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Author Archive for: jentwistle

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Inspired

This is the amazing story of the beautiful and amazing art created by Paul Smith, an inspiration to us all.

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Be Prepared

The phrase “be prepared” may be the Boy Scout motto, but it’s for everyone! Disaster can strike at any time. While the size of these can vary, the one common denominator is that you never truly know when it will hit.  With the climate change we are experiencing, natural disasters are becoming more common. It is Emergency Preparedness Week in Canada and the Federal Government is reminding you and your family to create a plan and ensure you have an emergency kit prepared that will help ensure your survival for 72 hours. (www.getprepared.gc.ca) This kit should include the basics of:

  • Water
  • Non perishable foods
  • Medical supplies (like bandages, alcohol wipes, gauze pads)
  • Candles and matches
  • Blankets and extra clothes
  • Activity books and toys to entertain young children
  • And don’t forget about the animals in your home—ensure you save food and water for them as well!

We have written about Emergency Preparedness and specifically how this relates to people with disabilities in the past. We encourage you to please take a look at this valuable information: Emergency Preparedness.

Remember… always be prepared!

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Inspired

“Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone?”

Joni Mitchell, Big Yellow Taxi

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Nurture The Mental Health of Your Employees

Nearly half of all Canadians experience some form of mental health concerns at work. Mental health issues are the number one cause of short term and long term disability leave.  So what can be done to create happier, healthier employees who are more productive and miss less time off work?

In Episode 5 of our Occupational Therapy Video (OT-V) Series we discuss how employers, employees, Occupational Therapists and medical teams can help employees overcome mental health stressors and other stressors at work.

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40 Years 40 Gratitude’s

Julie Entwistle, MBA, BHSc (OT), BSc (Health / Gerontology)

Milestones are important.  They frame a lifetime.  Whether you are taking your first steps, graduating high school, getting married, or retiring, these life events symbolize where we are at on our journey.  Personally, I am at that mid-life crossroad we call 40.  For some just a number, for others a crisis, or a time to pause, reflect and make a new plan for the next four decades.  For me this is a bit of both.  If 40 is the new 30 I have nothing to complain about.  In fact I think I might be at the top of my game as I turn this corner.  But the transition comes with thoughts, feelings and emotions that have taken time to process.

I started planning 40 at 35.  I wrote a bucket list, developed a five year plan, and started looking forward to this event.  But as it approached my feelings varied between “so what” (who cares) and “so what” (what will I do to celebrate that is memorable and meaningful).  I wanted to celebrate then I didn’t.  I wanted to go away then I wanted to be alone.  At one point I just thought “I am going to own this mid-life crisis and stop perseverating on what it all means”.  Then I got clarity reading the wonderful book “Be Happy”.

One of the exercises in this exceptional book is called 100 Gratitude’s.  Simple but effective, you write down 100 things you are grateful for.  After all, being grateful is above all else on the list of ways to live a happy life.  So I made my list of the things I am thankful for and realized a theme:  it included people, experiences, and simple life pleasures.  Nothing material, vain or things I bought.  Just things I have lived, valued and appreciated in my 40 years.

This gave me an idea.  For my 40th I would write 40 letters of gratitude to those people in my life that I truly cherish.  These letters would be nothing but a positive reflection of how important that person is to me and what it is about them that I am grateful for.  It was important to me that these were “letters” – the old fashioned hand-written and mailed with pen and crafty lined paper.  I am not sure why, but there is something personal and ageless about our handwriting – sloppy or legible.

I did decide to vacation for my birthday.  I had a strong urge to have my feet in the sand and my eyes on the ocean while soaking in the sights, smells and sensations of being alive.  I will be disconnected from the hectic virtual world we all now occupy and will savour the mental clarity this will offer.  Maybe I will make a new bucket list, or a new 5 or 10 year plan, or maybe I won’t.  Perhaps I don’t always have to be so driven and this milestone is about slowing down. I will mail my letters before I leave so these become special surprises to those that know I have reached this milestone with their love surrounding me.

Whether you are over or under the magical number of 40, perhaps consider creative and impactful ways to make life events truly meaningful for both you and the people around you.  After all, the best way to feel grateful is to be grateful.  My exercise of 40 Years and 40 Gratitude’s will cost me some paper, ink, stamps and my time.  Priceless if you ask me.

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The Government Gets it Wrong – Again!

Sorry people of Ontario, but I feel that the Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO) is an embarrassment.  In short, FSCO is a FIASCO. 

FIASCO is responsible for regulating and governing our provincial auto insurance product.  And what a mess it is.  If you read up on articles about auto insurance, benefits and changes, the comments are hilarious.  Ontarians seem to have a strong dislike for both FIASCO and Insurance Companies.

Working in this field since 2000, I have witnessed many changes.  Some good, most bad.  I have studied this product and written academic papers on the evolution of this since the SABS was introduced in 1996.  Well, more bad news.

Let me describe it this way:  we are all required to purchase car insurance – it is “mandatory” if we want to drive legally.  Insurance companies are “for profit” and compete with each other to sell this product.  The cheap insurance is typically run by crappy companies that have a culture of “deny first” and these will generally treat you poorly at the time of claim.  Like a family member of mine that was ignored by one such company for 2 years after a serious accident to finally receive a cheque to “go away”, you will get what you pay for.

So here is what is happening now.  In 2010 your benefits, or the product you were paying for at the time of renewal was reduced by 97% for “minor injuries” and by 50% for “severe injuries”.  I wrote about this previously and used the analogy that if you were buying a computer (as a comparison) instead of getting the entire computer, you would now just get the monitor for the same price.  Well recently they came out with the next round of executions.  They are suggesting that the benefits for catastrophic injury (the most severely injured that suffer long term and devastating losses) will also be cut in half.  The seriously injured again get hit with another 15% reduction (a total of 65% in 5 years).  No change to minor injury because the only way to honestly reduce that further would be to axe it altogether.  Here is the direct link to the information about what is happening:  http://www.fin.gov.on.ca/en/budget/ontariobudgets/2015/ch1f.html#ch1f_18

But to drive this home I tried to think of another analogy.  I think it would be like you getting and paying your property tax bill (at its usual rates) to then go and pave your driveway to be told “sorry you don’t own that part of your property anymore – we cut that from your property line last year”.  Or, as taxpayers who pay into OHIP one day we go to the hospital in an emergency and are told “sorry, OHIP doesn’t cover emergencies anymore”.  If the stories were comparable, the government would have told you about these changes in some “fine print” but perhaps you would not have noticed.  In fact, they hope you don’t.  After all, if you truly understood what they were doing before they did it, you would join the fight to make a change.

So what can we do?  My peers, colleagues and clients are going to the MPP’s.  They hope that our elected officials can talk some sense into FIASCO.  However, we have done that before with little resolve.  Sorry government officials, you repeatedly let the people of Ontario down when you don’t help us fight for our basic rights on a mandatory product.  As FIASCO says these changes are for “consumer protection” then we can assume that the result will be drastic reductions to our premiums, right?  If you are cutting my coverage by 97% and 65% I expect an equal reduction in my premiums.  My usual $1000 bill for car insurance on my Caravan will now be $30.00, right?  I am sure my refund is in the mail. 

Please join us in the fight against changes to this product by contacting your local elected MPP.  You can find your local MPP here:

http://www.ontla.on.ca/web/members/members_current.do?locale=en&ord=Riding&dir=ASC&list_type=all_mpps