221 Nelson Street Ottawa, Ontario K1N 1C7 (613) 789-1500 www.shchc.ca
A year in the life of the COVID-19 Testing Clinic - by Derrick St John and Claire Scott
What a year it has been! What a year it has been! We were at 5446 tests and counting as of our birthday on September 28th! It’s hard to capture all the ups and downs throughout the year, but there have been a few moments during the third wave that have stood out. As the demand for testing grew through the start of April 2021, we were tasked with increasing capacity to see as many people as possible for a few weeks. We were able to book almost 100 clients and test 70 people in one day. To do this, we had to refine every aspect of our process. One of the major improvements we made was to actively screen and triage all clients with booked appointments, to ensure everyone who was registered actually fit criteria for testing. As funny as it sounds, some of our best interventions were the people we did not test. Not just because it saved them a swab up the nose, but because we took the
In this issue Highlights from AGM................ 2-3 The CDE Team is growing........... 6 Divisions of responsibility in feeding..................................... 8 Continuous learning.................... 9 Staffing changes................... 10-11 Insomnia blues.......................... 12
time to educate members of our community about how COVID-19 is transmitted and why the incubation period of the virus is relevant to when we test people for COVID. To say it has been all roses and butterflies would be a lie. There were some days during the height of the third wave that our positivity rate was close to 50%. This meant that almost every second person we saw tested positive for COVID-19. This also came at a time where our testing staff had only received one dose of vaccine, so there was some trepidation about exposure to so many people with the virus. It’s hard to remember that, as recently as April, almost no one was “double vaxxed”. We did not just survive through this wave, we thrived. It was amazing to see all the clinic staff working hard, day after day, until the numbers, the cases, and the positivity rates dropped. The “numbers” matter, but for us they are not just numbers. They are people. People in our community, our neighbours, our friends, and the faces that make up the vibrant and diverse Sandy Hill community. Our community is truly a mosaic or, better yet, an innate tapestry with interwoven threads that run parallel at times, but intersect intricately, creating a living and breathing work of art. In a time where so many were locked down and isolated, we saw dozens of people in a day, we cracked jokes, shared a laugh and, at moments, maybe a tear. It was inspiring to see the different teams
Photo courtesy of Bill Juillette
come together and collaborate to ensure the sustainability of this service we offer to our community. Our community partners, specifically at The Ottawa Hospital, EORLA (Eastern Ontario Laboratory Association) and PHOL (Public Health Lab Ontario) have been instrumental in supporting our efforts. They have worked with us to ensure we were able to offer fast and efficient turnaround times with our results, and they continue to collaborate with us to improve our services. Our friends at the Brewer and McNabb Assessment Centres stepped up when a delivery of swabs was delayed due to the lockdown, and provided us with a case of swabs so we could finish our week of testing. Chapeau, my friends! (Continued on page 4)
Awesome Arts 2021................... 13
Working together to make our community healthy Newsletter No. 32 - Winter 2022
2 Forty-six years of excellence in serving our community Outgoing Board members
Membres sortants du Conseil d’administration
On June 23rd, members of our community, staff and board gathered virtually for the Annual General Meeting (AGM), and to celebrate 46 years of excellent service to our community. The AGM included the presentation and approval of the Chair’s and Treasurer’s reports, the appointment of auditors for the next fiscal year, the election of the Board of Directors, and the acknowledgement of departing Board members. In her address, the outgoing Board Chair, Ms. Aynsley Morris, focused on areas where the board has worked over the past year to support the centre’s activities, and make sure it continues to remain relevant and sustainable. She also added that “the COVID-19 pandemic was a top priority for the organization up to the present as we plan, learn and redesign how we deliver care in a COVID world. Over the past year, the Centre has achieved remarkable success with our Community COVID-19 Response Strategy, and we have been recognized provincially for our work as part of the High-Risk Neighborhood Initiative. The centre’s commitment to ongoing learning, innovation and improvements has helped the programs and services we provide to our community to keep growing and changing”.
