Community life and technology were among the top themes as alumni gathered for the College of Rehabilitation Sciences Homecoming dinner and reception on Sept. 20. The event, held at Canada Inns Health Sciences Centre, featured presentations of research interests by four of the College’s newest faculty members.
“Our focus is on rural and remote, and how we reach out to people,” Reg Urbanowski, Dean, College of Rehabilitation Sciences told the crowd of over 50, which included faculty members and alumni from 1969, 1979, 1984, 1989 and 1999.
Urbanowski pointed to the Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) program as ways that technology will assist patient and client care in the near future.
“We’re looking at how you can use technology to advance the relationship between the therapist and the person receiving care who is living far away,” he said.
AAL is a high-tech project being led by one of the evening’s presenters, Dr. Amine Choukou, assistant professor in the college’s occupational therapy department. The project, a partnership between the U of M and Health Sciences Centre (HSC), involves the construction of a 1,000-square-foot apartment equipped with tele-presence, tele-monitoring and assisted living technologies, the only facility of its kind in Canada.
Choukou, who just celebrated one year with the college, also discussed a project involving body-mapping technology he is currently developing at Riverview Health Centre. The program aims to help the staff keep an eye out for dangers in common areas and the patients’ room by detecting hazardous behaviours and immediately alerting staff members about the type of event and its location so that they can intervene appropriately and on time
“With this prototype, we can extract data points from the human bodies and objects that looks like stick figures and translate that information into a behaviours (such as throwing an object or tripping), and if it’s worth to be communicated, an alert will be send to the staff by text,” he said.
Alumni took interest in the presentation, as many had family members dealing with dementia and other chronic conditions. They also took interest in Dr. Lisa Engel’s presentation, which dealt with the “taboo” subject of financial management and the financial well-being of adults living with cognitive impairment.
“I think some of you thought when I said ‘taboo’ I was going to talk about sex, and then when I said ‘money and finance’ you hoped I would talk about sex,” she joked to the crowd.
Engel, an assistant professor in occupational therapy, said, health-care professionals need to start talking about finance and money a lot more with our patients and clients. “People living with health conditions and disabilities are one of the most financially vulnerable groups in our society,” she said.
Dr. Louise Chartrand, assistant professor in respiratory therapy, also addressed a taboo subject in some area of her research program, which includes the development of an inter-professional simulation related to the withdrawal of life-support.
“We believe that if physicians, nurses and respiratory therapists would actually work together, it might make that difficult task better for families and for the professionals,” she said.
Chartrand’s research program also touches subjects that are less contingent. For instance, she is really interested in improving health outcomes of those who suffers from chronic respiratory disease. She believes that respiratory therapist are allied health professionals with a unique set of knowledge that could potentially be helpful in a primary care setting, especially in rural communities or if they integrate the My Health Teams program.
Dr. Cara Brown, assistant professor in occupational therapy, discussed her research into improving the quality of care for older adults using integrated care models. She said having rehabilitation part of initiatives like the provincial government’s My Health Teams program is a positive step towards being able to provide comprehensive and integrated care to older adult Manitobans living in the community so that they can live at home longer.
“The idea with integrated care is that the services are provided according to the client’s needs, rather than according to where the client ends up in the system,” she said.
Urbanowski also discussed the Kiga mamo anokimin onji minoayawin program, which translated from Ojibway means “We will work together for health and wellness.”
The program is a partnership between the college and First Nations communities in Manitoba, with the goal to bring the college’s services to the community based on their self-identified needs. He noted the program has grown from five to nine communities in less than three years.
University of Manitoba President and Vice-Chancellor David Barnard applauded the program, which also develops learning opportunities for Grade 6-12 students interested in exploring therapy programs as a potential career.
“This partnership creates long-term relationships between faculty, students and community members in each community to develop a model that brings services to those in need,” he said.