Western Regional Wellness Coalition

Western Region

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Fall/Winter 2015

Moms 4 Moms in Bay St. George, page 3 Beat Holiday Stress, page 2

Healthy Eating

Physical Activity Tobacco Control Injury Prevention

Mental Health Promotion

Child & Youth Development

Environmental Health

Health Protection

HO-HO-HOLIDAY STRESS!!!!!

Heart disease and stroke are the leading killers of women in Newfoundland and Labrador,

yet many women do not recognize these conditions as a major threat to their health. The

good news is, women can reduce their risk of heart attack and stroke (up to 80%!) by making simple lifestyle

changes.

The Heart & Stroke Foundation of Newfoundland & Labrador are eager to share this message and have

launched the My Heart In My Hands program to help them do just that. The goal of this program is to

strengthen awareness of the risks associated with heart attack and stroke, and to empower women through-

out our province to take greater responsibility of their own heart health- - to take matters into their own

hands.

For more information, or to get involved in your community,

please contact your local Wellness Facilitator or visit

www.MyHeartInMyHands.ca.

Beat the Holiday Stress & Avoid Overindulgence

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The holiday season is fast approaching & people want to Eat, Drink & Be Merry. The holidays can be a joyful time of year but can also be a time of stress. Christmas brings overindulgence – people spend more money, eat more food & drink more alcohol. The holidays also remind us of our family, friends and the good times shared together. This can be difficult for people who are away from family and friends or have lost loved ones. Here are some tips to help beat the holiday stress & avoid overindulgence:

Spend time with others to get the most out of this holiday season. Set priorities to stay on budget - gifts, decorations, food and enter-

taining. It’s so easy to get caught up in the spirit of Christmas and spend too much.

Give the gift of kindness – help & include others. Enjoy foods you love – choose a balance between healthy foods &

treats. Relax, breathe & enjoy! Make the sober choice…enjoy non-alcoholic drinks. If you choose to drink or serve alcohol:

Take your time, drink lots of water, eat before you drink alcohol. Know that only time sobers you up – coffee, cold showers, ener-

gy drinks or food do not make you sober. You may still be under the influence of alcohol even the next morning.

Be the perfect host – help arrange rides, don’t over serve, offer non-alcoholic options (Mocktails) & give time for guests to sober up.

Don’t drink & drive – arrange a safe ride home – take a cab, arrange a designated driver or stay the night.

If you are experiencing a difficult time and you need support, contact your local Mental Health & Addiction Services office

For more information, contact Tara Welsh, Regional Mental Health Promotion Consultant or Tracey Wells-Stratton, Regional Addictions Prevention Consultant at (709) 634-4171.

Mental Health & Addiction Services

Corner Brook (Adult) 634-4506

Corner Brook (Children/Youth) 634-4171

Stephenville 643-8740

Port aux Basques 695-6250

Burgeo 886-2185

Deer Lake 635-7830

Norris Point 458-2381

Port Saunders 861-9125

Mental Health Crisis Line 1-888-737-4668

Health Line 811 or 1-888-709-2929

Beach Blanket Punch Mix 3 oz. Grapefruit juice, with 3 oz. Cranberry juice, top with soda water. Enjoy!

Ticker Tom is an alley cat, who made some poor lifestyle choices. He was not active, he ate too much junk food, and he even smoked! Ticker Tom soon learned that he felt much better when he ate healthy, was active, and stayed smoke-free. This is the story of Ticker Tom, an adorable Tom Cat who learned the error of his ways and now

acts as a role model to young people in our province. The premise of the Ticker Tom programs is simple – use fun and interactive games to promote healthy eating, active living, and being smoke-free to young people ages 6-12 years. Go Healthy with Ticker Tom can be incorporated into an existing community pro-gram in a variety of ways: daily activities, weekly activities, or spontaneously added when it best fits your needs. There are a variety of promotional and activity re-sources that you can borrow, including the Ticker Tom mascot! For more information on how you can use the Go Healthy with Ticker Tom Program, please contact the Western Regional Wellness Coalition, or your local Wellness Fa-cilitator.