Mr. David Gibson, SHCHC’s Executive Director, spoke about the centre’s excellence in the provision of health and well-being services, about the challenges we encountered and that still lie ahead, and about our collective resilience and the promise of hope that is upon us with vaccinations. “Even within this most difficult year, I have witnessed incredible personal courage, professional dedication, and a collective spirit to rise above the adversity, to provide essential social and health services to those who have the greatest barriers to achieving equitable health and well-being. But out of adversity come incredible opportunities that demonstrate our creativity, adaptability and resiliency as individuals, families, neighbourhoods, as organizations and as citizens of this wonderful city. This past year has demonstrated how SHCHC staff can actively pivot to meet the challenges. By April 2020, staff were able to not only continue in-person essential services, like consumption treatment and primary health care, but also utilize virtual in-home services for the Homework Club, health care, mental health and addictions counselling, or health promotion and chronic disease group programming. Stabilizing personal protective equipment supply chains to implementing public health guidelines in occupational health and infection control became critical to ensuring on-site measures to keep everyone safe. This is a testament to the strength and professionalism of staff, and I am truly very proud to be a part of it! Making a difference to create and foster an equitable health system is what SHCHC demonstrates time and time again.”
Michel Duquet Aynsley Morris Marguerite Nadeau
The Board of Directors also acknowledged the board members who ended their terms this year: Mr. Michel Duquet, Ms. Aynsley Morris and Ms. Marguerite Nadeau. Mr. Michel Duquet was a member of the board since June 2019, and an active member of the Audit and Finance Committee. A friendly and sociable person, Michel initiated the “speed meeting” for board members, a team building exercise which has become a practice during our virtual meetings, and which keeps board members engaged. Ms. Aynsley Morris joined the Board of Directors in August 2015, and was an active member of the Finance and Audit Committee as well as the Emerging Issues Committee. For the past two years, Aynsley has served as Board Chair. Before that, she held the role of Vice-Chair and Chair of the Emerging Issues Committee, and was the Board Liaison to the Alliance for Healthier Communities. The strong commitments to environment and to social justice drive both her professional and personal lives. During her activity with the Emerging Issues Committee, Aynsley brought forward to the Alliance’s AGM many policy resolutions such as: Increasing Access to Injectable Opioid Agonist Treatment and Safer Drug Supply, Addressing Violence through a Public Health Approach (both in 2020), Extension of Healthy Smiles Ontario Program and Ontario ID Card (in 2019), Housing First (2018), Financial Support
3 - highlights from the Annual General Meeting from the Province of Ontario and Government of Canada to Ontario’s CHCs to Provide Appropriate Cultural Interpretation Services to Refugee Patients (2017). Ms. Marguerite Nadeau joined the Board of Directors in August 2015, and was an active member of the Nominations and Governance Committee, the Executive Director’s Performance Evaluation Committee,
and the former French Language Services Committee. Over the years, the board has benefited immensely from her particular skill set and expert advice in the areas of law, good governance and strategic planning. We will miss you all, and we wish you much success in the future!
The AGM concluded with the recognition of the two departing Staff Representatives, Kayla Charlery and Candace Hebert, who, for the past two years, participated actively with the Board of Directors and board committees, bringing their fresh perspectives on the work and daily challenges staff at SHCHC may have. We also acknowledged our staff who, this year, reached 5, 10, 15, 20 and 30 years of dedicated service at SHCHC.
Meet SHCHC’s Board of Directors for 2021-2022 • • • • • • •
Board Chair: Leila Bocksch Vice-Chair: Rebecca Gibbons Vice-Chair: Michael Mullen Treasurer: Kim Brown Secretary: Daniel Roach Past-Chair: Aynsley Morris (non-voting member) Staff Representatives: Claire Scott and Derrick St John
• • • • • • • •
Glen Barber Karen Capen Letitia Charbonneau Miquelon Deller Guy Desaulniers Bernice-Marie Kalubiaka Lesley Ng Hubert Paulmer
The Board of Directors meets 10 times a year. If you would like to attend one of the meetings, please e-mail Cristina Coiciu at ccoiciu@sandyhillchc.on.ca. Upcoming Board meetings in the new year will be held on: January 19, February 16, March 16, April 20, May 18 and June 22, 2022.
