More help from the the government needed?

Beware the artificial government crisis at hand -QJ

For the past decade, the province has increasingly moved residents out of provincial institutions and into community facilities. Just 500 adult residents remain in three institutions – in Orillia, Smiths Falls and Chatham – and those are being closed by March 2009. More than 40,000 adults with developmental disabilities are now in some form of community care, ranging from help to live on their own or with roommates to group homes and long-term care homes. Approximately 7,000 unionized workers are employed in those community facilities and half, at some 70 locations, are working under contracts that expired March 31.


Labor woes trouble homes for developmentally disabled James Wallace Queens Park - Wednesday, May 09, 2007 By James Wallace Osprey News Network A looming, province-wide labour dispute at agencies that serve developmentally disabled adults could see care jeopardized for thousands of Ontario’s most vulnerable adults, union officials in the sector say. Meanwhile, the $200 million government bailout intended to stave off strikes or lock-outs at group homes, agencies and other community facilities that provide care for adults with developmental disabilities may be fatally flawed, said Sid Ryan, president of CUPE Ontario. Workers in the sector have been frustrated for years over chronically low wages, Ryan said. And despite the recent funding announcement, both CUPE and Ontario Public Service Employees Union locals representing some 3,500 workers report recent strike votes of 95 per cent and higher. “We’re trying to head off labour unrest,” Ryan said. “These are of course, we all know, the most vulnerable of people; people with mental disabilities other disabilities that need a lot of help.” People who work with the developmentally handicapped may typically earn $35,000 or less annually and 25 per cent less than workers doing similar jobs in hospitals, the union maintains. Meanwhile, there is a $10-an-hour gap between the wages for not-for-profit and government staff that do the same work. Ryan said unions and the agencies that provide care urged the government during pre-budget discussions to find the $200 million needed to address wage disparities in the sector.

Photos: Prosthetic arms at play | TechRepublic Photo Gallery

Photos: Prosthetic arms at play | TechRepublic Photo Gallery

Discover The Healing Power of Flowers at Home and Garden News

Discover The Healing Power of Flowers at Home and Garden News: "Discover The Healing Power of Flowers
Colors have strong psychological and physiological effects on people, including the power to stimulate, depress and even help heal. Careful color selection can help make gifts of flowers more than just ornamentation. Read on for more about Chromotherapy and the Healing Power of Colors and"

Reduce your stress

"How to Stress-Proof Your Personality Redford Williams, MD
Duke University Behavioral Medicine Research Center

Nobody escapes stress, but some fortunate people seem to be able to negotiate the shallows of life with apparent ease. They take setbacks in stride and don't waste their time or inflame their arteries by flaring up unnecessarily. They enjoy loving relationships and supportive friendships.
While their talent for living may seem mysterious, it's actually a matter of skill. Like the musician who knows how to draw lovely music from a violin, they know how to bring happiness and harmony to themselves and others.
These people have skills that put them in control of their emotions and relationships. Fortunately, these skills can be learned -- at any age.

THE ADVANTAGE of being in control
Research conducted over the past three decades has shown that psychological stress increases the risk for heart disease and other major illnesses, such as depression and anxiety. Higher mortality rates are particularly linked to hostility, which can manifest as a cynical mistrust of others, a low threshold for anger and/or a high level of aggression.
New finding: A study recently published in the American Heart Journal found that coronary-bypass patients who underwent a training program to increase control of their emotions showed significantly less depression, anger and stress, along with more social support and satisfaction, compared with healthy people


How to Stress-Proof Your Personality (Full article )


Nobody escapes stress, but some fortunate people seem to be able to negotiate the shallows of life with apparent ease. They take setbacks in stride and don't waste their time or inflame their arteries by flaring up unnecessarily. They enjoy loving relationships and supportive friendships.

While their talent for living may seem mysterious, it's actually a matter of skill. Like the musician who knows how to draw lovely music from a violin, they know how to bring happiness and harmony to themselves and others.

These people have skills that put them in control of their emotions and relationships. Fortunately, these skills can be learned -- at any age.

THE ADVANTAGE of being
in control

Research conducted over the past three decades has shown that psychological stress increases the risk for heart disease and other major illnesses, such as depression and anxiety. Higher mortality rates are particularly linked to hostility, which can manifest as a cynical mistrust of others, a low threshold for anger and/or a high level of aggression.

New finding: A study recently published in the American Heart Journal found that coronary-bypass patients who underwent a training program to increase control of their emotions showed significantly less depression, anger and stress, along with more social support and satisfaction, compared with healthy people who received no training.

The trained participants' pulses slowed, and their blood pressure reacted less to stress after the training -- clear signs that they were taking strain off their hearts. These factors remained unchanged or worsened in the other group.

SHORT CIRCUIT STRESS

You can't deal with stress properly unless you recognize it.

How to cope when a negative situation arises...

Step 1: Ask yourself, how important is it? The goal is to know how to separate trivial situations that are outside your control from those that are worth getting worked up over.

Helpful: Step back and decide whether you should allow yourself to react to a setback, annoyance or obstacle. Is there anything you actually can do about it? Is it important enough to go to the mat over?

Step 2: Change your reaction. If your evaluation of the stressful situation tells you that it's not that important, practice turning off the negative thoughts and calming the bad feelings.

Helpful: When you're alone and feel irritated, tell yourself to STOP! in a sharp voice. Repeat the command silently when stressful situations arise in public.

During a calm time, write a list of topics that make you feel good when you think about them -- a beloved relative... a pleasant vacation spot. When you're stressed or upset, close your eyes and picture items from your list.

Step 3: Take action. If your analysis leads you to conclude that the stressful situation is worth acting on, take positive steps.

Helpful: Problem-solve in a systematic way. Define the problem... list possible solutions... make a decision... and implement it.

Example: Max was not comfortable driving at night. When he found out he had a book club meeting scheduled for 8 pm in a neighboring town, he at first became anxious. After considering his options (having a friend pick him up and drive him home... not going at all), he settled on calling a taxi.

IMPROVE RELATIONSHIPS

Intimate relationships, friendships and pleasant encounters with coworkers and acquaintances provide social support -- a buffer against life's difficulties.

You can improve your relationships by being considerate, treating others with respect, offering help when needed, etc. One of the best strategies is to become a good listener. People appreciate you and like you when they feel heard and understood.

To improve your relationships, practice these skills...

Keep quiet while others are talking. Suppress your desire to add information, ask questions, give advice or steer the conversation to yourself. Limit your input to the occasional nod or "Uh-huh." If your mind wanders, refocus on the other person's words. Your turn will come... wait for it.

Use appropriate body language. To show interest, maintain a relaxed but attentive facial expression. Relax your shoulders, uncross your arms and lean slightly forward.

Repeat what the other person says. Before you comment, summarize what you think you heard, focusing on facts or feelings.

Example: "It sounds like you had a great time with your grandkids last weekend."

Be open. This doesn't mean you must change your mind, only that you're receptive to the possibility. When your mental attitude is open rather than rigid, it shows. You may even learn something useful.

ACCENTUATE THE POSITIVE

Several years ago, a University of Washington study found that marriages last longer when positive communications (compliments, affectionate touching, smiling, sharing enthusiasm) outnumbered negative ones (criticism, nasty looks, withdrawal) by a ratio of five to one.

Use the same principle in all your relationships -- make a conscious effort to distribute five times as many compliments as criticisms.

Most important, apply the five-to-one ratio to yourself. Overwhelm negative self-talk ("I'm unprepared... my nose is too big... their house is nicer than mine") with positive messages.

Helpful: List your five best traits and count five of your blessings. Also, become aware of your five biggest self-criticisms and pledge to stop them.
"

Osprey Media. - Brantford Expositor

Good that there are people ho still try to make the differrence QJ

Osprey Media. - Brantford Expositor: "Brant Out of the Cold cllent: 'They don't judge people'
Expositor Staff

By Michell Ruby
Local News - Friday, March 30, 2007 Updated @ 11:20:17 PM

Eyes brimming with tears and wearing an outfit he said he wasn't ashamed to say he picked from a donation bin, Brad Giletchuk talked about being homeless.

Among the audience Thursday were many faces familiar to him: those from local agencies he may have contacted over his years of addiction and loss.

“People didn’t want me around when I was using,” said the soft-spoken 36-year-old. “Now people are listening intently to me and looking at me with respect.”

Giletchuk credits the Brant Out of the Cold program, which offered him a warm place to sleep over the winter, with helping change his life. His words put a face to the sometimes elusive problem of local homelessness.

