Telehealth brings help close to home
- Details
- Published on Thursday, January 21, 2016
By Kira Paterson
Neepawa Banner/Neepawa Press
Starting in February, the Alzheimer Society of Manitoba will be offering Telehealth Sessions for those affected by Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia. These sessions are intended to help caregivers understand the progression of dementia and how best to care for a person suffering from it.
A Telehealth session is a live seminar that is streamed to the facilities in different communities that offer the Telehealth service. After the speaker is finished, the audiences in the communities will have a chance to ask questions via a computer camera. The speaker will be able to see and hear the audience in the community that is questioning them. The connection is through the secure Manitoba Health Intranet network, so it can’t be accessed from just any computer.
In this case, the seminars will be streamed from Winnipeg. In Neepawa, the facility that offers Telehealth is the Neepawa Health Centre at 500 Hospital Street. Gladstone also offers the service at the Seven Regions Health Centre, as well as McCreary at the McCreary/Alonsa Health Centre and Ste. Rose du Lac at the Ste. Rose General Hospital. There is a limited amount of seating in the facilities, so anyone interested in attending the sessions is asked to register online. Registration forms and a complete list of communities and facilities that offer the service can be found online at alzheimer.mb.ca.
The first session will be on Tuesday, Feb. 2 and is called The Progression of Dementia. This seminar will address the changes that advanced dementia brings to one’s life. The next one will be on Tuesday, March 1 and will talk about how to decide when a person with dementia should no longer be driving. The third is on Tuesday, April 5 and is entitled Becoming a Resilient Caregiver. It will talk about how to take care of oneself while also taking care of someone with dementia.
The Alzheimer Society of Manitoba also has their Touch Quilt Project. The idea is that these quilts give dementia patients sensory stimulation, which can increase happiness, enjoyment and relaxation. Their goal is to give every care home resident in Manitoba one of these quilts. Since it started in 2010, they have distributed over 4,850 quilts.
The Parkland branch of the society will be bringing 20 quilts to the McCreary/Alonsa Personal Care Home next. The presentation was originally set for Jan. 20, but has been rescheduled to Feb. 11. Family members, friends and staff are invited to attend the presentation of the Touch Quilts.