2020 and 2021 SHCHC Awards for Excellence in Health Promotion With the annual Award for Excellence in Health Promotion established in 2007, SHCHC is proud to honour those whose activities and initiatives have contributed to improving the health and wellness of our community. Last year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the award was postponed. As such, for this year, the Board of Directors approved having two awards instead of one, given out for the years 2020 and 2021, to honour those whose activities and initiatives have contributed to improving the health and wellness of our community during the pandemic. The award recipients were:
• Jessie Duffy (Arlington 5 Coffee Shop) and Megan Aubin (Cooking for a Cause Ottawa) for preparing and delivering healthy food options to marginalized communities in Sandy Hill and the City of Ottawa; and
• Stephen Quinlan, resident of Strathcona Heights, for the development of the Strathcona Heights Gathering Garden. For more information and their short biographies, visit our website at www.shchc.ca/community-initiatives/shchc-award-excellence-hp.
Stephen Quinlan Jessie Duffy
Megan Aubin
4 A year in the life of the COVID-19 Testing Clinic (Continued from the front page)
So, where are we now? In Ottawa, we are in a pretty good place. Vaccination rates are high, and COVID-19 positivity rates are low. We can have lunch with our friends, and we can hug the people we love. Even though case counts are low, demand for testing, especially in the downtown core, is still high. We’re more than happy to have low positivity rates, and it is a testament to the hard work done by everyone in the “swabbing world” as well as every person that listened to the cry of public health and was tested when they needed to. Ultimately, the task of going to get tested weighs on the shoulders of each of us in our community. Many people we have tested over these past months have stepped into our building for the first time. Many say they have
wondered what went on within our walls. We have relished this opportunity to educate our community members on all the work we do here, at SHCHC. Many have had their eyes opened about the services and programs provided by other components of our centre, including the valuable services offered through our Consumption and Treatment Services (CTS). Last week, a mother who was here for testing with her young son praised the work of our team and highlighted the incredible work done by the harm reduction workers. She expressed her thoughts very succinctly and said: “We’re all part of this community”. The clients and staff of our CTS have been hit particularly hard during this pandemic. Increased potency of the street supply of opioids combined with a loss of community resources due to the pandemic have left this population
Photo courtesy of Bill Juillette
From left, Stacy, Derrick and Claire
disproportionately affected. It is easy to forget, as COVID grabs the headlines, that the opioid epidemic continues to ravage those who are marginalized, and that everyday someone’s loved one overdoses on drugs. Sharing a space with the harm reduction workers and the team in Oasis, we’ve seen and heard first hand their continued commitment and engagement with clients. We’ve witnessed their crisis interventions, their therapeutic communication, and their commitment to empathy while maintaining professional boundaries. It may look a little rock-and-roll in front of the building at times, but we are constantly reminded that amongst this controlled chaos are SHCHC clients and community members who are here seeking services just like anyone else.
Photo courtesy of Bill Juillette
Jing and Kristen have recently joined the team
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Added services As our COVID Testing Clinic evolves, and people’s access to in-person assessments while experiencing COVID symptoms remains a challenge, we have started offering some additional services to our Health Services clients. For example, we can perform rapid strep testing to rule out strep throat if the symptoms indicate it. If the test is positive, we immediately liaise with the client’s primary care provider to issue a prescription, and we do the appropriate teaching on the spot. The client can go straight to their pharmacy and start their antibiotics within hours. In 15 minutes, we have not only tested for COVID, but provided an in-person primary care intervention to a symptomatic client, and provided treatment for an acute infection. We have also been able to offer social services through our COVID Case Support Program, run by SHCHC’s Client Access Team (CAT). CAT follows up with clients identified by the testing team, and help them to access food, financial assistance and to navigate other needs while having to isolate due to a positive case or close contact with positive case. This has mainly been helpful for families who have many complex needs during isolation. SHCHC’s motto, that Every One Matters, as well as our mission to lead and innovate, have been clearly represented in the delivery of health services through the COVID Testing Site and the SHCHC. We look forward to evolving along with the pandemic, and will strive to provide whatever services become necessary as we navigate this ongoing uncertainty.
From all of us at SHCHC, our best wishes to you, for a joyous holiday season, and a New Year filled with peace and happiness! National Infection Prevention and Control Week - October 18-22, 2021 The third week in October is designated as National Infection Control Week (NICW) in Canada and the U.S. In Canada, the Infection Control Week originated in 1988 to highlight infection control efforts in Canadian hospitals, in long-term care facilities and in the community. It was an opportunity for infection control professionals to educate staff and the community about the importance of infection prevention, and to promote the important work done by infection control professionals in a visible and fun way. In 1989, the Federal Government proclaimed Infection Control Week as an annual event.
