Response to questions...  from our September Speaker: John Hirdes.        

Here are some points to be shared with Probus members:

1. Information about caregiver resources in the Waterloo Region – there is an excellent website called YourCare+ that one of my former PhD students created. The link is: https://www.yourcareplus.ca.
   
   This website includes practical information about caregiver issues as well as links to other resources related to home and community care.
   
   
2. Some asked about where they could get the interRAI Check Up assessment done. There are three options:
   1. Go to https://www.yourcareplus.ca/learn/check-up-assessment to do the assessment yourself on-line. You can do this for yourself or on behalf of a family member. The website will give you a report that you can share with your family doctor or with Ontario Health at Home if you seek home care services.
   2. The New Vision Family Health Team uses the interRAI Check Up to assess older adults in the complex care program and they use the Self-reported Carer Needs Assessment that I talked about to evaluate the needs of caregivers. You could contact Chantelle Mensink (Nurse Practitioner) there to find about more about their program. I am uncertain if it is limited to members of that Family Health Team.
   3. If you think that you or a family member needs home care, you can contact Ontario Health at Home directly https://ontariohealthathome.ca/region/waterloo-wellington/, They will do an initial assessment with you over the phone (or in hospital if you are there). Based on that assessment they may initiate services based on your needs and then would follow-up with a more comprehensive clinical assessment (also developed by interRAI), if needed.
      
      To get more information about my international research team, you can go to www.interrai.org for the main website. If you go to the https://interrai.org/#!/webTV section of that site you will find lots of videos by interRAI researchers on many different topics. This video deals with the interRAI Check Up: https://interrai.org/#instruments-webtv--1.
3. You mentioned that you have a small discussion group that may form as a follow-up. If you have members who would like to get engaged in our research program as advisors or participants let me know. Melissa Ziraldo from my team coordinates many of our projects. There are three studies that we are seeking participants for (Melissa is the contact person):
   1. Anyone who would like to be part of our on-going caregiver assessment study. If your discussion group members were willing to complete the survey, we would meet with them afterward to have an open discussion about their experiences and questions that arise from having done the SCAN.
   2. We are seeking adults of all ages, including older adults, who would be willing to test and provide feedback on a new self-reported mental health assessment. You could do this yourself or you could have a friend/family member participate. You do NOT need to have a serious mental health problem to participate. In fact, we want as diverse a range of participants possible. That means we also need participants who feel they have no major mental health concerns.
   3. We need persons with lived experience who have had major mental health concerns OR who have cared for an older relative with major mental health concerns to serve on an advisory panel for a major grant about palliative care, home care, and long-term care for older adults experiencing major mental health problems. This would involve 2-3 in person small group meetings a year led by colleagues at the University of Waterloo.

If you have additional questions contact: John Cullen at  jcullen1000@gmail.com

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