Peggy Weston, who presented a report on the Out of the Cold program to representatives of local agencies, said there’s no way to determine just how many homeless there are in the city. But she says the number is growing and there’s a need for a shelter, open to anyone without restriction, all year long"

Canadian physicians keen to deploy IT

Canadian physicians keen to deploy IT: "Canadian physicians keen to deploy IT, but...
By: Lisa Williams, senior writer, InterGovWorld
(2007-03-07)

Email the Editor | Email a Friend
Muttitt adds that Infoway is building the new kidney disease care portal on the success of Grand River's portal for patients managing cancer.
'The portals allow patients to be more engaged in their care management. They're able to monitor their processes and keep a journal of their side effects,' says Muttitt.
'This helps to facilitate better communication with their health team and improves intervention. It also prevents some of the progression of the disease, and that's really what's pivotal here.'
The urgency for physicians to move to an online care environment is growing internationally, according to Dare. 'What I often see as I work across Commonwealth countries and the U.S. is that physicians, especially GPs, are feeling a huge pressure to implement a full electronic medical record in their practice,' she says.
Dare concurs with Chris that implementation is expensive, however. It's also a massive undertaking in terms of the technology involved, she adds, as it also changes physician workflows.
'I think the more we in the IT industry and the rest of health care can help physicians find some good first steps, that aren't quite so enormous, it starts us down that path in a very tangible way.'
Key findings of the survey:
- 45 per cent of Americans said they would like to be able to directly e-mail their doctor
'It will develop (in Canada) because it's efficient for patients and for doctors. But it's only efficient if you get paid for it,' says Chris. 'That's something we're a bit behind on: developing remuneration systems consistently with moder"

mark up on drugs

Food for thought And the alternative is to use natural products

The markup
--------------------------------------------

A couple of years ago, the Life Extension Foundation listed the cost of the key ingredients of several best selling prescription drugs. Here's a quick breakdown of just a few:

Prilosec consumer price: $360.97 for 100 20mg tabs. The active ingredient costs a little more than 50 cents per tab. The markup: more than 69,000 percent.

Norvasc consumer price: $188.29 for 100 10mg tabs. The active ingredient costs 14 cents per tab. The markup: more than 134,000 percent.
Prozac consumer price: $247.47 for 100 20mg tabs. The active ingredient costs 11 cents per tab. The markup: nearly 225,000 percent

Of course, there's quite a bit more to drug production than just active ingredients. But even after you consider the cost of research and development, manufacturing, marketing, packaging, legal fees, etc., you're left with an easy-to-understand equation: Consumers pay through the nose while major drug companies make billions in profits each year. "

Healing power of pets

Amazing Healing Power of Pets Bernie S. Siegel, MD


Pets -- cats, dogs, rabbits, horses, birds, etc. -- are good for our health. Pet owners make fewer doctor visits, have shorter hospital stays and take less medication than people who don't own pets. Pets even help prevent and relieve the following medical conditions...
Cardiovascular disease. A researcher at Brooklyn College in New York studied 369 people who had suffered heart attacks. Dog owners were eight times more likely to survive for one year after a heart attack than those who didn't have dogs -- and it wasn't because they were walking their dogs and exercising more. Increased survival rates were based on owning a dog, not on any other physical, psychological or social factors.
High blood pressure. In another study, half of a group of stockbrokers with high blood pressure were instructed to get a cat or dog. Six months later, both groups pretended to have a brief discussion with an angry client who had lost a lot of money in the stock market. On average, those with pets experienced only half the rise in blood pressure as those without pets.
Arthritis. At the Missouri Arthritis Rehabilitation Research and Training Center at University of MissouriColumbia, pets such as dogs are recommended to help patients increase their daily movement -- one of the best ways to manage the disease and minimize disability.
Cancer. At the Mayo Clinic, an oncologist tells many of his new patients to acquire a pet to reduce the devastating emotional impact of a cancer diagnosis.

In one study, Alzheimer's patients at a resident facility ate more and gained weight after aquariums were installed. In another study, patients at a facility had fewer behavioral problems one month after a dog became a resident.

Mind/body connection Petting an animal is soothing to mind, body and spirit. You become focused on loving and being loved. This increases levels of the mood-improving brain chemical serotonin. Interacting with a pet even increases oxytocin, a hormone generated in high levels during pregnancy and lactation. Dozens of animal studies link higher levels of oxytocin with lower blood pressure, lower cortisol (a hormone associated with stress), positive social interaction, increased pain tolerance and faster wound healing.
Pets can even lengthen life. In a study of nursing homes, when pets were part of the program, mortality rates were 25% lower than at facilities that didn't include pets. Dogs also encourage us to exercise. If there's one thing on which every doctor agrees, it's that exercise is good for you. And because pets are such great icebreakers, you're more likely to meet and talk with other people. That extra sociability is beneficial, too.

Frugal living – online - 50Plus.com

Interesting back to basics links QJ
Frugal living – online - 50Plus.com: "Money


Frugal living – online


Article By: Jennifer Gruden

If you've decided to live more simply or frugally, connect with others taking the lesser-travelled path.
If you've chosen – or been forced by circumstance – to live on a tight budget, it can seem like you're swimming against the currents of our consumer-based society. Shopping trips, meals out, and gifts all add up if you're expected to tag along and chip in. And others' tales of their latest vacation or expensive 'toys' can make you feel deprived, even if you truly feel you lack for nothing – or very little.
But take heart. You can find other like-minded individuals. Here are some great sites you can visit for tips, information, and discussion with others taking the same lesser-travelled path. And of course, they're all free (other than the price of connecting to the Internet, of course!)
About.com's frugal living site (http://frugalliving.about.com/), although lacking a guide at the moment, remains a fantastic source of ideas, links, and articles. I particularly like the inspiration section, and the monthly shopping guides are very helpful, cataloguing what's likely to be on sale – and what's likely to be expensive. There is an active forum available at the site, but visitors may find it to be a little difficult to use. Quote from the site keep savers on track: “Having a clear goal in mind is half the battle, no matter what it is. You can't get 'there' without knowing where 'there' is.”
The Simple Living Network (http://www.simpleliving.net/) has been an online resource for 11 years, and it shows. Based largely on the philosophies outlined "

Elder-care Planning

Elder-care Planning: "Elder-care Planning
Steps to Take Now Before a Health Crisis

Susan Beerman, MSW
Barrister Advisory Services
Judith Rappaport-Musson, CSA
Preferred Client Services, Inc.

Special from Bottom Line/Retirement


lthough much of life is unpredictable, most of us work hard to prepare for what might happen. We install smoke alarms, click seat belts and stock up on cough syrup... because you never know.
The same sense of cautious anticipation characterizes the ablest caregivers. Applying common sense and foresight, those who look out for the elderly can plan for some of the crises that are common in old age.
As experienced geriatric care managers, we are frequently called in as alarm bells are ringing. Time and again, we wish clients caring for the aged had recognized the likelihood of certain events and prepared for them to the best of their ability. Even making on-the-spot decisions, we’ve found, is less stressful when the way is paved with research.



The secret to successful caregiving comes down to organization and planning. To prevent some emergencies and reduce the shock of others, imagine what might happen -- and be ready. All-too-common scenarios... Elder-care Planning
Steps to Take Now Before a Health Crisis

Bloodless Surgery

Medical innovations that work!

When my brother had major surgery a number of years ago, a significant decision prior to the surgery was whether or not to donate some of his own blood for fear of needing a transfusion. But what if that extra blood wasn't a necessary part of the equation? What if new surgical techniques, new equipment and a better understanding of the body's reliance on hemoglobin meant that many surgeries -- especially elective surgeries -- no longer required transfusions of donated blood? Sound unrealistic? Guess again. The truth is, bloodless surgery is a reality that's gaining popularity among surgeons and patients alike. And its definitely something you need to know about.

HOW IT WORKS
Technology has paved the way for bloodless surgery -- it simply wouldn't be an option without some of the cutting-edge instruments and surgical techniques currently available. This includes minimally invasive surgeries such as extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy, which uses high-energy sound waves to break up kidney stones. Bloodless surgery also may involve groundbreaking new scalpels like the harmonic scalpel (using ultrasound waves) and microwave-coagulating scalpel, which seal bleeding blood vessels as they cut... cryosurgery, which freezes (and thus destroys) the tissue that would normally be cut out... the gamma knife, which uses precision radiation to destroy tumors or abnormal vessels... and relatively new "cell saver" machines that collect the small amount of blood lost during these surgeries or after, clean it and return it to the patient.These technologies are so efficient that, according to Patricia A. Ford, MD, medical director of The Center for Bloodless Medicine and Surgery at Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia, even complex surgeries can now be done without transfused blood. "More complex surgeries can be performed, such as open heart surgeries, liver transplants, even orthopedic procedures, which are normally quite bloody," she explains. "We've not yet encountered any particular type of elective surgery that cannot use these technologies." (Note the word "elective," however. Even Dr. Ford says that, in acute trauma situations, blood transfusions may be the only life-saving options available.)

BACKERS OF BLOODLESS
Bloodless surgery isn't exactly new, as the techniques and related technologies have been used and developed for more than a decade, partly for the benefit of Jehovah's Witnesses, whose religious beliefs prevent them from accepting blood transfusions. But there are other groups who support the development of bloodless surgery, as well. "There are individuals who will decline transfusions for various reasons," explains Dr. Ford. "including the fear of infection and other complications. But doctors also request bloodless surgery for their patients, because they recognize there's still a risk associated with transfusions and they want to be able to offer their patients alternatives."Another reason bloodless surgery is vital is the shortage of donated blood. The American Red Cross, for example, faces an increasing number of blood-supply shortages each year as the whole population lives longer and more elective and necessary surgeries are performed. "They suspect that, within the next 10 or so years, we're not going to be able to meet the needs of our population for elective procedures," says Dr. Ford. "These blood products are becoming increasingly unavailable." And bloodless surgery provides a solution to the shortage so that necessary surgeries that may call for donated blood can still be done, with minimal impact on overall blood supply

FEW RISKS -- AND BIG SAVINGS"
Personally, I think there are very few risks with bloodless surgery," says Dr. Ford. The biggest risk, obviously, is blood loss. But healthy adults can usually lose up to 20% of their normal blood volume without suffering permanent damage to vital organs, and the technology mentioned above minimizes the risk of massive bleeds. Still, the risk of excessive bleeding is something to consider and talk to a surgeon about -- Are you willing to receive a transfusion if the need arises? Fortunately, such complications are rare. When Dr. Ford compared bloodless surgery patients to those who received traditional surgery, she found that the bloodless surgery patients not only didn't have an increased mortality risk, but they actually had shorter stays in the hospital. The bloodless procedures even reduced the overall costs associated with surgery, which isn't hard to understand as the per-unit cost of blood often hovers between $200 and $500. While there is a cost to the equipment, and likely to training, you don't need a special surgeon -- any surgeon can use the equipment -- so the costs are not ongoing. So, overall, and especially over time, there is a savings due to the shorter hospital stays and less blood use. "Hospital administrators are increasingly interested in this," says Dr. Ford. "Many hospitals have a $2 million or $3 million budget for blood... even a 10% reduction in blood use can really have a significant impact."

