than college and university, because health and wellness is an area, especially in Muskoka, where we’re going to need more people.” Nurse practitioner Christine Fitchett takes a patient’s blood pressure. attractive to health care professionals considering where to locate. A steering committee comprised of representatives of health organizations, educational institutes and municipal governments was formed in response to concerns raised by the district’s 2009 study. Its first project was an effort to attract Muskoka’s youth cohort to the health field at an even younger age and persuade them to stay in their home region for health careers. The result was the Health Care Rocks in Muskoka career day 2011. Held at the Bracebridge Sportsplex on April 14, the event gathered 200 high school students from throughout the district, letting them spend time with health professionals. They event included hands-on learning, such as taking blood pressure and doing first aid. “For the remainder of the year, we’ll be focusing on connecting with post-secondary colleges and universities to network with students and almost-graduates, to tell them there are wonderful health care opportunities in Muskoka,” says Jean Broere, who was centrally involved with the initiative. Hughes notes Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare is making great use of a new mentorship program for graduate nurses sponsored by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. “When nurses graduate, they’re guaranteed six months of work,” he says. “They are in a formalized mentorship program with another nurse, learning what it means to have a full patient load. They always have that mentor with them.” More than 100 graduating nurses applied to undergo the program in Muskoka, and Hughes estimates the result will be about 12 new registered nurses and registered practical nurses in the Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare system. Plewes sees an increased emphasis on the team approach, as practiced by Family Health Teams and in Community Health Centres, as a solution to the problem. “People now across organizations are getting together to manage the care of someone who requires that team approach. That’s helping to expand the capacity of the individuals,” she says. She also sees health care positions with expanded capabilities as another solution. “A registered practical nurse has education and training and experience to do a number of things that only a registered nurse could do 10 or 15 years ago,” she notes. “Nurse practitioners have the ability and legislative support to do a number of things that only family physicians could do. There are new positions such as physician’s assistants and nurse anesthetists . . . just within the last couple of years.” Nurse practitioners, for instance, can now diagnose illness, order some diagnostic tests, order some mediations, refer to specialists and admit or discharge patients from hospitals, says Leanna Lefebvre, a nurse practitioner and interim administrative lead for a new nursepractitioner clinic that will open in Huntsville this fall. The need for such a clinic was first noticed in the emergency departments of Muskoka’s hospitals, Lefebvre says. “Twenty per cent of visits were from people who didn’t have a health care provider. We got together as a group of nurse practitioners and looked at how we could fill that gap.” The clinic will be staffed by four nurse practitioners as well as a registered nurse, dietitian, social worker and pharmacist, with consulting doctors partnering as well. The philosophy is based on a nursing model of care, with emphasis on illness prevention and health promotion. “We place a greater value on the therapeutic relationship and ensure that clients are full partners in their care,” Lefebvre says. The clinic is funded through a Ministry initiative that began with one clinic in 2007 in Sudbury. Since then, the decision has been made to fund 25 more throughout Ontario. Currently there are about 1,900 nurse practitioners across Ontario, most of whom started out as registered nurses, but went back to university for more training. The North Simcoe-Muskoka LHIN is beginning the formulation of a 10-year implementation plan to integrate health services available in hospitals, long-term care facilities, community health centres, community support services and mental health agencies. It will include measures to address the health care staff shortage, says Plewes. But it’s only in its beginning stages. “We have a working group that’s come together over the last months to put their heads together to identify what an integrated health human resources council needs to look like to develop an effective health human resources plan for the region,” says Tammy McLennan, manager of organizational talent and corporate services for the LHIN. That council will be formed over the summer, she says. The LHIN will also conduct a detailed survey of all North Simcoe and Muskoka health service providers to create a detailed inventory, examining not just numbers of staff, but their interests and skills to use as a workforce planning tool. McLennan expects the survey to be complete by sometime in the fall. On June 20 it held a spring forum, drawing 302 people from Muskoka and North Simcoe to envision a more integrated system of health care using new models of health care with greater collaboration. “We have 140 organizations, and 