Coffee and a Chat recap of session Jan 10/23 WSFN and Jan 12/23 SR Senior Citizen Centre.

The first two sessions of the Winter-Coffee and a Chat of 2023 were well received with 33 people attending the two venues. Services to Seniors Connie Beaudry started the sessions with introducing the guest speakers and welcoming the participants.

Rod Seib started the session with peer support “the lived experience”. Some aspects to remember when grieving from the loss of a person, pet, job, home etc., it is healthy to acknowledge the loss, waves of grief is “normal”, no judgement on how the right way is to grieve, it is all up to the individual. Don’t get stuck in grief, don’t use substance abuse to grieve, find a healthy way to grieve, possibly with friends, family or even health professionals when needed.

One interesting link to handling grief can be found with Alan Wolfelt https://www.centerforloss.com

We also learned about “My Health Team” The team includes a Primary Care Outreach Nurse, Mental Health Shared Care Counselor, Primary Health Care Provider Assistant, Community Pharmacist, and an Administrative Assistant, Community Social Worker, Community Addictions Peer Support Facilitator (CAPSF) and Chronic Disease Management Nurse (LPN), and a Nurse Practitioner. Access to “My Health Team” call the clinic office at 204-734-6600.

We had a break for coffee and followed up with Andrea Evans giving a presentation about Meditation. She took us through two types of meditation, one being the body scan meditation.

There is an app for your phone or computer called CBT-I that may be helpful to calm the restless mind and encourage healthy sleep.

We broke for a light lunch at 12 noon with more friendly discussions. We are looking forward to the next month’s sessions, February 14th and 16th, topics are eating on a budget with Arthritis and Accounting/budgeting resources.