WORK TO BE DONE
Solid research -- including significant large-scale clinical trials -- into each of the various forms of bloodless surgery has yet to be conducted or evaluated, says Dr. Ford. She admits that it's the next step proponents of bloodless surgery need to take, if they hope to further promote their blood-saving methodologies. "There are over 120 bloodless surgery centers across the country that have been operating independently," she explains. "We need to pool our data and information and publish the results if we want to change the standard of care." That work is underway -- and the face of surgery is changing.

If you're interested in bloodless surgery and want to find a hospital near you, visit the Society for the Advancement of Blood Management Web site at www.sabm.org... and, talk to your doctor about your surgery options.

Rising Health costs

"What's Behind the Rise in Health Care Costs?

Americans are more than aware of the critical flaws in the system. Canadians should be as well. How informed are you? Indifferent-You will only become aware when you need it and then it will be too late. Pre-emptive health is a solid alternative QJ

What's Behind the Rise in
Health Care Costs?

A recent article in The Wall Street Journal caught my eye: "Health-Care Premiums Rise 7.7%, Outpacing Wages and Inflation" -- that's more than double the rate of inflation. And, frighteningly, the rise in health care costs is actually low compared with the fact that insurance costs have been averaging double or triple inflation for several years. I know the debate over rising health care has been a hot topic in Washington, DC, for years, but thought Charles B. Inlander, founder of the People's Medical Society, could further shed some light on the problem.

How did we get to this point and what can we do about it? Inlander offered an explanation and -- even though this is a complicated situation with no easy solutions -- a few coping tips that we can use as individuals to rein in our own runaway costs.

A HEALTH CARE SYSTEM IN DISARRAY

The numbers are grim. The US spends twice as much money per capita on medical care as any other industrialized country, yet we tend to have worse results with infant mortality, disease-free life expectancy, cancer rates, hospital infections, drug errors and many other health care measurements. We spend more, and we get less. This is because of rampant waste and inefficiency in our health care system, says Inlander.

According to a survey conducted by the The Commonwealth Fund (www.cmwf.org), a private foundation that supports independent research on health care issues, Americans are more than aware of the critical flaws in the system. Three out of four adults said that the health care system "needs either fundamental change or complete rebuilding." More than one third of respondents reported that they had received poorly coordinated, inefficient or unsafe care at some time during the past two years. This included unnecessary treatments, duplicate tests, drug or lab test errors and failure to provide test results or other important medical information.

NUMBER OF UNINSURED AMERICANS AT AN ALL-TIME HIGH

Sad to say, the problem is getting worse, not better. Employers are reacting to rocketing health care costs by reducing or dropping health care benefits for workers, adding to the growing ranks of the uninsured. The percentage of moderate-income Americans who lack health insurance for at least part of one year rose from 28% in 2001 to 41% in 2005... more than half of Americans with incomes of less than $20,000 a year have reported being uninsured for some or all of 2005. Many of the uninsured are children, with their numbers rising from 7.9 million in 2004 to 8.3 million in 2005. People without insurance are less likely to have a regular doctor or get important screening tests such as mammograms. According to the Institute of Medicine, approximately 18,000 Americans die prematurely each year because they have no health insurance.

This is why Inlander feels we're eventually going to end up with national health insurance. But is national health insurance the solution? Would offloading the expense of medical care to the government address the inefficiencies in the system? Or would this just guarantee payment for them? Whatever the future holds, here's what you can do now.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

While the politicians bicker about how to fix the rising health care costs, there are steps that we can take as individuals to keep a lid on our own medical expenses. Inlander recommends the following...

Use generic prescription drugs, which have been on the market longer. Not only are these less expensive, they are equally effective as brand name drugs and have a longer track record for safety.

Negotiate fees. Don't assume you have to pay the posted fees. Many physicians will be flexible depending on your circumstances, and may waive fees for repeat visits. For example, if your physician tells you to come back in for a blood pressure check or to examine your child's ears after an infection, say you're not coming back if you get charged again.

Shop around for the most economical health care plan that fits the needs of your family. You can learn more about how to choose a health plan at Web sites such as www.ahrq.gov/consumer/hlthpln1.htm and www.covertheuninsured.org.
Daily Health News contributing editor Andrew L. Rubman, ND, recommends that his patients focus on another important aspect of "beating health care costs" -- stay healthy through a focus on creating wellness in their lives. Whereas the mainstream medical community is geared toward symptom suppression through pharmacy, naturopathic practitioners work with patients to maximize their body's function and help it avoid disease... and in turn this reduces unnecessary health care costs. Whether or not your insurance company covers these visits, you may well find a better return on your investment with an ND. (natural doctor)

For the love of dogs - 50Plus.com

For the love of dogs - 50Plus.com: "For the love of dogs


Article By: Cynthia Ross Cravit

A new UK study shows what many dog lovers already know: owning a dog is good for you.
The joy of companionship is only one benefit of dog ownership.
Yet another study has shown that dog owners are generally healthier than non-pet owners. Having a dog in the family can lower your blood pressure and cholesterol. It can also prevent you from becoming ill and help you recover more quickly when you do.
And dogs can even warn of cancer, heart attack, epileptic seizures and hypoglycemia, says Dr. Deborah Wells a senior lecturer from the Canine Behaviour Centre of Queens University in Northern Ireland.
Dr. Wells, whose study was published in the British Journal of Health Psychology, reviewed research papers that explore the link between dog ownership and human well-being. She also reviewed research on a dog's effect on a person's psychological health, including the therapeutic role of dogs in helping the disabled and people in hospitals, prisons and residential homes.
An Israeli study reported it was likely that animal companions helped people with schizophrenia feel motivated and calmer. And another UK study suggested that canine companionship aided children with chronic illnesses endure painful treatments.
A study conducted back in 1985 found that dog owners had a higher one year survival rate after a heart attack compared to people who did not have a dog.
A buffer for stress
What is it about dog ownership that makes us healthier? Dr. Wells says it's because the human-dog bond helps to reduce stress – a well-known cause of illness – and promotes general well-being. Owning a dog leads to increased physical activity and can facilitate increased social contact, both of which"

Tax Relief for Canadian Seniors

Tax Relief for Canadian Seniors: "Tax Relief for Canadian Seniors
Canada’s New Government recently proposed a Tax Fairness Plan that would deliver over one billion dollars of new tax relief annually for Canadians. The Plan, which increases the Age Credit Amount and allows income splitting for pensioners, builds on the $20 billion of tax reductions provided for individuals in Budget 2006 and will significantly enhance the incentives to save and invest for family retirement security."

A smile is good medicine

A smile is good for your soul and laughter is very good medicine 6

Quick facts about us :
The e-mail address for inquires on "Back to Eden" wellness communities is. Backtoeden@dependmail.com. The Ridgetown location address is 23 Richard Street. Phone 519-674-3434

“New Beginnings” is a Care facility that is over 8000 square feet in size, fully client appointed with a qualified staff and a strong reputation as a quality service provider in the Chatham/Kent region. Our present resident mix is 10 with the potential for a further 8. We market our care facilities under the "Back to Eden" umbrella brand name. The location name is "New Beginnings."

Humor New words in your work space or place contributed by S.Holle
1. BLAMESTORMING
Sitting around in a group, discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed, and who was responsible.

2.SEAGULL MANAGER: A manager, who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on everything, and then leaves.

3.ASSMOSIS: The process by which some people seem to absorb success and advancement by kissing up to the boss rather than working hard

4.SALMON DAY: The experience of spending an entire day swimming upstream only to get screwed and die in the end.

5. CUBE FARM : An office filled with cubicles.

6.PRAIRIE DOGGING : When someone yells or drops something loudly in a cube farm, and people's heads pop up over the walls to see what's going on.

7. MOUSE POTATO : The on-line, wired generation's answer to the couch potato.

8.SITCOMs: Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage. What Yuppies get into when they have children and one of them stops working to stay home with the kids.

9.STRESS PUPPY: A person who seems to thrive on being stressed out and whiny. WOOFS: Well-Off Older Folks. POOFS Poor-off older folks.

10.SWIPEOUT: An ATM or credit card that has been rendered useless because magnetic strip is worn away from extensive use.

11.XEROX SUBSIDY: Euphemism for swiping free photocopies from one's workplace.

12.IRRITAINMENT: Entertainment and media spectacles that are Annoying but you find yourself unable to stop watching them.

13. PERCUSSIVE MAINTENANCE: The fine art of whacking the crap out of an electronic device to get it to work again.

14. ADMINISPHERE : The rarefied organizational layers beginning just above the rank and file. Decisions that fall from the adminisphere are often profoundly inappropriate or irrelevant to the problems they were designed to solve.

15.404: Someone who's clueless. From the World Wide Web error Message "404 Not Found," meaning that the requested site could not be located.

