Rotary Club of Belleville - 21 to 27 October 2010 - Visit 1

The RC of Belleville – 91^st year – 135 members 

This is where our incredible journey began – first impressions – the team and I  were introduced to the unique Canadian hospitality and Rotary Clubs, members engaged, full of fun, laughter, much noise, very busy, tight program, happy bucks, fine sessions and heaps of projects happening.

In summary – what we did...

Introduction to and the regular sampling of Tim Hortons,  the Canadian drive through and Canadian Embassy as McDonald’s is in OZ.

Tour of Prince Edward County, sampling maple cheese, cheese curds, other unique delicacies not always available in Australia – met Rotarian Lillian in Picton which is 20 minutes south east of Belleville

Visit to Loyalist College – similar to our TAFE Colleges

Travel to and from the District Conference – see photos

Dinner at various restaurants

Rotary meeting on Monday at the Ramada Hotel

Great fun, fellowship, noise and team thoroughly enjoyed and were well received with their presentation.
Visit to the Town Hall to meet the Mayor - Elections were held this day all over Canada - view the visit here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xy8f1cE0FLE

Pumpkin Carving – newly learnt skills!

Vocational visits are covered separately

Having the Dalren van to move us around was of real value and saved having to be driven by different vehicles.

Karen Baker did a famous job and to cater for each of our special vocational and cultural interests

On tour with Rotarian Lillian...

Farewell night Belleville...

Pumpkin Carving - making it happen...

Pumpkin Carving...done!

Summary of visit to Qunte Health Care by Alyssa

Matt I, Matthew J and I woke up today with an early start and met our host for the day Michael Whiteman, the Manager for Patient Services for Mental Health, outside Quinte Health Care (QHC) hospital. With a cask size container of Tim Horton’s coffee in hand we sat down with Michael and Paul VandeGraaf to talk about the hospital systems and how they interlink with the police,the general hospital mental health funding and how all the hospital programs interlink. Their programs included:

• Acute Mental Health Inpatient unit 
• Crisis Intervention Centre
• 310-Open...Open Line, Open Mind
• Psychiatric Day Hospital
• Assertive Community Treatment Team
• Parent, Child and Youth Program
• Mental Health Clinic

Sargent Matt left us to spend time with his Bellevillian Police counterparts; whilst Matthew J and I receive a grand tour brand new mental health facility which will open in the next few months. This new facility had spectacular views over Lake Ontario. Not only that, the facilities appeared warm and inviting rather than emitting a clinical feeling some hospitals have. After a few minor OHS adjustments, this new facility will really make a difference for the consumers receiving hospital support and the staff that work there.

After this, Matthew and I viewed the hospital wards, spoke with a few of the friendly staff and then met with the executive committee running the hospital.

During lunch, Matthew and I provided a presentation to the staff about what kind of programs we run in mental health in Australia. They were particularly interested in the housing and accommodation support program (HASI) we have.

After our presentations, Matthew went to look at the crisis intervention service with Michael Whiteman, whilst I went with James Huff (Occupational Therapist) and Michael (Peer support worker) and completed some fly by visits of a mental health drop in centre that also ran needle exchange program. As our drop in centre’s in Australia (Day to Day Living in the Community) do not the D&A element to their programs, it was interesting to see the similarities and differences in how things were operationalised.

We subsequently visited MHS, which is an non government organization (NGO) which is somewhat similar to the organisation I work for in Australia, PRA, in terms of services (one on one support, groups, housing etc.).

Lastly, I was taken back to Michael and  James’ program, the Assertive Community Treatment Team (ACTT) which is a multidisciplinary unit managed by Michael Whiteman. The goal of the Assertive Community Treatment Team (ACTT) is to keep people who have been diagnosed with severe mental illness such as schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder or bipolar disorder, among others, out of the hospital and help them to have a life that is not dominated by having a mental illness. We mainly discussed how they coordinate care, medication, counseling, and put in psychosocial supports for consumers living in the community. I was surprised and pleased to hear that we utalise some of the same psychosocial needs assessment tools (adapted versions of the Camberwell’s Assessment of Needs).

Overall we had a fantastic day and felt that we could share in a bidirectional way a lot of valuable information about mental health service provision.

Thanks to all from the hospitality, and the informative and interesting day!