At SHCHC, staff and clients are able to download our own Infection Prevention and Control (IPAC) app. This app provides quick access to hand washing resources, flu clinic information, vaccine safety resources, and much more! Also, information has been added to the display screens in the lobbies for clients to see. If you’re interested in checking out the app, please visit www.shchc.ca/ipac. If you’re interested in reading more about IPAC, please visit https://ipac-canada.org.
6 SHCHC’s Community Development and Engagement Team is growing - by Monika Séguin-Gervais
Community Development, as defined by the UN, is a “a process where community members come together to take collective action and generate solutions to common problems”. While this appears to be simple, I have come to understand that not everything that is simple comes easily. It takes work, coordinated work and resources, mostly human resources. I have also come to understand that collaborative work between residents, neighbours and partnering organisations is extremely satisfying, and it contributes to innovative solutions to a variety of community challenges. For Gerald Dragon, Team Lead, “residents are meant to be the driving force when designing initiatives aimed at responding to identified needs”. And this is exactly what it is. Understanding that while we may support community members and associations in the development of different initiatives, they are instrumental because the value of their lived experience and understanding of their neighborhood is incomparable. In Ottawa, Community Health and Resource Centres have agreed on four guiding principles to define how community development agents such as myself, often called Community Developers (or CD-ers for short), can inform their work in the community. We must be responsive to community, as well as challenge systemic inequity, power dynamics and support empowerment of the individuals with who we work. We do this through partnership and collaboration, keeping in mind that we aim for transformational practice. While SHCHC has been involved in community development since its inception, the Community Development and Engagement (CDE) department was initiated
in the early 2000s. Through the years, the team has been involved in multiple projects to improve the health and well-being of residents. Currently, the CDE team is made up of four members. My name is Malika Séguin-Gervais; I am the latest addition to this formidable team, and I am happy to get to present the team to you via this article. Our Team Lead, Gerald Dragon, has been with the centre since 2011. Over the course of 10 years, his role has changed significantly, from initially focusing on child/youth programming to ensuring certain services can be accessible to residents, and engaging residents in capacity building activities where they can take the lead and develop initiatives to make their neighborhood better. These past experiences and more have helped prepare him for his current role working alongside colleagues who are equally committed to making sure that SHCHC is responsive to the needs expressed by residents.
Gerald Dragon, CDE Team Lead
Sylvie Roussel, Program Assistant Sylvie Roussel is our Program Assistant. She has been a resident in Strathcona Heights since 2004. Sylvie volunteered on multiple community development initiatives such as the Art and Craft Group for the children in her community, the Strathcona Heights Neighbourhood Circle, the Good Food Box in Strathcona Heights, the Market Mobile, and other. In 2016, she received the SHCHC Award for Excellence in Health Promotion for her continous involvement with food security projects that had a significant impact in the community of Strathcona Heights. Sylvie joined the CDE Team in 2018 as the team’s Program Assistant. Her strong connections with the residents make her instrumental in increasing residents’ participation in numerous programs. Her role is to act as a liaison between residents and multiple community programs offered by both SHCHC and other service providers.