16. GENERICA : Features of the American landscape that are exactly the same no matter where one is, such as fast food joints, strip malls, and subdivisions.

17.OHNOSECOND: That minuscule fraction of time in which you realize that you've just made a BIG mistake. (Like after hitting send on an email by mistake).

18. CROP DUSTING: Surreptitiously passing gas while passing through a Cube Farm.

Lessons or the Moral of the story as we see it:

You are in charge of your health, vitality and life

o Be proactive and eventually you will succeed
o We have all experienced the new words in action.
This is particularly true if you need services or work in a government environment
o Have some fun- use the new words to make others accountable to you -point out 404 errors. Make the Adminisphere accountable and get rid of the seagulls through cropdusting. Reduce or avoid blamestorming before it gets started

Back to Eden-New Beginnings (Ridgetown) 23 Richards Street 519-674-3434

We are a community of like minded peers, with an environment that is cozy, caring and comfortable. We are not GENERICA. We are special designed community just for you . We are not institutional.

Community Updates:

1. We endorse the Carp position on No More waiting on Health Care. Be heard join the better health crusade.
2. We have expanded the products in the food member outreach program to include sweet potatoes, hams and fish
3. We have a E-bay account for members who wish to play. ( Our Food for the mind outreach program- a work in progress)
4. We need hands on volunteers!,

Skimaire High Tech

Skimaire High Tech: "Health Policy - Dr. Mike Magee provides education and insight into health policy and current healthcare issues.: 'And lastly, we know that in some circumstances, normal blood stem cells accelerate aging in response to chemotherapy and radiation while the cancer stem cells for some reason are immune.5,6 This means that with each successive treatment, the cancer stem cells may be gaining a competitive advantage. It’s imperative that we gain better understanding of the biologic and clinical consequences of our current therapies and continue to use this knowledge to design new ones.
If there’s anything in this information to ponder, it should be this. One, stem cell biology is critically related to the behavior of human cancers. Two, the eradication of cancer stem cells will be essential to improving survival rates for people with some cancers. Three, it is possible that current approaches to therapy in some cancers may be preferentially benefiting those cancers’ stem cells, which mean future therapies must take this into account. And finally, in the future, just wiping out the bulk of a tumor may not be an adequate measure of success. Rather, we will need to address the core of the problem, which is likely to reside where the cancer stem cells live and thrive.'"

50Plus.com - Alzheimer's breakthrough?

50Plus.com - Alzheimer's breakthrough?: "Alzheimer's breakthrough?

Article By: Cynthia Ross Cravit

A Canadian-led research team has found a defective gene that could lead to tests to identify people at risk of Alzheimer's disease and drug therapies to protect them.
Discovery of a defective gene may help scientists develop tests to identify people at greatest risk of Alzheimer's disease and tailor-made drug therapies to help them.
'It's another clue to the way in which this disease comes about, another piece of the puzzle,' Dr. Peter St. George-Hyslop, director of the centre for research in neurodegenerative diseases at the University of Toronto and co-leader of the study, told the National Post.
'Every time you get a piece of the puzzle and you can relate it to something else in the puzzle, you're that much closer to knowing what the picture on the puzzle is,' he added.
The gene, called SORL1, normally directs proteins away from the “forbidden” zones of the brain. It is here that molecular toxin can build up and eventually destroy brain cells in people with Alzheimer’s. Researchers believe that defective copies of the gene are found inside many people who will eventually develop the debilitating neurodegenerative disease.
Currently, about 435,000 Canadians have Alzheimer's and other related dementias. The disease, which has no cure, is expected to impact more people as the population ages. According to the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, an estimated 750,000 Canadians will have Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia by 2031. "

Many doctors stay mum on controversial care: study - Yahoo! News

Many doctors stay mum on controversial care: study - Yahoo! News: "Many doctors stay mum on controversial care: study By Gene Emery
Wed Feb 7, 5:05 PM ET


BOSTON (Reuters) - Do not always expect straight talk from your doctor about treatments he or she disapproves of -- 14 percent of physicians believe it is acceptable to withhold information about topics such as birth control, abortion and sedating dying patients, according to a study published on Wednesday.
In addition, 29 percent feel no obligation to tell patients where they can go to get that care.
Most of the 1,144 U.S. doctors who responded to the poll, accord to a report in the New England Journal of Medicine, supported full disclosure and referral to another health care provider if they had moral objections to a treatment or procedure.
'If physicians' ideas translate into their practices, then 14 percent of patients -- more than 40 million Americans -- may be cared for by physicians who do not believe they are obligated to disclose information about medically available treatments they consider objectionable,' Dr. Farr Curlin of the University of Chicago and colleagues wrote.
'In addition, 29 percent of patients -- or nearly 100 million Americans -- may be cared for by physicians who do not believe they have an obligation to refer the patient to another provider for such treatments.'
Men, Christian doctors and physicians with the strongest religious beliefs were most likely to say it is permissible to withhold information and not help a patient find another source of controversial care.
The findings mean that 'if you anticipate wanting access to an area of medical treatment that may be controversial, you might want to have a frank conversation with your physician up front,' Curlin said in a telephone interview.
"

winnipegsun.com - Editorial - Truth and lies on wait times

winnipegsun.com - Editorial - Truth and lies on wait times: "Reducing wait times for five designated medical procedures used to be the biggest issue in Canada.
That was before global warming became the black hole down which all other issues have disappeared.
During last year's federal election, Prime Minister Stephen Harper promised patients a 'wait-times guarantee' if elected.
So far, he hasn't delivered.
In 2004, then-Liberal prime minister Paul Martin gave the provinces $41 billion over 10 years to 'fix health care for a generation,' including $4.5 billion over six years to reduce wait times for five procedures.

These are cancer treatment, cardiac care, cataract surgery, hip and knee replacements and MRIs and CT scans.
Ever since, there's been controversy over how much wait times have come down. "

another broken health promise

Why not use old match ie total number is those hired , less those that have left nursing QJ Sadly we are becoming more immune to the Government Bovine Brazil or BS syndrome - more talk , more regulations and useless rules , using more money and of course yeilding less when measured against standards and normal expected results

Osprey Media. - Brantford Expositor: "Less than meets the eye in hiring of nurses

James Wallace
Queens Park - Monday, January 29, 2007

Ontario's health care woes over the past few years have grown painfully,
nakedly obvious for everyone to see.
Our emergency rooms, as a Canadian Institute for Health Information
report confirmed this week, are overwhelmed and cope by subjecting
patients to long, even extraordinary wait times, often three to nine
hours.
Just half of all patients are treated within the four-hour standard the
Ontario Medical Association and Ontario Hospital Association would like
to see.
This hardly comes as a surprise.
Doctors in Brantford, St. Thomas, Guelph and Waterloo region created a
website a couple of years ago to record emergency room horror stories
because they knew patients were leaving crowded emergency rooms and
dying.
Among the litany of contributing problems are the doctor shortage, a bed
shortage and funding complaints but a key and often unaddressed
contributor to hospital and emergency room wait times is Ontario's
nursing shortage. "

$110 per affordable unit for seniors

Love the affordability factor and with public money - was there a tender?
Osprey Media. - Brantford Expositor: "Contract let for John Noble Home project

By Michael-Alan Marion
Local News - Saturday, January 27, 2007 Updated @ 10:41:37 PM

It’s full speed ahead for a $3-million affordable housing project at John Noble Home.

Meanwhile, the long-term care home’s administration is already gearing up for another $2-million project to upgrade a wing to new provincial standards.

Council has awarded a tender of nearly $2.4 million to Brouwer Construction (1981) Ltd. of St. Catharines to convert an old wing of the Mount Pleasant Street facility for 28 affordable apartment units for seniors.

The units would be rented by spouses of patients in long-term care in the home, so they can be close to their loved ones.

Included in the project are upgrades to certain associated rooms.

The total project cost is nearly $3.1 million, including renovations in associated areas of the building. The city's share is $2.2 million, Brant County’s is $862,000.

About $1.2 million in bequests and funding from government programs has been raised for the project.
The rest of the cost will be financed by a joint debenture of about $2 million to be taken out by the city and Brant County. The city’s share is $1.55 million, with the county backing the rest.

The debenture will be repaid by future rents in the operating budget.

“It’s great news that it’s through,” Coun. Jennifer Kinneman, chairwoman of John Noble’s board of management said Friday. “They’ll be able to move along now.”

Kinneman said she was heartened that council saw fit to approv"

50Plus.com - Boost brainpower in the workplace

some interesting ideas to reuce the brain drain QJ
50Plus.com - Boost brainpower in the workplace: "Boost brainpower in the workplace

Article By: Cynthia Ross Cravit

Workers who try to balance phone calls, emails and text messages suffer a greater loss of IQ than a person smoking marijuana, says a British study.
Cell phones, BlackBerries, and PCs have us juggling phone calls, pages, emails and text messages in an era where multitasking is a given. But what about the quality of the actual work? Is the daily office balancing act making us less productive?"

Attention Cyber Seniors - Check Your Government Benefits Online

Attention Cyber Seniors - Check Your Government Benefits Online: "Attention Cyber Seniors - Check Your Government Benefits Online




Seniors who are switched on, hooked up and connected can hop on the Service Canada Web site these days and get an excellent snapshot of their benefits without ever having to leave the comforts of home. The federal government has information about most of its programs and services on-line, including the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and Old Age Security (OAS), and Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS). "

HMO fitness program may lower health care costs - Yahoo! News

Elder fitness programs makes sense QJ

HMO fitness program may lower health care costs - Yahoo! News: "By Charnicia Huggins
Mon Jan 15, 4:45 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Offering seniors with diabetes the opportunity to participate in a subsidized community-based exercise program may help lower health care costs, if the seniors attend the fitness classes regularly, preliminary study findings suggest.

