This is all about you

Welcome to the second issue of Living Healthy in Atlantic Canada. We’ve had some feedback on the first issue, most of it positive. But my gut (which I have learned to listen to very carefully) started telling me a month or so ago that we were leaning too far into the medical aspect of health. Looking over the photos for this issue, for instance, I realized that the White Coat Syndrome might be as much of a factor in the pages of this magazine as it is in real life. White coats scare people. So do hospitals. And we don’t want to scare anyone.

So although that revelation didn’t arrive in time to alter what we did for this issue – you’ll see some white coats sprinkled throughout the book – we will keep it front-of-mind for the many issues that will follow this one. We’re committed to making this magazine meaningful for people in Atlantic Canada, and it will only be meaningful if it speaks directly to you.

From what we’ve been hearing, you want to read stories that will help you make better health choices, to improve your own life and perhaps prevent you from having to go to the hospital at all. We’re headed in that direction with this issue. The story on hearing impairment among baby boomers, for instance, lays out what has happened and how to prevent noise-induced hearing loss. That starts on page 15. For anyone who is hooked on cigarettes and wants to quit, the story on page 11 will provide insight into why nicotine has such a hold. And the story beginning on page 8 is about what happens when you walk through the doors of the emergency department. Although knowing how triage works won’t make the wait any shorter, it will help you to understand the process and feel empowered to lobby for change.

Creating a magazine that is a pleasure to read while offering practical insight into how the mind and body get off-track, and what others have done to improve their own lives, isn’t as easy as it may sound. But we are committed to figuring this out. With your help, I’m confident we can do just that. ~Jan

Dear editor

Relocated addictions services

I appreciated the article “When Booze is to Blame” in the premier issue of Living Healthy in Atlantic Canada, but would like to correct a misstatement that refers to addiction services in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley.

Your article asserts that “Crosby House and other facilities of its kind are still available, but only to those who can afford the treatment.” In 2003, Addiction Services, Annapolis Valley Health, relocated programs and services formerly housed in the Miller Building (Crosbie Centre) in Kentville to a new facility at Soldiers Memorial Hospital in Middleton, while, at the same time, creating community-based offices in Wolfville and Berwick, and maintaining a clinic in Kentville. We are now serving clients from locations in Wolfville, Kentville, Berwick, Middleton and Annapolis Royal. In 2007-2008, the government increased addictions funding by approximately $550,000, to enhance two residential structured treatment programs, one in Cape Breton and another (we call it Making Changes) in Middleton, at Soldiers Memorial Hospital.

Jim Morton, MSW, RSW
District Manager, Addiction Services,
Annapolis Valley Health, Kentville, NS

Editor’s note: Nova Scotia has never funded a program that exceeds 28 days, which some people believe is not enough to educate the concurrent user about his or her problem and assist them in creating permanent lifestyle changes. If someone has been labelled by an addiction services worker as having a concurrent disorder and has tried all the resources available in NS to get well and can’t, they can be sent out of province to a long-term, residential facility.