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every Thursday, and the Good Food Box that still continues to deliver fruits and vegetables to the residents at an affordable price. In collaboration with various organizations, we have been able to bring children programming in the Dutchy’s Hole Park (also known as Robinson Park, on the Rideau River): • Christie Lake Kids has offered programs in July; • over the summer months, the Boys and Girls Club offered activities every Wednesday morning; • the Parent Resource Centre hosted two successful fun days in August. Anabelle Gisanza, Community Services Coordinator We have a new position in our department, a Community Services Coordinator, so Annabelle Gisanza joined the team in May 2021. With over 10 years of professional experience in community program development and implementation, she reports being “honored to be the first Community Services Coordinator, a position which Strathcona Heights’ residents have long advocated for”. Her role includes: establishing relationships with the community, responding to emerging needs, and facilitating service navigation. In addition to coordinating services with our partners’ network, she is aiming to offer a wide range of services to residents by using various preexisting communal rooms amongst the neighbourhood. Over the summer months, Anabelle met with residents in the community and with local service providers to arrange that healthy foods are available to the community. Some examples were the Ottawa Mission food truck that distributed freshly cooked meals
Malika Séguin-Gervais, Community Development Agent And then, there is me, Malika. I joined the team in June 2021. I have professional experience in strategic and action planning, community development project management, advocacy efforts, and a passion for social justice. My role is to collaborate with individuals, community associations and citywide partners on various initiatives
with the objective of making our city more just by effecting initiatives to tackle inequities. As a team, our work is grounded in community development principles, and the voices of residents, clients and patients are the building blocks of all our work. Do you have a resident-led project you would like to see implemented in your neighborhood? Concerns about lack of services or barrier to access services? Do you see something unjust or something missing in your neighborhood? Do not hesitate to contact us to share your views and ideas. Here is a short list of past and current collaborative projects in which our team has been involved: • Lees cross-walk implementation, • speed bumps throughout, Strathcona Heights, • yard sales, • community gardening, • movies in the park, • back-to-school backpack, • Christmas hampers, • “I Love to Dance”, • “Jumpstart Soccer”, • “Girls Night - Let’s Talk”, • Springhurst Park renewal, • “Paint It Up!”, • Awesome Arts, • Youth Active Media, • Market Mobile, • Ottawa Public Library Book Mobile, • transportation advocacy, • voters’ engagement.
8 The divisions of responsibility in feeding - how to take the battle out of meal times! - by Stéphanie Cyr, RD/Dt. P It’s 5:30 PM. You just finished preparing dinner, and the family is sitting at the table to eat. Your 3 year old says “Yuk! I don’t like that”. You think “but he was eating this last week”… Now, you’re feeling frustrated and tired. You’re thinking of just going back to the kitchen to grab his favorite cereal and give it to him for supper. Your little girl has not been eating many veggies these past few months, and you want to make sure she gets all the nutrition she needs to grow. When meal time comes around, you serve some carrots and broccoli. She refuses to eat them. You tell her “You have to eat your veggies or you can’t go play after lunch”. She starts crying… Do those meal time struggles sound familiar? Or maybe you can think of other challenging situation around feeding time? Well, know that you are not alone! Meal times can bring on many challenges for parents. Today, I’m sharing one strategy that may help bring back pleasant meal times into your home. It’s called The Satter Divisions of Responsibility in Feeding (sDOR). Developed by Ellyn Satter, Registered Dietitian and Family Therapist, the sDOR identify what your role is as a parent during meal times, and what’s your little kiddo’s. Let’s take a closer look! As the parent, you will take the leadership with the what, when and where of feedings. You will then let your kid determine how much and whether they chose to eat or not. Once children join the family’s meals and snack routine around 1 year of age, your job is to maintain the structure of family meals and snacks as they grow up.(1) Your job with feeding is to: • choose and prepare the food; • provide regular meals/snacks; • make meal times pleasant;
• be a good role model during meal times; • don’t let your child have food or beverages (except for water) between meals and snack times; • let your child grow into the body that is right for him or her(1). You will then trust that your little one will: • eat the amount he or she needs; • learn to eat the foods you eat(1). Other tips that can help you put the sDOR into practice: • When serving foods your child has not learned to like yet, make sure you serve at least one food your child does like (‘a safe food’) during meals and snacks. • Avoid any pressure during meals and snacks. For example, if your little one says they don’t want to eat the carrots, simply say “You don’t have to”. Instead, you can shift the conversation to things they enjoyed at school or what activities they liked.