'These findings warrant additional investigations to determine whether policies to offer and promote a community-based physical activity benefit in older adults with diabetes can reduce health care costs,' conclude Dr. Huong Q. Nguyen, of the University of Washington, in Seattle, Washington, and colleagues.
According to previous research, nearly one in five Medicare recipients have diabetes, and diabetes-related health care costs account for about a third of total Medicare expenditures.

The benefits of exercise, particularly important for diabetics, who are at risk of having more functional disability, include reduced health care costs and better physical functioning. Yet, few seniors report participating in regular, moderate-intensity physical activity.

Observational data suggest that health care costs can be greatly reduced among a previously sedentary older adult who engages in moderate physical activity three days a week or more. Nguyen and colleagues investigated whether a physical exercise program offered to seniors as part of their Medicare benefit would also reduce health care costs and utilization."

Q-jumpers: Osprey Media. - Brantford Expositor

Q-jumpers: Osprey Media. - Brantford Expositor

Osprey Media. - Brantford Expositor

wonderful- more money to receive less services . maybe there will be less wanking and some client action-it certainly feels like an election is in the air -a new election piggy is born QJ

Osprey Media. - Brantford Expositor: "Health agency gets $4.5M; Local office will co-ordinate services for broad area

Gamble, Susan
Local News - Friday, January 12, 2007 Updated @ 9:54:37 AM

Substantial new money to help the local Community Care Access Centre was announced Thursday as the agency also celebrated a new role in the health system.

MPP Dave Levac said the province is providing $4.5 million for baseline services and to help the agency which has just become the headquarters for all the CCACs in this area develop a consistent service. "

50Plus.com - Is bottled water better than tap?

50Plus.com - Is bottled water better than tap?: "Health


Is bottled water better than tap?


Article By: Jennifer Gruden

Bottled water is a multi-billion dollar business – but is it really better for you?
Tap water in Canada is a bargain – across the country, the average price is $1.14 per 1000 litres of water. Yet bottled water, which often costs more than $1.14 for a single litre, is a multi-billion dollar business in North America. Companies like Coca-Cola (Dasani) and Pepsi (Aquafina) are counting on consumers to choose their product at the store. Is bottled water really better for you? "

Stress-free strategies for your home office

Stress-free strategies for your home office: "Stress-free strategies for your home office
Create a balance between work and play
By Cheryl Embrett

E-mail this to a friend Printer-friendly version
While working from home has its benefits — flexible hours and an escape from office politics for starters — it's no guarantee against stress. In fact, it can be more stressful to work at home than to work in a structured environment because you have so many competing demands and responsibilities, says Jane Bal, a stress management counselor at Don Mills Counselling and Consulting Centre in Don Mills, Ont.
While a certain amount of stress can make you more productive, too much can have a negative effect on your work — and your health. 'You want to create that balance in your home office of productivity and calm,' says Estelle Gee, the owner of Orderly Lives, a professional organizing service for the home and office, based in Toronto.
Microsoft Home Magazine asked design, organizational and stress experts, as well as women who work at home, for their best stress-free strategies."

50Plus.com - The REIT stuff

50Plus.com - The REIT stuff: "The REIT stuff
Article By: Gordon Pape

Real estate investment trusts (REITs) have been exempted from the proposed new income trust tax. Gordon Pape has found a mutual fund that specializes in them.
When Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced his new income trust tax, he allowed for one exception: real estate investment trusts, better known as REITs. He did not offer any rationale for giving REITs a pass, but it appears he was following the U.S. precedent where the sector was also given an exemption when that country cracked down on the trust phenomenon in the 1980s.
Assuming Mr. Flaherty doesn't change his mind later (which is unlikely) this means that income-seeking investors should seriously consider adding a REIT fund to their portfolio. The problem is that the choice is extremely limited, at least right now. That could change in the future, of course."

Macleans.ca | Top Stories | Health | A nasty battle at the old age home

Elder Institutionalism at its worst. Loving care sounds good but how do you deliver it? QJ
Macleans.ca Top Stories Health A nasty battle at the old age home: "A nasty battle at the old age home
How did a small dispute at a respectable seniors' home escalate into this?
JONATHON GATEHOUSE
If pictures tell the story, Gerald Bargman's had a horrible ending. Photos from his final weeks show him propped up in a hospital bed, his arms covered with painful-looking sores, and body so shockingly wizened that you can see each rib, tendon and bone. By the time he died at the age of 63 on July 23, 2005, Bargman's six-foot-two frame had shrunk from 170 to well under 90 lb. He was essentially a skeleton with skin.
The list of ailments that landed him in intensive care at a Toronto hospital is long -- pneumonia, respiratory failure, Crohn's disease, sepsis, an antibiotic-resistant infection -- although it catalogues only a fraction of his medical problems. But it is diagnosis number seven on his final medical report -- malnutrition -- that his loved ones have seized upon. Proof, they say, of their allegation that one of Canada's most respected centres for geriatric care, Baycrest, let a patient starve to death in order to get back at a family that complained too loud, and too often. 'It was due to negligence. It was due to neglect. It was cruel,' says Carol Bargman, Gerald's sister. Depressed and isolated because administrators had restricted his son Allen's visiting privileges following a series of altercations with staff, Gerald Bargman wasted away. And Baycrest, the family alleges, did little to stop it. 'At the end, he looked like he'd just come out of the concentration camps,' says Carol. 'He was like a poster boy for Auschwitz.' "

The End of Medicine: How Silicon Valley (and Naked Mice) Will Reboot Your Doctor by Andy Kessler

Ecellent preview of the future of medicine
The End of Medicine: How Silicon Valley (and Naked Mice) Will Reboot Your Doctor by Andy Kessler: "

The End of Medicine
How Silicon Valley (and Naked Mice) Will Reboot Your Doctor By Andy Kessler

You get sick; you go to your doctor. Too bad. Because medicine isn't an industry, it's practically witchcraft. Despite the growth of big pharma, HMOs, and hospital chains, medicine remains the isolated work of individual doctors—and the system is going broke fast.
So why is Andy Kessler—the man who told you outrageous stories of Wall Street analysts gone bad in Wall Street Meat and tales from inside a hedge fund in Running Money—poking around medicine for the next big wave of technology?
It's because he smells change coming. Heart attacks, strokes, and cancer are a huge chunk of medical spending, yet there's surprisingly little effort to detect disease before it's life threatening. How lame is that—especially since the technology exists today to create computer-generated maps of your heart and colon?
Because it's too expensive—for now. But Silicon Valley has turned computing, telecom, finance, music, and media upside down by taking expensive new technologies and making them ridiculously cheap. So why not the $1.8 trillion health care business, where the easiest way to save money is to stop folks from getting sick in the first place?
Join Kessler's bizarre search for the next big breakthrough as he tries to keep from passing out while following cardiologists around, cracks jokes while reading mammograms, and watches twitching mice get injected with radioactive probes. Looking for a breakthrough, Kessler even selflessly "

winnipegsun.com - Manitoba - NDP stifles choice

The "If you can't beat them in service -buy them out strategy" is bad for freedom of choice. Sad -and with unlimited public funds -a double negative .

winnipegsun.com - Manitoba - NDP stifles choice: "Just when Manitobans were beginning to gain some choice in health care, along comes government's health-care monopoly to gobble up the competition.
The Maples Surgical Centre, a private clinic that had been providing MRIs and pediatric dental surgery to the public for a fee, inked a deal with the Doer government yesterday that will end private access to those services.
Under the $2.3-million deal, Manitobans will no longer be able to purchase MRI scans or pediatric dental surgeries from the clinic. That choice has been bought out by government.
Maples was charging patients $695 per MRI scan but they were delivering the service within 48 hours.
By contrast, hospitals -- under the government monopoly system -- force patients to wait as long as 10 weeks for elective MRIs"

ProActive Rants: Health waste-really discusting

ProActive Rants: Health waste-really discusting

A useful site for thinking people and adults

Adult Message: Communicate and speak to an audience of educated experienced individuals who want to make the most of their lives.

Eons features a fabulous interactive community of members (think MySpace for Grown-ups), plus they have a number of unique and fun features, including the most detailed Longevity Calculator (http://www.eons.com/body) I've ever seen. Designed by Dr. Tom Perls of the Centenarian Study, the Eons calculator is medically sound and personalized, offering the most relevant changes you can make to improve your quality of life. There is always a great deal of focus on exercising our bodies yet we often neglect to sharpen our minds. Eons also offers unique Brain Builder Games (http://fun.eons.com) to help keep your most important muscle in shape and reduce risk of memory loss. You can actually have fun while keeping your mind sharp!

A useful site for thinking people

Adult Message: Communicate and speak to an audience of educated experienced individuals who want to make the most of their lives.

Eons features a fabulous interactive community of members (think MySpace for Grown-ups), plus they have a number of unique and fun features, including the most detailed Longevity Calculator (http://www.eons.com/body) I've ever seen. Designed by Dr. Tom Perls of the Centenarian Study, the Eons calculator is medically sound and personalized, offering the most relevant changes you can make to improve your quality of life. There is always a great deal of focus on exercising our bodies yet we often neglect to sharpen our minds. Eons also offers unique Brain Builder Games (http://fun.eons.com) to help keep your most important muscle in shape and reduce risk of memory loss. You can actually have fun while keeping your mind sharp!

