The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
The monthly Healthy Flin Flon meeting was held on Monday, November 3 at the Flin Flon Friendship Centre. There were about 10 people in attendance. The guest speakers were Deb Odegaard from Family services and Housing, and Tim Spencer, Site Coordinator of the NorMan Region MBTelehealth. Odegaard spoke on Caring About Child Care, a Vision for Manitoba. Odegaard also went into the development of a child stating that "by age three, a child's brain is more than twice as active as that of his or her pediatrician." She went on to talk about the opportunities that are lost when the child isn't given the proper education, health care and general attention that a child needs to develop to his or her potential. She said that day care is very important in the developmental years of childhood and with more and more mothers working, she said day care needs to be regulated for the sake of the children. In this day and age seven out of 10 mothers are working. In Manitoba there are about 24,500 licensed day care spaces. This means that there is a regulated child care space for only about one out of 10 children. A child care facility that looks after more than four children must be licensed. "High quality affordable child care for any child whose parent wishes to work and use the service is the most effective way to assist vulnerable children," stated Odegaard. "Play based problem solving with other children and an adult is an early learning strategy that has a crucial effect on early brain development," she added. In April 2002, the Manitoba government announced a five year plan for the future development of Manitoba's Child Care System. The plan advances three major elements over the next five years. One is to maintain and improve day care quality. Second is to improve the accessibility and thirdly to improve the affordability. The next speaker at the Healthy Flin Flon meeting was Tim Spencer, Site Coordinator of the NorMan Region for the Teleheatlh program (MBTelehealth). He explained that Telehealth is using information technology to link people to healthcare expertise at a distance. This is a high speed confidential data link that is used to connect a patient to a medical specialist or other health care professional. Spencer gave everyone a update as of November, 2003. This provincial program is administered by the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority with the head office at the Winnipeg Health Sciences. There are local coordinators in all of the 21 sites across Manitoba. In Northern Manitoba there are sites at Churchill, Thompson, Gillam, Norway House, Flin Flon, The Pas, Lynn Lake, Leaf Rapids and Berens River. The good news is that Snow Lake will soon be linked to the system as well. How does Telehealth really help people? Well, take for example a person who is slated for surgery in Winnipeg. Normally that would mean three trips to the city. One for the pre-operation examination, two for the surgery itself and the third one for a post-operation checkup. With the Telehealth system, the first and third visits are eliminated. Also, in the case of the very ill or the elderly or small children where travel is very difficult, Telehealth can be set up with the specialist in Winnipeg. With the use of a digital stethoscope, the specialist can check the heart, blood pressure and even monitor the pulse. This system has even been used for patients who are on long term treatment in the city to link them with their families. As well, the system is also used for education of medical professionals and for inservices. Also there is a setup for patient education on such things as irritable bowel syndrome, autism, acid reflux disease and even on Menopause. There is also what is known as the Bad Gut Lecture Series which is free public information sessions about digestive disorders. Some topics include: gastroenterolgy, Crohn's Disease, fecal incontinence, chronic abdominal pain, colon cancer screening, dietary management of diarrhea and constipation, irritable bowel syndrome, and treatment of reflux disease. If you are interested in any of these education linkups please call Tim and let him know so that he can set these up for you. Tim Spencer can be reached at 687-9325.
