Healthcare and Wellness : In The News

The Toronto Star writes on the Independent Living Account, an program that helps struggling Torontonions living in shelters save and manage their money. By providing $3 for every $1 participants save up (to a maximum of $400), the Independent Living Account helps people move from the shelter system into permanent housing. Launched by national charity Social and Enterprise Development Innovations (SEDI) in 2005, the program has been a tremendous success, helping 300 people in eight Toronto shelters.

"The Independent Living Account program, which has helped about 300 people in eight Toronto shelters since 2007, was designed by SEDI (Social and Enterprise Development Innovations), a national charitable organization dedicated to helping poor, unemployed and underemployed people become self-sufficient. It began as a pilot project in 2005 which found that 57 per cent of participants who opened bank accounts moved out of the shelter system. About 95 per cent were still renting their own place up to 15 months later, said Barbara Gosse of SEDI."

"For every $1 spent on the program, taxpayers save $2.19 in shelter and welfare costs as participants move into stable housing and employment", said Gosse who wants to expand the program to help public housing tenants."

"Although this is a small program, it is enormously successful and cost effective," she said."

"The program's $200,000 annual cost is funded through the federal Homelessness Partnership Initiative and is used to train about 16 hostel workers a year who help participants open bank accounts and manage their money. An additional $40,000 for the matched savings is raised through private donors, such as TD Bank."

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original source Toronto Star

The New York Times writes on Roots of Empathy, a Toronto-based charity that is brightening elementary classrooms across the globe (see our August Yonge Street story on the organization). Launched in 1996 by educator Mary Gordon, Roots brings mothers and their babies into school classrooms with the goal of increasing empathy among students. Researchers studying Gordon's innovative program have concluded that the babies do indeed have positive effect on student behaviour, kind and accepting behaviours increase while negative aggressive behaviours decrease. Roots has now been active in over 2,600 classes across Canada, and has recently expanded to classrooms in the Isle of Man, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and the United States.

"Here's how it works: Roots arranges monthly class visits by a mother and her baby (who must be between two and four months old at the beginning of the school year). Each month, for nine months, a trained instructor guides a classroom using a standard curriculum that involves three 40-minute visits � a pre-visit, a baby visit, and a post-visit. The program runs from kindergarten to seventh grade. During the baby visits, the children sit around the baby and mother (sometimes it's a father) on a green blanket (which represents new life and nature) and they try to understand the baby's feelings. The instructor helps by labeling them. "It's a launch pad for them to understand their own feelings and the feelings of others," explains Gordon. "It carries over to the rest of class."

"The baby seems to act like a heart-softening magnet. No one fully understands why. Kimberly Schonert-Reichl, an applied developmental psychologist who is a professor at the University of British Columbia, has evaluated Roots of Empathy in four studies. "Do kids become more empathic and understanding? Do they become less aggressive and kinder to each other? The answer is yes and yes," she explained. "The question is why."

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original source New York Times

The Metro Toronto Convention Centre has been chosen as the site of the The American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR) 2010 Annual Meeting. According to Business Travel News the confrence, to be held from 15-19 of October, is expected to generate C$13 million in delegate spending

"ASBMR is a truly-international organisation, with nearly half of our membership residing outside the US," said Ann Elderkin, ASBMR's executive director."

"Hosting our meeting in Toronto reflects our commitment to our global membership and our dedication - without boundaries - to bone and mineral research excellence."

"The ASBMR 2010 Annual Meeting scientific program will showcase the latest in bone and mineral research, technology and treatment, including such areas as osteoimmunology, mineral metabolism, genetics, stem cells, osteoporosis, metabolic bone diseases and treatments. During the event, Osteoporosis Canada will release its latest clinical practice guidelines, supporting up-to-date health care management of osteoporosis."

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original source Business Travel News

Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) has been selected to test the updated diagnostic criteria for the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) -- the manual used by medical professionals around the world. CAMH is currently one of only seven adult field trial sites in North America and the only Canadian organization selected to test the manual. As reported by The Medical News, the selection process was competitive, out of 65 organizations that submitted proposals only 11 participants were chosen.  

"We are honoured to be selected as one of the field trial sites," said Dr. Michael Bagby, Director of Clinical Research at CAMH. "Our role in the development of DSM-5 is a reflection of CAMH's standing in medical research, particularly in the field of psychiatry and mental disorders." APA has reported that the selection process was very competitive; only 11 organizations were chosen from the 65 that submitted proposals to be considered for a field trial site, and CAMH was the only Canadian site chosen."


"The field trials held at CAMH will be led by Drs. Bruce Pollock, Michael Bagby and Kwame McKenzie. Disorders being studied at CAMH include schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, attenuated psychotic symptoms syndrome, and personality disorders. Clinicians participating in the field trial will evaluate new and existing patients at different stages of treatment using the proposed DSM-5 diagnostic criteria and measures."

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original source The Medical News

Dr. Diane Doran, a professor at UofT's Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, was awarded a research grant worth more than $1 million from The Canadian Patient Safety Institute. As reported by The Medical News, Dr. Doran and her team received the prestigeous grant in order to study patient safety and home care services across Canada.

"The existing literature on the safety of home care in Canada is still vague," says Doran. "This study, which will be the largest pan-Canadian home care safety study of its kind, will attempt to fill in those gaps."

"The Canadian Patient Safety Institute, along with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Institutes of Health Services and Policy Research, Aging, Musculoskeletal Health and Arthritis, and Circulatory and Respiratory Health; The Change Foundation; and the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation, awarded the funding to help generate new knowledge to help improve the safety of home care clients."

"We know that adverse events affect thousands of patients every year in Canada," says Hugh MacLeod, CEO, Canadian Patient Safety Institute. "That is why this research in home care is important to assist with better patient safety outcomes in the continuum of care."

"Results of this research will be released over the next two years. The final report will be released in January of 2013 with the aim of informing change in policy, practice and behaviour in the home care service setting."

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original source The Medical News

Researchers at the Sleep Research Laboratory at Toronto Western Hospital have made inroads into science's understanding of sexsomnia, a disorder which causes people to be in a state of semi-arousal while asleep. As reported by the New York Times, the Toronto scientists conducted one of the first studies that attempts to determine the percentage sexsomnia sufferers among patients with sleep disorders. After reviewing 832 patients seeking help at the hospital's Sleep Laboratory, the Western Hospital researchers found that 7.6 percent of patients reported some form of sexsomnia.

"The study, which has not yet been published, is among the first to try to quantify how prevalent sexsomnia is among patients with sleep problems. (An abstract was to be presented Monday in San Antonio at Sleep 2010, the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies.)"

"The author, Sharon A. Chung, a scientist at the Sleep Research Laboratory at Toronto Western Hospital, says the behavior becomes a problem when it disrupts the normal sleep cycle."

"At night you're supposed to be sleeping," she said in an interview. "Anything that stops you from sleeping at night is bad � not because of the behavior, because it stops you from sleeping."

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original source the New York Times

As reported by Business Week, researchers at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children have conducted a series of studies that change the way babies are immunized. According to the report, giving infants a sugar solution prior to a needle helps them to tolerate the pain.

"Health-care professionals responsible for administering immunizations should consider using sucrose or glucose during painful procedures," study author Denise Harrison, of the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, and her colleagues concluded. "This information is important for health-care professionals working with infants in both inpatient and outpatient settings, as sweet solutions are readily available, have a very short onset of time to analgesia, are inexpensive and are easy to administer."

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original source Business Week