Despite the hot, humid weather, over 35 seniors attended the August congregate dinner held at the Drayton Reformed Church.
After a home-style meal, health promoter and exercise specialist, Sandy Turner updated diners on what’s new at the Minto Rural Health Centre. Turner works with the Minto Mapleton Family Health team located at the centre.
The recently-completed centre is located at the Palmerston and District Hospital.
Current tenants of the facility are family physician Dr. Christopher Cressey, Community Care Access Centre, St. Elizabeth’s Wound Care Clinic, Palmerston and District Hospital Foundation and the Minto-Mapleton Family Health Team. In September, the Community Mental Health Association will be occupying a space at the facility.
Spaces are available for doctors as well as for other tenants.
“With my role as healthpromoter and exercise specialist, I focus on assisting patients with development of their exercise programs,” Turner said.
“The centre has a brand new activity room with state of the art exercise equipment, purchased with monies received through the Ontario Trillium Foundation grant program.”
The activity room’s purpose is to provide a safe, supportive environment to patients. Teaching the skills and benefits of exercise and encouraging users to complete their exercise program is a vital function. Taking new skills learned and continuing to exercise at home or in the community is a goal for each patient.
“Getting a little out of breath is the challenge put to our patients. The room is unsupervised but is covered by OHIP. Any patient of the family health team, regardless of health status, may use the facility on a short-term basis,” Turner explained.
The room contains eight pieces of cardio equipment including treadmills, recumbent bicycles, arm ergometers and the NuStep.
Arm ergometers are designed to meet the fitness needs of individuals who are unable to use their legs for physical activity. These machines offer a cardio workout using the upper body. The unit works like a bicycle for the arms. Using the upper body for cardio elevates the heart rate.
Individuals with spinal cord injuries, multiple sclerosis or other lower body disabilities and those who need a low-impact exercise program or are recovering from foot or leg injury or surgery are suited to this type of exercise.
The NuStep provides a smooth, natural motion that delivers a low impact, total-body cardiovascular and strengthening workout that is easy on the joints.
A space for stretching exercise is available and a mat table useful to individuals who experience difficulty using the floor. The space is suited to those needing cardiac rehabilitation, suffering from lung and heart disease, stroke, arthritis or those with limited activity.
Turner stated statistics show exercise reduces pain from knee osteoarthritis by 47% and slows the progression of dementia and Alzheimers by 50%. Hip fractures are reduced in post menopausal women by 40%. Anxiety lessens by 48% and depression by 30 to 47%.
She stressed patients have to exercise regularly.
“Our goal is to work with health teams to ensure a better quality of life. In the future we will be looking at opening our programs to non patients. We are currently partnered with offices in Mount Forest, Elora and Fergus for some programs,” Turner said.
Upcoming events in conjunction with the health team include cooking classes, workshops on personal relationships, cognitive behavioural therapy, cholesterol and pulmonary rehabilitation.
Information about the Minto Rural Health team is available through family doctors, by calling the Drayton office at 519-638-2110 (Linda) and online at www.mmfht.ca, on Facebook and on Twitter.