63 have nothing to do with the LHIN,” says Plewes, noting that they include education and justice groups as well as municipalities. “Everybody saw the bonus of having an integrated plan.” Bill Innes, CEO of Muskoka’s Community Care Access Centre, notes that the centre’s increased use of personal support workers in the home has lessened the need for hospital care, thus alleviating the pressure. “I’m constantly looking for new workers, but we have attained steady growth over the last two years,” he says. That’s keeping people out of hospital – 130 of them throughout the LHIN in the past year, he says. Meanwhile, he sees possible solutions, both long-term and short-term, in new technologies. With today’s high-tech home monitors, he says, patients’ weight and blood pressure can be tracked. “So if you are watching blood pressure and you see a drop, you can catch it before that person falls and breaks their hip, saving a hospital visit,” he enthuses. But down the road, Innes envisions more innovative solutions, such as the elimination of cancer through gene therapy, or robots providing care and even surgery, more accurately than a human hand. “ “The questions for me are, what is the real need, how are we prepared to respond to whatever that need is . . . and where we choose to invest money as a society,” he says. That, and how to make use of limited resources more efficiently, are the questions that many people in Muskoka are wrestling with, to address the health care personnel shortage. Photograph: Tim Lum 6 July 2011 www.whatsupmuskoka.com
Huntsville goes solo on employee benefits By Karen Wehrstein After traditionally pooling with the District of Muskoka and the other area municipalities to provide extended health, dental and disability plans for its employees, the Town of Huntsville has abandoned the arrangement to contract with an outside provider. “We’ve been involved with the district for a number of years,” says town councillor Chris Zanetti, who heads up Huntsville’s corporate services committee. “We thought that we should shop it and see if we could get a better rate and we certainly found that: a savings of about $30,000. That’s substantial, so we opted out of the district plan.” According to Zanetti, Selectpath Benefits & Financial is able to provide the same benefits package to town employees for that much less cost. The move was passed by the committee on May 30 and town council on June 20. It comes into effect immediately. An amount of about $230,000 that was being held in an insurance reserve fund by the district for the Town of Huntsville will also be returned to the town. Zanetti says it will be continue to be kept as an insurance reserve. Stephen Cairns, commissioner of finance and corporate services, continues to believe the strategy of pooling insurance money is best. “If you’re self-insured and have a fairly regular and predictable cost, you save in not paying the middle man,” he says, explaining that the district “We thought that we should shop it and see if we could get a better rate ...” hires an outside agency to manage the program, but otherwise no administration fee, extra overhead or profits are drawn from the funds. “We pay the actual cost rather than an external premium.” Cairns is not concerned about one town leaving the plan. “Huntsville not being there is not going to materially affect us one way or another,” he says. Cairns notes the district and the municipalities, other than Huntsville, will be putting out a request for proposals for life and long-term disability insurance for employees. Selectpath will be one of the carriers it approaches, he says, since it’s one of the main carriers. “We might find a similar saving,” he says, noting that the request will go out once all relevant information is gathered from the municipalities. But he feels the medical and dental plans should stay in the shared self-insurance program. “I’d have to have a very good documented business case to move away from that concept, because it’s served us well in the past,” he says. For more than 30 years, Ostaco's mission has been to excel as a manufacturer of vinyl windows and doors of unparalleled quality. Rest assured, when you choose an Ostaco window or door product, you will have a lifetime product that functions perfectly and meets your needs and your budget. Trust Ostaco. Amazing Value. Great Price. Exclusively at Seeing is Believing. Visit our Showroom. 15 Robert Dollar Drive Bracebridge Phone 705-645-3057 Toll Free 1-800-461-5495 www.muskokawindowanddoor.ca www.whatsupmuskoka.com July 2011 7
Page 1 and 2: WHAT’S UP July 2011 MUSKOKA’S N
Page 3 and 4: BIGGEST DON’T PAY ON NOW! Plus
Page 5: Alleviating the health care crunch
Page 9 and 10: Bliss Boutique of Muskoka FIND YOUR
Page 11 and 12: Service clubs unite to better help
Page 13 and 14: We are fortunate to call Canada hom
Page 15 and 16: Celebrating milestones in Lake of B
Page 17 and 18: Portraits preserve Muskoka’s hist
Page 19 and 20: Huntsville receives grant for the a
Page 21 and 22: Add water for more summer fun For m
Page 23 and 24: This Summer Discover Downtown Hunts
Page 25 and 26: Peake Fields set to host provincial
Page 27 and 28: Stage show celebrates 30 years By C
Page 29 and 30: Oh Canada! A girl gets her face pai
Page 31: DEFINE YOUR SPACE WITH... SUPERIOR

What's Up Huntsville Lake of Bays July 2011 - Whatsupmuskoka.com

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