When your next meal or snack comes around, give these tips a try. By implementing the sDOR you will honour your child’s feelings of hunger and fullness - a skill that will be valuable throughout their whole life! Want to learn more about the sDOR or other tips to help take the battle out of meal times? Visit the following Web sites: • www.ellynsatterinstitute.org • www.unlockfood.ca If you have questions or concerns about your child’s nutrition, don’t hesitate to discuss them with your doctor or Registered Dietitian. __________________ References: 1. Ellyn Satter Institute. Raise a healthy child who is a joy to feed. www.ellynsatterinstitute.org/how-tofeed/the-division-of-responsibility-infeeding/
9 Continuous learning and research
- by Dr. Joanna Binch, Nurse Practitioner, PhD I started my PhD because I was tired of seeing the conditions in rooming houses contributing to the poor health of residents, and I felt frustrated as a nurse practitioner that I couldn’t do anything about it. Over the last four years, I’ve worked on a research project that involved giving smart phones to a group of rooming house residents, and asking them to take pictures of what in their lives affected their health. I was very fortunate to have the support of SHCHC’s education days and my team at Oasis, who gave feedback and encouragement during the write-up of the project. One of the photos shows a boot. Several participants took photos of footwear, to share how much they had to walk between services,
every day, to access the things they need to get by. Because of the high cost of rent compared to income, residents used drop-ins, foodbanks, community health centres and the shelters to access food, showers, clothes and other resources they needed to live in Ottawa. Another photo was of bedbugs and other vermin - an issue that affected health because of the added costs to try to get rid of the infestation, but also the added cost to the mental health of residents who had shame and frustration that they were in such a position.
Dr. Joanna Binch, PhD - Nurse Practitioner with Oasis Program On November 15, 2021, I successfully defended my thesis Rooming Houses and Health: A Case Study, and I hope that the information will come out in some of the articles I have written.
Another successful community placement for University of Ottawa nursing students - by Jenna Kaulback
Hello SHCHC staff, clients and community members! Our names are Aniela, Nina, Eric and Jenna! We are all fourth year nursing students at the University of Ottawa, and this year we have been working on our community health placement virtually. Our preceptor at SHCHC was Ms. Irena Konopacki, Community Health Nurse, Certified Diabetes Nurse Educator, Health Promoter with the Chronic Disease Management Team and Program Facilitator. She has Jenna
Nina
done an amazing job of helping us find and research our final project, which is about vaccine hesitancy in newcomers. We have had amazing interviews with some staff members, and we have learned a lot about vaccine hesitancy rates in newcomers to Canada, as well as different ways to educate and/or information sharing strategies. This has been a very informative placement, and we have had a great time working with the staff at SHCHC, who were so welcoming and Aniela supporting! We are super excited to share our findings with you soon! Eric
10 Farewell to our young retirees!
Pamela Boyle
Shirley Ostendorf
Danielle Leclerc
Pamela Boyle has been to SHCHC what the sun is to a cold, wet playground. In many respects, she brought only herself to the table, and created a unique service that perfectly fit the needs of the people who came through the door. Pamela helped our community members obtain identification so they can navigate the healthcare system. This enabled them to get medical attention, obtain financial support, and secure their names for housing; all basic, yet essential things that many of us might take for granted. In many respects, having a piece of plastic with your name on it reminds us of a deep belonging, of bridges that sometimes expand between isolation and connection, often at a time when we desperately need the latter. As her colleagues, we are lucky to have passed by her office all those years, sometimes stopping for an occasional chat. It helped remind us that our connection to community health is not just the building or the job, but part of how we all need connection.
With the retirement of Shirley Ostendorf in July, an important era for SHCHC has come to an end. Shirley began working at SHCHC in 1990, and was the longest-serving administrative employee in the centre’s history. Through thick and thin, Shirley never wavered in her professional approach to all matters related to Human Resources. Shirley played a significant role in designing our employee benefits package, and was instrumental in the implementation of the centre’s defined-benefit pension plan. It is only fitting that she now gets to enjoy the fruits of her labour! To say Shirley will be sorely missed is truly and understatement, and we wish her nothing but the best in her retirement!
Danielle Leclerc began her well deserved retirement in the early spring, after more than 12 years as a Medical Office Assistant with the Health Services Team. The staff and clients will miss Danielle’s warm and helpful personality, and wish her all the best for a healthy and exciting retirement!
The long-awaited staff parkette is now open!
The Property Management Team is very excited to announce that the construction and redevelopment of the centre’s parkette is now complete and the parkette is open!
11 Other staffing changes
Emily Clark
Luc Cormier
Julie Tessier
We welcome Emily Clark, who started as the new Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Management (HPCDM) Team Leader and Health and Wellness Coach in the spring. Emily first came to SHCHC as a student with Natacha Ducharme, our Physical Activity Specialist, and has worked in a variety of administrative, program development and program delivery roles with the centre, while completing her graduate education. The HPCDM team is very pleased to be working with Emily in her new capacity!
