Cochrane Times Post article published on March 8, 2016. Article pasted in full below. Gone are the days that family doctors show up at your door and heals all possible ailments both mental and physical. Now there is a whole team of people to offer help in what ails you. According to Cochrane Family Health Team (CFHT) coordinator Laurie Bouvier, Family Health Teams help to facilitate access to interdisciplinary professionals working collaboratively to provide coordinated, health care services to the community. Through education, health promotion and proactive interventions patients acquire the knowledge they need to make informed choices regarding their health. When these clients become empowered to take responsibility for optimizing their health and are supported in their efforts, through a coordinated health team approach healthy change occurs. The CFHT is happy to announce the addition of Lee-Ann Boucher, a Registered Social Worker (RSW). Lee-Ann has her Masters in Social Work (MSW) with 20 years of experience in the field. As a Franco-Ontarian, she is able to offer services in both English and French. Boucher is not a stranger to the community as she says she got her start in Cochrane and has had a few stints of service here over the last 20 years. She has joined the Family Health Team and is working out of the local medical clinic two days a week. Boucher is committed to filling the social work service gaps in the community by providing social work support and service navigation to registered clinic patients of the CFHT. She is currently working on four different programs to support clients with chronic disease self-management: Living Well with Diabetes, Chronic Pain Management, Memory Clinics, and Information Sessions on Grief are all available. The Living with Diabetes program is dedicated to those who suffer from diabetes and who cannot get it under control. Patients are referred to the program and are followed by the social worker, nurse practitioner, dietician and diabetes educator. The Chronic Pain Management program uses a trained facilitator from out of town, thanks to telemedicine technology, with Lee-Ann’s support to participants. The Memory Clinics offers assessment and screening to those who notice deterioration in their cognitive ability, to facilitate early detection of dementia. Patients are referred via other medical professionals. Boucher is also offering a two-part series on grief. The two information sessions are designed to assist anyone who has suffered a significant loss (death, job loss, separation/divorce, illness etc.) and those who support them. Part one of the workshop will be offered on Monday, March 14 at 4:30 at the Minto Centre boardroom, the second half will be held on March 21 at the same time and place. Those interested, in this Free program, are asked to pre-register by calling Lee-Ann at 705-272-4200 ext. 2117. The CFHT offers a range of programs to assist patients with screening, prevention and management of chronic diseases. Other programs offered are the Living Well with COPD program- which is a series of classes aimed at COPD self-management; Spirometry Clinics- which help to identify individuals at risk for airway obstructive disease; INR Program- which follows clients on blood thinners to make sure they stay in therapeutic range; Blood Pressure Clinic – which is held every Wednesday form 9-11am, to help clients manage their high blood pressure or to identify those at risk for high blood pressure and lastly the Preschool Screening Clinic- which assesses development and allows for early intervention if needed. Clients of the Cochrane Family health Teams require appointments to see the physicians and nurse practitioner. However, the Team does offer same day/next day appointments for non-emergency acute visits like ear, throat and urinary tract infections. The CFHT has been in the community since 2009 to help better serve the residents of Cochrane. Over the years they have evolved to offer different programs and services improving on chronic disease prevention and management. Click here to access the article on Cochrane Times Post website.

Kenora Daily Miner and News article published on March 9, 2016. Article in full pasted below. Kenora is home-base to the first memory clinic in Northwestern Ontario. The Sunset Country Family Health Team became the 78th clinic in Ontario and the first in the Northwest when it opened in February 2016 under the guidance of Dr. Linda Lee and her team from the Centre for Family Medicine Family Health Team in Kitchener-Waterloo. Lee established the first primary care memory clinic in 2006. Randy Belair, executive director of the Sunset Country Family Health Team, said the benefits of having a memory clinic in Kenora and the Lake of the Woods region are numerous. “We will increase the potential for improving diagnosis, which will have a significant impact on people’s lives,” said Belair. “Our team will provide team-based management and care throughout transitions, including system navigation.” A primary care memory clinic has a team of caregivers like nurses, social workers, pharmacists, dieticians, occupational therapists and Alzheimer Society team members working together and led by family physicians to better care for and meet the needs of persons with memory difficulties and associated conditions. Lee and her team helped set up the memory clinic for Sunset Country Family Health Team in mid-February and were back in Kenora March 7-9 to train staff on observership and mentorship, the latter of which involves interacting with patients. Once the staff at Sunset Country Family Health Team is fully trained and the program is implemented, they should be able to manage about 90 per cent of “memory loss” cases within the clinic. Lee first became interested in the idea of memory clinics when she took over an elderly practice in the late 1980s where she began to understand the needs of people with memory problems and how difficult giving them proper care was in a regular doctor’s office. “I was touched by the magnitude of suffering these people and their family members go through and very aware of the huge gaps in care for them,” said Lee. “We became a family health team in 2006 and I thought this was my opportunity to try to change the system of care and use the inter-professional health-care providers that were part of the team in the efficient, evidence-based way that would help me offer the kind of care these people need. “We were able to create a model of care that didn’t exist before — a point of access for persons living with dementia and their care partners, between the specialist and the primary care physician, but rooted in the primary care practice setting,” added Lee. “Based on our studies with this model, we can manage up to 90 per cent of the cases without relying on specialist referrals.” This frees up specialists to focus on the most complex cases of memory loss and dementia cases.