TOO MUCH SALT -BE PROACTIVE

So what can we do to take more control of our own sodium intake? First, read the labels. Total intake per day of sodium should not exceed 2.3 grams, except for African Americans and the elderly, who should only consume 1.5 grams a day. Any food with a half a gram or more in a portion is probably worth avoiding. Second, watch the restaurants. A single meal often contains 4 grams of sodium. And think twice about that free bread on the table – it’s one of the worst offenders.2 Third, remove the salt shaker from your table at home. Why add insult to injury? Fourth, accept a little pain. Studies show we like the taste of salt and weaning ourselves off it will be noticeable at first. But studies also show that adjusting to the change happens quickly and cravings disappear rapidly. Making the small sacrifice is well worth it. Cutting your sodium intake in half can drop your blood pressure 5 points, and that decreases your risk of death from heart disease by 9% and from stroke by 14%.2

Mathmatical Surgery Model?

Study turning surgery into math model
BALTIMORE (UPI) -- Mathematics is being adapted into the "language of surgery" as U.S. researchers develop models to improve operating room skills.

Johns Hopkins University computer scientists are building mathematical models to represent the safe, effective ways to perform surgery, including suturing, dissecting and joining tissue. The project's goal is to develop a way of objectively evaluating surgeons' work to help improve their skills, researchers said in a release.

The project has already showed promise in modeling suture work. Researchers performed suturing aided by a robotic device that recorded the movements and made them available for computer analysis.

Complex surgical tasks occur in a series of steps resembling the way words, sentences and paragraphs are used to convey language, said Gregory Hager, a computer science professor and principal investigator. The procedures were broken down into simple gestures that could correspond mathematically with computer software.

"Surgery is a skilled activity, and it has a structure that can be taught and acquired," Hager said. "We can think of that structure as 'the language of surgery.' To develop mathematical models for this language, we're borrowing techniques from speech recognition technology and applying them to motion recognition and skills assessment."

Health care to cost $148B in 2006: report : National : News : Sympatico / MSN

so are we getting any valie for the money spent? QC

Health care to cost $148B in 2006: report : National : News : Sympatico / MSN: "Health care to cost $148B in 2006: report
05/12/2006 12:27:47 PM



Canadians will spend an estimated $148 billion for health care by the end of 2006, new projections from the Canadian Institute for Health Information show - an increase of $8 billion over last year.


CBC News
But while health-care spending continues to grow in Canada, the pace of that growth appears to be slowing, according to CIHI's annual report on health care spending trends released Tuesday.
The increase this year over 2005 is about 5.8 per cent. Spending grew about 6.4 per cent from 2004 to 2005, and averaged a 7.8 per cent yearly increase from 2000 to 2004.
'For the 10th consecutive year, health care spending continues to outpace inflation and population growth,' said Graham Scott, CIHI chairman, in a release.
Scott suggested the period of growth could be attributed in part to new public money flowing into heath care from agreements between the federal and provincial governments, but noted spending 'now appears to be growing at a slightly slower rate.'
However, spending in the private sector is growing faster in 2006 than it has for three years, the report suggests, increasing by 6.1 per cent to $44 billion. The $104 billion being spent in the public sphere is an increase of 5.3 per cent.
Per capita health care spending is expected to reach $4,548 - a 4.9 per cent increase over 2005.
Health care spending was highest for infants and seniors, consistent with a trend in which 'the beginning and final years of life are the times when people use health care the most"

elder eating disorders

EATING DISORDER COMMON AMONG ELDERLY

When most people hear the word "anorexia" they picture a young, previously healthy woman who has starved herself into a skeletal state. Seldom, if ever, do people think about an eating disorder among the elderly population. But as new research is coming to light, it shows a definite and growing problem in this group.

A full quarter of nursing home residents refuse to eat and are malnourished. The figure is expected to rise in the near future as the homes become more crowded and staffing becomes even more inadequate. Of course there are a number of psychological reasons why nursing home residents refuse to eat, such as difficulty swallowing or various diseases including dementia that render patients disinterested in food and sometimes unable to eat, or they forget to eat.

But there are also a number of people, previously healthy, who for no apparent reason refuse to eat and so they die. Having watched my own grandmother place herself into a state of dementia due to lack of eating when she was unhappily living far from her children and grandchildren, these statistics took on special meaning for me. David Rissmiller, DO, is the chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-School of Osteopathic Medicine in Stratford, New Jersey. He has been working with this population of older adults who give up food to help them overcome their resistance in order to regain their health. When I spoke with him, he told me that these are rational people who had been previously enjoying a good life. Then suddenly something happens and they need to go into a nursing home. For sometimes unexplained reasons, they refuse to eat and this starts a horrible downward cycle. Dr. Rissmiller explained that "passive self-harm from not eating is one of the major risk factors for death in nursing home patients."

When a person rapidly loses 5% of his/her body weight, it begins to affect protein stores... a rapid loss of 10% of body weight can make a person lose the ability to fight infections or heal wounds. One reason the problem of starvation in the elderly has remained hidden is because death certificates do not list the cause as starvation but rather the event that was actually a result of malnutrition. Also malnourished individuals lack the ability to utilize, react appropriately to, and successfully metabolize medications, which makes treatment with conventional means even more difficult. WHO BECOMES ANOREXIC? While many elderly people stop eating because of depression, there is traumatic event that has to do with food. This generally has three aspects to it, he says. It happens in people who tend toward anxiety problems... who are fastidious about their personal habits... and who had a bad reaction to something they ate. Sometimes it is that they choked on a piece of food... other times it was the humiliation they experienced by having an episode of unexpected, uncontrolled vomiting or a sudden onset of fecal incontinence and the resultant mess. At other times they fear a reoccurrence of severe constipation or impaction. Their fear of a repeat event grows and turns into a food phobia, known as sitophobia, that is stronger than their natural impetus to feed their body. If this happens to a person in a nursing home or living on his own, his physical and mental health can deteriorate quickly. Of course this downward failure to thrive frightens family members, but most are frustrated by the fact that there is nothing they can do about it. Sometimes a psychiatrist will misdiagnose depression when the elderly person is really phobic of eating. In such cases, he urges family members to meet with the psychiatrist. He says that often the family can give the history of events that will bring the situation to light because the patient now is either too frightened to remember the incident or too embarrassed to talk about it. Inevitably, he says, once the catalyst event has been identified, the family will recognize that the anorexia started immediately afterward.

OVERCOMING THE FEARS Food phobia is a difficult challenge, says Dr. Rissmiller. It requires reversing patients' nutritional patterns as well as their anxiety about what they perceived as a catastrophic event. In these patients, even the approach of food will be repugnant or cause panic, he adds. It is key at this point for family and staff to take a completely non-judgmental attitude, no tsk-tsking about how the patient "should" be eating. Instead, the patient and his/her doctors should explore the details of the event, including what the patient was eating at the time, where it took place, etc. Doctors should give reassurance that this kind of thing isn't uncommon and there is no need to feel humiliated so they can begin to build positive experiences with food. Working with a nutritionist, they begin to introduce foods that are safe -- the last thing a patient needs at this point is another bad experience -- and so they have him start with ice chips or perhaps a little yogurt (as well as nutritional supplements). Many patients also take low-dose medications that enhance appetite while decreasing anxiety. Dr. Rissmiller has found that about one-third of the sitophobic elderly patients he has worked with resumed eating and recovered their health. Others are more recalcitrant and require further work, but he says that he and his staff continue to explore ways to resolve this problem. The first step, though, remains: to recognize anorexia in a formerly healthy person for what it is.

winnipegsun.com - Editorial - Weak supports for the mentally ill

winnipegsun.com - Editorial - Weak supports for the mentally ill: "Nice theory. It failed.
A report released last week by the Canadian Institute for Health Information produced stats showing not all that much has changed from the old days.
Disturbingly, patients diagnosed with mental illness today account for 30% of all stays in general hospitals.
While only 15% of all patients admitted to hospitals are diagnosed with a mental illness as the primary or secondary problem, their hospitals stays are, on average, more than twice as long as those with other conditions.
Almost four in 10 of these patients (37%) will, after being treated and discharged, be re-admitted to hospital within a year -- well above the 27% rate for other patients.
The cost to society are huge. Eighty-five per cent of people with a mental illness are unemployed. Twenty per cent are addicted to alcohol and/or drugs. And perhaps the greatest tragedy, two-thirds of all people in need of psychiatric treatment never seek it for fear of being stigmatized.
Two things need to change if this revolving-door syndrome is ever to end.
First, we must accept that mental illness is a disease that can strike anyone, not just piously say it.
Second, if we want to end this vicious cycle, politicians must admit that while caring for people in their communities will eventually cost less when they have the proper supports in place, getting there will cost more money not less.
That's because we need to maintain the current hospital system while getting these needed supports in place.
Any competent health minister knows this.
Far too many aren't even talking about it. "

Osprey Media. - Brantford Expositor

Osprey Media. - Brantford Expositor: "Health network hits milestone

Susan Gamble
Local News - Saturday, December 02, 2006 Updated @ 11:41:50 PM

The local health network hit its first milestone this week with the release of a health service plan that outlines strategies for the next three years.

The extensive document sets out the priorities and activities for the network based on hundreds of interviews and meetings with health-care providers and users in this area.

Set up in the spring, the 14 Local Health Integration Networks in Ontario are designed to oversee the lion’s share of the province’s health-care budget.