After many years at Oasis in several different roles, Luc Cormier is leaving us to take on a Nurse Practitioner position with the Royal Ottawa Hospital Substance Use and Concurrent Disorder Program. He will be providing withdrawal management services and primary health care at the Ottawa Withdrawal Management Centre (detox), and doing outreach to Maison Gilles-Chagnon and Billy Buffet. This is a great (new) service that Luc will be providing there, and SHCHC clients going to detox/ treatment will surely benefit from his years of experience with substance use care.
Early this year, Julie Tessier had resigned her position with the centre to accept the role of Manager of the Mental Health and Addictions Program at Centretown Community Health Centre (CCHC). During her 23-year tenure at SHCHC, Julie held a variety of positions including Community Developer, Hepatitis C Education Coordinator, Practical Assistance Worker, Health and Wellness Coach, Smoking Cessation Counsellor and Team Leader of HPCDM Team. Many clients, staff and community partners have benefited from Julie’s knowledge, creativity, support and guidance over the years. Julie’s new role at CCHC will allow her to further develop her management and leadership skills.
The project was a major undertaking that required the excavation of over thirty tons of material to create a much flatter and usable space at the rear of our building. The new parkette and gazebo will undoubtedly provide staff with a place to relax and enjoy the fresh air for many years to come. The enclosed gazebo will also provide a space that can be used even on days when the weather isn’t great!
With the exception of the excavation and interlocking stone work, the entire project was designed and built by our exceptionally talented and hardworking Property Management Team of Kyle Heney, Serge Laverdure and Wendy Hyndman. Congratulations on an excellent job!
12 Insomnia blues
- by Irena Konopacki, RN CDE HP Twenty-five years ago, a lengthy bout of insomnia, combined with an excessive amount of anxiety about the “lack of sleep”, gradually rendered me unable to perform on my job as an ICU RN. I had difficulty remembering simple things. Decision making was next to impossible. Even everyday words were difficult to remember. I became worried that I would become unfit for work. The more tired I became, the less I slept. Eventually, I had to quit a job I loved at the hospital. I began to take a hard look at my lifestyle. I learned that what I was doing to promote sleep was making the insomnia worse, turning it into a chronic condition. Insomnia usually starts innocently with a few nights of having trouble falling asleep (sleep onset insomnia), or waking up in the early morning, and not being able to fall back to sleep (sleep maintenance insomnia). This type of sleep disruption happens to all of us at different times in our lives, and it is usually due to excessive anxiety and stress. Most of the time, sleep returns to normal once the stressful event is resolved. In highly sensitive people, like myself, one night of poor sleep can lead to a multitude of desperate behaviours that are counterproductive and propel the insomnia into a chronic condition. The first thing many people do when they have a poor night’s sleep is go to bed early the next evening to “catch up” on sleep. Trying to sleep results in tossing and turning in bed, or looking at the alarm clock, and both these behaviours create tension which is incompatible with sleep. Another common thing we do is to make an appointment with our doctor to get sleeping pills. This understandable act is a slippery slope for insomniacs. Sleeping pills are extremely addictive, both physically and psychologically.
Most sleeping pills decrease sleep quality, and work only in the short term. When people try to stop using the sleeping pills, they get hit with rebound anxiety and the insomnia worsens. Many who struggle with insomnia worry excessively about their lack of sleep. These negative thoughts about sleep create a cycle of anxiety which in turn fuels the insomnia. There is a lingering sense of loss of control over life. It is difficult to plan anything the next day because of the insomnia, so we tend to isolate ourselves and relationships begin to suffer or fall apart. We may have the thought that, “If I could get a good night’s sleep, everything in my life would fall into place”. But sleep only gets harder to achieve with this type of thinking. There is a sense of feeling alone, frustrated, hopeless and depressed about the struggle with sleep. There can be a loss of confidence in oneself and in one’s body. I would get so down on myself thinking, “I can’t even sleep right. What a failure I am.” Often people become conditioned to fear the sight of their bedroom. During my struggle with insomnia the mere sight of my bed would cause me so much stress
that it was impossible for me to relax enough to allow sleep to come naturally. Sometimes, I would be able to fall asleep on the couch, but my bed was a disaster. So how did I finally improve my sleep? I learned to never try to sleep. Instead, I recommend: • If you are not asleep within 30 minutes, get out of bed and do something relaxing. Read a book, colour, fold laundry - distract yourself until you became drowsy. Stay away from screens, put away iPhones, iPads and computers because the light emitted from these devices stimulate the arousal system in the brain. Return to bed only when you’re drowsy and your eyelids begin to close. Repeat this as many times as needed until the drive to sleep is so intense that it is impossible to stay awake. • Another tip is to go to bed much later than normal to create a sleep deficit resulting in a better chance that you will fall asleep within 30 minutes of going to bed. • Set your alarm clock for the same time every morning, regardless of how much sleep you get. Keep a strict sleep window even on the weekend by going to bed later than usual, and getting up early. Limit coffee to one or two cups, consumed before noon. Or give up caffeine entirely. • Make certain your bedroom is cool, quiet and dark. Body temperature must drop to stimulate sleep, so put on the AC or open a window if it is cool outside. Go outside every day for a walk in the sunlight. This helps to establish a proper circadian rhythm and exercise is an outlet for tension.
