February 6 , 2006, The Brantford Expositor

Feeling good about wellness
Willett prescribes prevention to help ease stress on health care system

Susan Gamble
Expositor Staff/ Paris

The Willett Hospital may play a surprisingly pivotal role in the critical health-care plans for Brant County.

Nearly completed renovations will help take the Willett in a strong new direction, one that will see the hospital leading the way in preventing diseases and health problems instead of just treating them.

With the removal of the last 40 inpatient beds last September, the Willett has been reconfigured to house several dozen programs that will address some of Brant County's s serious health issues.

Many of the programs are up and running, even during the trasitional phase. Others are moving in as space becomes available.

Some space is being reserved on the chance that the new family health team - announced in December - will also want to be part of the Willett family.

That team, which will include doctors, nurse practitioners, nurses and at least one dietitian, pharmacist and mental health worker - has been invited to lease space at the Willett.

So has the Children's Aid Society, which has taken up the offer and will move at the end of the month from its cramped quarters on Burwell Street in Paris to the Willett. Another leaseholder, the Willett Rehab Centre, is expanding its space.

Renovations are eventually going to encompass the urgent-care area which sees 15,000 patients a year - in order to provide a more comfortable waiting area and streamline the movement of the health professionals.

The plans are exciting, says Tamara Stefanits, the director of wellness and health-care integration at the Willett. "We're trying to develop into a wellness centre that helps people stay out of the hospital," says Stefanits.

It's a concept that's long been talked about, but is now getting government approval and funding.

While certain countries in Europe are well advanced in promoting wellness rather than healing, says Brant Community Healthcare System spokesman Gary Chalk, the plans for the Willett incorporate "the leading edge of health care throughout Canada and North America."

"We just can't maintain this system that's evolved over the years," Chalk explains. "Some programs and treatments have to stay in a hospital setting but prevention and chronic disease control should have been in the community years ago."

With their expensive infrastructure - complex equipment, high-priced staff, and pricey rooms - hospitals are poor choices for running health clinics and training sessions, Chalk said.

"We invest thousands of dollars to get people better," says Chalk, "when we should be instructing people on their health."

A wellness centre can have plenty of programs. The Willett is modelling itself after the Group Health Centre in Sault Ste. Marie, which provides more than 70 services to half of the city's population.

To determine the programs that should be given priority, the Willett's program advisory committee has looked at which ailments are clogging the crowded waiting room at the Brantford General Hospital's emergency room.

Almost all of the top five health issues in which the area ranks far higher than the provincial average have a direct impact on filling the emergency room and taking up hospital beds.

These are heart disease, lung disease, teen pregnancy, injuries, poisonings and mental health problems.

For example, the area has a rate of asthma that's 70 per cent higher than the provincial average. At BGH, young children struggling to catch their breath represent a high proportion of those in emergency.

BGH started offering a Pediatric Puffer Club to help kids and parents better understand how to manage asthma, resulting in fewer visists to the emergency room.

The program's been moved to the Willett as part of the transition and plans are in the works for a program to help adult asthmatics.

That's good news all around, says Stefanits. It helps the patient, the hospital, others who needs services and the taxpayer, she says.

In the case of people suffering from congestive heart failure, they rely heavily on the hospital system and often need to stay for days in order to reduce the congestion. Stefanits hopes a planned congestive heart failure clinic to be held at the Willett will help decrease those visits to the hospital and benefit the patients as well.

Other clinics that are planned include a falls prevention clinic for seniors, a mental health anc addictions clinic and an industrial rehabilitation clinic.

The current clinics being run throughout the transition process include Ever Active (for older adults with complex medical conditions); Active at Any Size (for older obese adults); and REEACH (a rehab, exercise and education program for those with chronic conditions).

Coming soon are a pain self-management clinic, a respiratory clinic and a secondary stroke prevention clinic. Some of the programs need a doctor's referral and most have a minimal fee required.

Because an early diagnosis can play a critical role in keeping people well, the new Willett will also have a heavy emphaiss on diagnostic equipment - screening tools, early detection tests and scans.

The renovations to turn patient rooms into clinic space, meeting rooms and offices are going to cost about $200,000.

About $130,000 of that will go towards new medical therapy equipment and the rest will be spent on remodelling, including reworking several washrooms.

Stefanits can't promise the project will ever be completed because part of the goal is to keep developing programs that will specifically address the needs and problems of Brantford and Brant.

But she does say people can feel secure in the Willett's role. "The programs will be here for as long as they fit the need of the community."