Building Capacity and Sustainability for Behavioural Supports Alberta

"The train's leaving the station - let's keep it on the tracks"

A one-day symposium sponsored by Behavioural Supports Alberta and the Institute for Continuing Care Education & Research, with funding from Alberta Innovates Health Solutions

Guest speakers:

Carol Ward, MD, Geriatric Psychiatrist, Tertiary Mental Health Services, Hillside Centre, Kamloops, BC

Ken LeClair, MD, Co-Director, Centre for Studies in Aging and Health, Providence Care, and Professor, Geriatric Psychiatry, Kingston, Ontario.

Doug Vincent, Director, Provincial Planning & Capacity Management, Addictions and Mental Health, Alberta Health Services

Sandy Marcynuk, Program Consultant, Planning & Capacity, Addictions and Mental Health, Alberta Health Services

Sharleen Ravnsborg, Chair of Health Care Aide, Faculty of Health Studies, NorQuest College

Sandy Hodgetts, Associate Professor, Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Alberta

We will be discussing:

• How to build capacity in both regulated and unregulated care providers dealing with challenging/responsive behaviours.
• How to support care providers to better deal with challenging/responsive behaviours.
• How to sustain the capacity and support for care providers.

Guest speaker Carol Ward 

Carol is a geriatric psychiatrist who moved to Kamloops from Ottawa in the latter half of 2005.  She is part of the IHA tertiary mental health team.   Her office is located at the Hillside Centre which is a 47 bed acute tertiary mental health facility.  Her primary responsibility within tertiary is to provide the physician leadership as part of an inter-disciplinary team for the geriatric psychiatry in-patient unit at Hillside (an IHA and NHA resource). She has established outreach services to all of the long-term care facilities in Kamloops in partnership with the community based Elderly Services Team in Kamloops.  She is also an Assistant Clinical Professor with the Department of Psychiatry  at UBC.

Carol moved with her family from Ottawa where she had worked as the Service Director, Geriatric Psychiatry Outreach Service to LTC, Royal Ottawa Hospital. She was an Assistant Professor with the University of Ottawa, Department of Psychiatry faculty for 13 years.   The service was an example of an interdisciplinary collaborative care outreach model. 

Current projects of interest include work with the IHA Residential Care Antipsychotic Working Group, the BC BPSD Algorithm Working Group, Shared-Care Polypharmacy Initiative, Clinical Advisory Group- CLeAR for the BC Patient Safety and Quality Council,  the Kamloops PIECES Demonstration Project,  Task Force for Air Ambulance transfers of older adults for mental health reasons and co-chair of the UBC Tertiary Geriatric Psychiatry Committee.

Carol  is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeions of Canada in Geriatric Psychiatry and has her specialty certificate in geriatric psychiatry through the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. She is a  member of the AAGP, IPA, BC Psychogeriatric Association and is on the Board of Directors of the CAGP.

Guest speaker Kenneth Le Clair

Ken Le Clair is the Division of Geriatric Psychiatry and  Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Health Sciences; and Co-Director, Centre for Studies on Aging and Health, Providence Care, Kingston.  He is also the Regional Development Coordinator of Geriatric Psychiatry Services, Partnerships and Community Services, Providence Care - Mental Health Services and Executive Clinical Lead, Behavioural Supports Ontario, South Eastern Ontario.

His work has been recognized with a Lifetime Achievement Award, Canadian Academy of Geriatric Psychiatry and the Host Country Award for Significant Contributions to Geriatric Psychiatry, International Psychogeriatric Association. 

Ken’s current areas of interest include Interdisciplinary Education in Aging and Mental Health and Shared Care and Knowledge Transfer and Exchange in Mental Health in Community Primary Care and Senior Health. His major interest is working towards the development of an integrated community health system, which is supportive and responsive to a growing number of older persons with complex mental health and cognitive disorders.

AGENDA

This session is supported by funding from Alberta Innovates Health Solutions.