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• Become aware of the thoughts running through your mind, especially negative thoughts about sleep. Counteract negative thoughts with more balanced reassuring thoughts. The thought, “If I don’t sleep tonight, I will be a basket case tomorrow” can be refuted by, “I always manage to get through the day even if I don’t sleep well, so it will be OK”. • Don’t cancel your plans due to insomnia. It is important to continue living life as best as you can, despite feeling tired.
• Learn to be compassionate with yourself, acknowledging that it is extremely difficult to grapple with insomnia. Offer yourself kindness and reassurance versus criticism. Remember that insomnia is a very common sleep problem, and in time it will pass. • Deal with stress in a timely manner, with daily reflection and problem solving. Develop a wind-down routine before going to bed for the night, and learn relaxation techniques such as deep breathing, body scan, or
progressive relaxation. Put the day to rest by thinking about three things that went well and three that did not go so well. Plan activities for the next day. • Finally, develop a formal daily meditation practice and coach yourself when negative sleep thoughts arise. Keep in mind that, when sleep evades you, there are thousands of people in the same boat. Accept that you have a sleep problem, but by following a few simple steps you can quickly and easily get your sleep back on track.
Kids coping through art - Awesome Arts 2021 - by Gerald Dragon
This year, as COVID-19 pandemic continued to put any sort of program planning in to peril, Awesome Arts moved forward in virtual mode with the same quality workshops being offered to students in grades 3-6 at Viscount Alexander Public School. One of the classes that participated was Madame Deena’s grade 3/4 class, which worked with Claudia Salguero and artist intern Edgar Hernandez from March to June to produce a new mural called The Future Awaits to be installed inside the school. Mural and individual canvases on display at the Ottawa Art Gallery
Similar to another community mural project in 2020, students received kits filled with materials so that each of them could create their own canvas. Claudia photographed the individual canvases, and then brought them together digitally to create a larger collective piece. Additionally, a unique opportunity was presented when the Ottawa Art Gallery approached SHCHC with an offer to partner for Awesome Arts. After initial discussions, it was decided that the Art Gallery would hold a vernissage for the mural being created, as well
as to put it on display over the summer months alongside the individual canvases created by each student. The mural arrived in Strathcona Heights at the beginning of October, and was recently mounted in a prominent location in the neighborhood, adding to other mural beautification projects which have been completed over the years. A copy is also located inside of Viscount Alexander Public School. A big “Thank you” to: Madame Deena’s grade 3/4 class, Claudia, Edgar, Michael at the Ottawa Art Gallery, Jessica at MASC, and Paul.
Mural is now displayed in Strathcona Heights
• Integrity • Respect • Equity • Collaboration • Empathy • • Collaboration • Empathy • Our mission
Our vision
To lead and innovate in person-centred primary health care and community wellbeing.
Every one in our community will have an equitable opportunity for health and wellbeing.
Get involved in your Community Health Centre! Become a member of Sandy Hill Community Health Centre Inc./Centre de santé communautaire Côte-de-Sable, Inc.! Simply fill out the Membership Application Form below and return it to us at 221 Nelson St., Ottawa, ON, K1N 1C7. No membership fee is required.
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