The network doesn’t provide services but plans and funds services based on the needs of people and providers in each community.

This area is part of the Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant LHIN, which has set up offices in Grimsby. The network takes in the entire Niagara peninsula and stretches into Halton, west past Burford, south from St. Williams to Fort Erie and includes all of Hamilton.

The most important part of the plan so far, says the chair of the LHIN board, has been getting out and meeting the public through a series of open houses across the region."

winnipegsun.com - Manitoba - Unhealthy trend

winnipegsun.com - Manitoba - Unhealthy trend: "One of the problems is some provinces still don't keep accurate data on certain wait times. As a result, some provinces -- including Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia -- were not graded in two or three of the five priority areas.
Nevertheless, the report did manage to give out 37 of 50 possible grades. Manitoba was graded in all five areas and overall, we didn't do well.
B.C. scores three A's
By contrast, British Columbia got three A's, one C and an incomplete.
Newfoundland got four A's and an incomplete.
Ontario got an A, one B and three Cs.
Alberta got an A, B, C, D and an incomplete.
And Quebec got two A's, one B and two incompletes.
Only Manitoba, Prince Edward Island and Saskatchewan got Fs in any category.
Meanwhile, the alliance report wasn't the only recent bad news for wait times in Manitoba.
The Fraser Institute's latest report on health care wait times shows the median wait time between seeing a specialist and receiving treatment in Manitoba has grown for the second year in a row to 10.3 weeks.
The median wait time from referral to a specialist and treatment now stands at 18 weeks in Manitoba, slightly above the national average of 17.8 weeks.
It doesn't bode well.
Measuring health-care wait times can be a dodgy game.
Wait times among surgeons in the same city can vary significantly for all kinds of reasons. Hospitals in the same jurisdiction routinely have varying wait times for procedures like MRIs and ultrasounds.
And governments sometimes just don't have good data to accurately measure certain wait times.
However, with the billions we've put into health care over the past few years, you'd think we'd see some signs of significant progress on hospital wait times. But we don"

Getting Organized - Estate Planning

Getting Organized - Estate Planning: "Getting Organized - Estate Planning

What will become of the things you own -- your assets -- when you eventually pass-on? The following list of documents, materials, and instructions will help organize your own thinking and will provide essential information to your survivor(s) or to those who will care for you if you are disabled and unable to act for yourself. There are six broad categories of materials to organize.
Personal Contacts List
This should include, for example, the name, address, and phone number of your spouse, any prior spouse(s), children, relatives, close friends, etc. If you store contact lists electronically, a readily available paper copy should also include your e-mail and other accounts with their passwords.
Professional Contacts
This should include, for example, the name, address, and phone of your lawyer, employer, accountant, insurance agent, broker, etc.
Funeral, Cremation and Burial Arrangements
This should include a clear statement of your wishes for your funeral and burial or cremation. If you have made prior arrangements, have burial insurance, etc. this should also be noted. It is important that your family or other loved ones know what your intentions are with regard to your funeral, burial, or cremation. You should either discuss your wishes with them or tell them where they may find a statement of your wishes at your death. It is not advisable to put the statement of your wishes in your will or safe deposit box because the statement or will may be found too late for your wishes to be honored.
Lists of Assets and Liabilities
This should include, for example, a precise list of all your bank accounts, stock brokerage accounts, insurance policies, "

Health Records of the Future: Why ‘lifespan planning’ may be the best approach

Health Records of the Future: Why ‘lifespan planning’ may be the best approach: "better health care system -- one that permits us to feel connected, supported, and in control of our own health destiny -- two words come to mind: information and planning.
The more information we have about our own health history and genetic profile, the smarter we can be about making health decisions and planning our health future.
This requires a constantly available “record” of our changing health status.
But if you switch doctors or go to a hospital for surgery, you’ll find that our nation’s health records are not even close to this ideal. They are splintered and poorly organized at best.
To their credit, doctors and hospitals have been trying to create a coordinated system of electronic records – but it falls far short of what we need.
The real key to our health information future, one I will describe in just a moment, is a concept called a “Lifespan Planning Record.” This computer-based and integrated model would provide a holistic view of your health – stretching all the way back to your ancestors and projecting far forward into your future – so you will know what you can anticipate as your body ages."

Naturopathic physician

"Naturopathic Physicians Defined
A question I'm often asked by readers is why I interview naturopathic physicians (NDs) for articles instead of 'real doctors.' The short answer is because they have the specialized training to know about things like herbal remedies and nutritional supplementation. But the issue is more complicated. What is clear to me is that there is much confusion about exactly what a naturopathic physician is... what his/her education is... and what role he/she could or should play in the individual's health-care team. To get clarification on the ND's role and practice, I spoke with Jane Guiltinan, ND, president of the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians.
A NATUROPATH'S EDUCATION
In North America, there are five naturopathic medicine programs currently accredited by The Council on Naturopathic Medical Education (CNME), and one naturopathic program that is a candidate for accreditation by the CNME. Candidates for admission must earn a baccalaureate degree (or equivalent) prior to admission, including standard pre-med training. The ND degree is a doctoral degree and typically takes four years to complete, just like an MD.
There are many similarities between the naturopathic and conventional medical school curriculum. The first two years of both curriculums involve basic science courses -- anatomy, pathology, physiology, biochemistry, and other Western medical sciences. In addition, naturopathic philosophy courses expose students to:

The first two years of both curriculums involve basic science courses -- anatomy, pathology, physiology, biochemistry, and other Western medical sciences. In addition, naturopathic philosophy courses expose students to the concepts and principles and practices of natural medicine, said Dr. Guiltinan. These include nutrition, homeopathy, botanical medicine, acupuncture and a variety of mind-body approaches.
During the third and fourth years, there's a mix of classroom courses such as gynecology, pediatrics and rheumatology, plus approximately 1,200 hours of clinical training under the supervision of licensed naturopathic physicians. In this phase of training, naturopathy students observe and help manage patients in an outpatient setting.

THE NATUROPATH'S ROLE
Think of the ND as the equivalent of a family practice physician, said Dr. Guiltinan. Naturopaths provide excellent primary health care for individuals and families. Like the conventional general practitioner with an MD, an ND will assess your health and direct your treatment, either by treating you directly or by referral to other mainstream or natural care specialists such as chiropractors, acupuncturists, nutritionists or specialists in homeopathy, to name a few.
In Dr. Guiltinan's view, conventional physicians and naturopaths are most effective at different points in the spectrum of the health-care system. "At one end of the spectrum is crisis medicine," she says "and it's here where I think conventional medicine is excellent. Emergency care intervention, trauma care, serious infections -- this is where conventional medicine excels."
"Where I think conventional medicine has not done its most effective work is in chronic disease management and in conditions that don't really fit into a clear medical box -- chronic fatigue syndrome, for example, fibromyalgia or depression. With these types of conditions, the conventional, technological or pharmaceutical approach is not always effective as it focuses on symptom suppression, rather than the naturopathic process of finding the underlying causes and addressing these to support healing and the creation of health and wellness. This is where naturopathic physicians can play an important role."
THE ND OFFICE VISIT: WHAT TO EXPECT
What is different about a visit to an ND? At your initial visit you'll be asked about your health history and receive a physical exam that is similar to the physical at a conventional medical office. And like a conventional MD, an ND may order lab tests or diagnostic imaging tests. So, what's different?
"You'll find much more in-depth questioning about your current lifestyle," said Dr. Guiltinan. Naturopaths ask about your diet -- at minimum they will ask you to describe it but more likely you'll be asked to complete a diet diary, detailing your food intake for a week or so. We're also very interested in finding out if you exercise or not, and what your mental and emotional state is.
PHILOSOPHY AND TREATMENT
Dr. Guiltinan said that extensive questioning is necessary to get to the underlying issues around a health problem and address them, rather than just addressing the presenting symptoms of a problem.
Because naturopaths believe that the human body has an incredibly powerful ability to heal itself if given the chance, she said, one principle is to take a look at what the "obstacles to cure" are in an individual patients' life. What are obstacles to cure?
Well, sometimes its genetics, which we can do little about, she said, but some obstacles can be removed (for example, eating poorly, being too stressed out with work, exposure to environmental toxins, lack of exercise). If you can add support in the form of a good diet, proper exercise and stress reduction to promote the healing responses of the body, then you can further capitalize on the body's ability to heal.
In naturopathic medicine, most treatment plans, regardless of the condition, begin with diet modifications. The famous quote from Hippocrates, "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food" is a basic tenet of naturopathic treatment. In addition, supplements (vitamins and minerals) may be prescribed. In some cases, NDs will do the nutritional counseling themselves... in other instances that require more sophisticated or specialized care, patients may be referred on to a nutrition specialist.
Other common treatment modalities are homeopathy, botanical medicine, physical medicine and acupuncture and mind/body therapies. Again, depending on the patient's needs, the ND may provide treatment himself or refer the patient on to a specialist. NDs also offer psychological counseling. In this area, Dr. Guiltinan said a big part of her naturopathic practice is preparing patients to make the little and big lifestyle changes that will impact their health. In naturopathic medicine, the patient's participation in his/her own health care is crucial.
HOW CAN I FIND A NATUROPATH IN MY AREA?
To find a qualified, licensed ND in your area, visit the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians Web site, naturopathic.org and click "Find a doctor."
So, to all my readers who wonder "why don't I interview 'real doctors'" ... I do. As always"

Retirement Gordon Powers - Sympatico / MSN Finance - Flaherty gives a little back to pensioners

Retirement Gordon Powers - Sympatico / MSN Finance - Flaherty gives a little back to pensioners: "Flaherty gives a little back to pensioners
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By Gordon Powers
November 14, 2006
While many older Canadians were devastated when Finance Minister Jim Flaherty effectively killed income trusts, they can draw a bit of solace from his decision to introduce income splitting for seniors earning pension income. And, for some seniors at least, this is actually quite a bonus.
Starting in 2007, more than two million pensioners will be able to split income from corporate pension plans, just as they do now with payments from the Canada Pension Plan. Flaherty also promised a $1,000 increase in the age credit to $5,066, starting in 2007.
All this is long overdue, of course. Allowing splitting of CPP payments between spouses in 1978 and spousal RRSPs in 1985 were half measures that unfairly left private pensioners out in the cold. Now he’s created a more level playing field between defined benefit plan members and those who save through RRSPs, as well eliminating some inequity between married couples and those who divorce. "

elderly eating disorders

"Eating Disorder Common Among Elderly
When most people hear the word 'anorexia' they picture a young, previously healthy woman who has starved herself into a skeletal state. Seldom, if ever, do people think about an eating disorder among the elderly population. But as new research is coming to light, it shows a definite and growing problem in this group.
A full quarter of nursing home residents refuse to eat and are malnourished. The figure is expected to rise in the near future as the homes become more crowded and staffing becomes even more inadequate. Of course there are a number of psychological reasons why nursing home residents refuse to eat, such as difficulty swallowing or various diseases including dementia that render patients disinterested in food and sometimes unable to eat, or they forget to eat. But there are also a number of people, previously healthy, who for no apparent reason refuse to eat and so they die. Having watched my own grandmother place herself into a state of dementia due to lack of eating when she was unhappily living far from her children and grandchildren, these statistics took on special meaning for me.

David Rissmiller, DO, is the chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-School of Osteopathic Medicine in Stratford, New Jersey. He has been working with this population of older adults who give up food to help them overcome their resistance in order to regain their health. When I spoke with him, he told me that these are rational people who had been previously enjoying a good life. Then suddenly something happens and they need to go into a nursing home. For sometimes unexplained reasons, they refuse to eat and this starts a horrible downward cycle. Dr. Rissmiller explained that "passive self-harm from not eating is one of the major risk factors for death in nursing home patients."

When a person rapidly loses 5% of his/her body weight, it begins to affect protein stores... a rapid loss of 10% of body weight can make a person lose the ability to fight infections or heal wounds. One reason the problem of starvation in the elderly has remained hidden is because death certificates do not list the cause as starvation but rather the event that was actually a result of malnutrition. Also malnourished individuals lack the ability to utilize, react appropriately to, and successfully metabolize medications, which makes treatment with conventional means even more difficult.

WHO BECOMES ANOREXIC?
While many elderly people stop eating because of depression, there is a sub-group of older anorexics that stop eating because of a traumatic event that has to do with food. This generally has three aspects to it, he says. It happens in people who tend toward anxiety problems... who are fastidious about their personal habits... and who had a bad reaction to something they ate. Sometimes it is that they choked on a piece of food... other times it was the humiliation they experienced by having an episode of unexpected, uncontrolled vomiting or a sudden onset of fecal incontinence and the resultant mess. At other times they fear a reoccurrence of severe constipation or impaction. Their fear of a repeat event grows and turns into a food phobia, known as sitophobia, that is stronger than their natural impetus to feed their body.
If this happens to a person in a nursing home or living on his own, his physical and mental health can deteriorate quickly. Of course this downward failure to thrive frightens family members, but most are frustrated by the fact that there is nothing they can do about it. Sometimes a psychiatrist will misdiagnose depression when the elderly person is really phobic of eating. In such cases, he urges family members to meet with the psychiatrist. He says that often the family can give the history of events that will bring the situation to light because the patient now is either too frightened to remember the incident or too embarrassed to talk about it. Inevitably, he says, once the catalyst event has been identified, the family will recognize that the anorexia started immediately afterward.

OVERCOMING THE FEARS
Food phobia is a difficult challenge, says Dr. Rissmiller. It requires reversing patients' nutritional patterns as well as their anxiety about what they perceived as a catastrophic event. In these patients, even the approach of food will be repugnant or cause panic, he adds. It is key at this point for family and staff to take a completely non-judgmental attitude, no tsk-tsking about how the patient "should" be eating. Instead, the patient and his/her doctors should explore the details of the event, including what the patient was eating at the time, where it took place, etc. Doctors should give reassurance that this kind of thing isn't uncommon and there is no need to feel humiliated so they can begin to build positive experiences with food. Working with a nutritionist, they begin to introduce foods that are safe -- the last thing a patient needs at this point is another bad experience -- and so they have him start with ice chips or perhaps a little yogurt (as well as nutritional supplements). Many patients also take low-dose medications that enhance appetite while decreasing anxiety.

Dr. Rissmiller has found that about one-third of the sitophobic elderly patients he has worked with resumed eating and recovered their health. Others are more recalcitrant and require further work, but he says that he and his staff continue to explore ways to resolve this problem. The first step, though, remains: to recognize anorexia in a formerly healthy person for what it is and treat it accordingly. This is true whether the patient is 25 or 75.

50Plus.com - Scientists test anti-aging drugs

50Plus.com - Scientists test anti-aging drugs: "Scientists test anti-aging drugs
Article By: Cynthia Ross Cravit

Beam me aboard Scottie. A pill that can significantly extend your lifespan? Researchers in Massachusetts are testing this very thing, specifically drugs that mimic a substance in red wine called resveratrol that is believed to retard aging.
Red wine has been in the news recently for reducing the risk of heart attack, stroke, cancer and even obesity. Now some scientists are saying the wine extract known as resveratrol just might turn out to be the Holy Grail of anti-aging."

Private health company seeking 'sponsors' for lawsuit over two-tier care - Yahoo! Canada News

and the war for freedom of choice goes on

Private health company seeking 'sponsors' for lawsuit over two-tier care - Yahoo! Canada News: "Private health company seeking 'sponsors' for lawsuit over two-tier care
Wed Nov 15, 5:09 PM


By Chinta Puxley
PUBLICITÉ

TORONTO (CP) - A company that refers patients to private health-care clinics in Canada and the U.S. is trying to raise money from private hospitals to 'sponsor' a threatened lawsuit against the Ontario government that it hopes could open the door to two-tier health care in Canada.
Richard Baker, president of the Vancouver-based Timely Medical Alternatives Inc., said his company wants to sue the province on behalf of a 66-year-old Ontario man who went to Buffalo, N.Y., for an MRI and surgery to remove a cancerous brain tumour.
But Baker said he doesn't have the $25,000 needed to file the suit, so he's publicizing the case in the hopes of raising the cash from private health-care providers who want to see an expansion of two-tier care.
'People who are proposing to operate a private hospital in Ontario and have been shut down because of the Canada Health Act, they may well wish to sponsor this lawsuit,' Baker said.
The suit would 'smooth the way for them to introduce private medical care into Ontario,' he added. "

Searching for the Fountain of Youth?

Searching for the Fountain of Youth?: "Searching for the Fountain of Youth?
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Transcript
America's obsessive quest to defy aging has spawned countless products designed to help you look and feel younger. But if you are thinking about purchasing one of those products -- a commonly advertised substance called HGH, short for human growth hormone – you better think twice. Not only are you likely to be disappointed, you may be putting your health at risk.
The HGH fad is a typical story of naive consumers and shady marketers -- but what makes it stand out is the way the fad grew: All it took was one highly misinterpreted 1990 article in a reputable medical journal to launch a multi-million dollar industry -- still thriving on unproven claims.
HGH is a large, complex protein molecule made up of 191 amino-acid building blocks. It’s produced in the pituitary gland, a peanut-sized organ in the base of the brain.1 Scientists first began to focus on the growth hormone in the early 1940s as they struggled to understand and help a group of children of abnormally short stature who were unable to grow. They learned that injecting the children with ground-up pituitary glands, harvested from cadavers, could stimulate new growth in the children.1,2 "

OspreyBlogs » Blog Archive » The Mess We’re In

OspreyBlogs » Blog Archive » The Mess We’re In: "The Mess We’re In
The Fraser Institute has just released a report that concludes “provincial government spending on health care will consume more than half of total revenue from all sources by the year 2020 and all revenue by 2050 in six out of 10 provinces.” The report, at http://www.fraserinstitute.ca, crunches StatsCan data and is the latest in a growing string of warnings that there soon won’t be enough money to pay for medicare.
Of course, being a think tank that leans to the right, the report offers a right-leaning prescriptive response to the problem – co-payments and allowing patients to pay for private (read better) health care as a couple of examples.
Were it that simple.
We are at the proverbial fork in the road. One way appears littered with unsustainable cost and crushing taxation. The other littered with the bodies of those who can’t afford the best care. Meanwhile, we clearly can’t afford to continue along the path we have been traveling. Over the next 15 years, there will be tremendous demand to spend more on education, seniors’ homes, nuclear and green power, drinking water systems and other services and there is a cumulative $100 billion backlog in this province of work to repair and replace roads, sewer and water lines, school buildings, hospitals and other infrastructure.
These figures should send a chill up your spine.
Some, in response to the report, are already calling for the feds to spend more money – effectively to dig us out of a hole by digging a deeper hole. Instead, hard questions need to be asked.
Are hospitals and doctors extorting money out of the province during negotiations? Are unions – for nurses, hospitals and other health care workers – "