During the fall of 2014, Public Health in Stephenville collaborated with a community mom, and the South-western Community Action Committee to launch the Bay St. George moms4moms Breastfeeding Support Group. This program is a practice-based initiative in breastfeeding support with the overall goal to increase breastfeeding support and duration of breastfeeding in South-western NL. Public Health Nurse, Marie Bud-den, adapted the program from the BOOBS Project in Corner Brook and On October 15, 2014 trained eight staff members from the South-western NL Family Resource Centers and one Stephenville Family Physician, in a full day Train the Trainer Program. On November 6, 2014, three of these trainers then provided a full-day training for 11 Peer Support Moms. The Western Regional Wellness Coalition provided a $1000.00 Commu-nity Grant for this project. This support helped to offset the cost of a toolkit that was provided to each Support Mother, bookmarks used for promotional material, healthy lunches provided for the training days, travel and childcare to support moms to be able to at-tend the training, as well as to initiate a Breastfeeding Library at the Re-source Center to support breastfeeding mothers. The Support Moms are vol-unteers from South-western NL. These moms have breastfed for at least 6 months and have volunteered to provide peer support to new breastfeeding moms. Support is provided through texting, email or telephone only, with no face-to-face contact. Part of the training for the moms promotes referring questions out of their scope of practice back to the Public Health Nurse or Family Physician. Peer moms utilize and refer moms to the Breastfeeding Handbook, Best Start Online Program, Baby Friendly Online Site, and the Facebook sites for Baby Friendly NL and Breastfeeding Moms in NL. Along with the peer support, BSGmoms4momsBSG also provides a Public Health Nurse to attend weekly Babytime Sessions at the Family Resource Center in Stephenville and to answer questions about breastfeeding or provide educa-tion sessions as requested by participants. A follow-up meeting of trainers, resource moms and support moms to update current breastfeeding infor-mation and to evaluate the program occurred in September 2015.

Go Healthy with Ticker Tom

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Moms 4 Moms in Bay St. George

Contact Us: P.O. Box 2005 Corner Brook, NL, A2H 6J7 Phone: (709) 637-5000 ext. 5355 Fax: (709) 637-5624

www.westernwellnesscoalition.com

Wellness In Action!

WRWC Community & School Grants Program If you are planning an activity, event, or project that focuses on one or more of the priority areas, you may be eligible to apply for a community or school grant!

Applications & guidelines available online at: www.westernwellnesscoalition.com

Community Grants Program Community groups within the geographical bounda-

ries of the WRWC can apply. Maximum Funding: $1000 Deadlines: January 30, April 30, & September 30

School Grants Program Schools located between Port aux Basques and Bart-

lett’s Harbor- -any teacher, student, principal, or par-ent may apply.

Maximum Funding: $1000 Deadlines: February 1 & November 1

Contact a Wellness Facilitator: Lisa Henley 646-3728 ♦ Susan Madore 632-2920 ♦ Cara Welsh 458-2381, Ext. 268

From the Garden to the Table During the summer of 2015, the Humber Arm South 50+ Club engaged 25 area seniors in a Food Skills Workshop on Container Gardening. With the support of $650 from the WRWC Community Grants Program, and partnership with a variety of community organizations, this initiative was successful in building knowledge and confidence of healthy, tradi-tional food skills in their community. Way to go!

For more information on Food Skills Workshops, please contact your local Wellness Facilitator.

Bullies Tear Down Hampden Academy was successful in receiving a WRWC School Grant of $800 to help support an interactive wellness day, engaging over 100 students. With partnerships from the RCMP and Western Health, this wellness event utilized team-building activities, presentations, and dis-plays to educate and create greater awareness on anti-bullying, cyber bullying, mental health, healthy eating, physical activity, and tobacco use. Keep up the great work!

Building A Culture of Wellness The Cow Head Conservation & Heritage Committee was successful in receiving a WRWC Community Grant of $450 to support their initiative Connecting Newfoundland Culture to a Culture of Wellness. During this initiative, the committee plans to promote healthy eating, mental health, and provide an opportunity for children and youth to connect, learn, and build skills through shared knowledge from parents & grandparents. A variety of interactive activities are planned:

Sewing a traditional “Crazy Quilt”

Life of a Trapper: skills & knowledge of trapping

Dancing the traditional way An amazing way to link Newfoundland tradition with health & wellness!

Summer Sports & Recreation With the support of a WRWC Community Grant for $800, the Burnt Islands Recreation Commission where able to purchase small sports equipment to aid in the successful establishment of a summer sports & recreation program. Lasting 7-weeks, this Monday-to-Friday program

engaged 47 local children (preschool to 14 years) in a variety if sports and physical activi-ties. This group also partnered with the RCMP and the area Community Health Nurse to incor-porate education on helmet safety and sun safety.

Congratulations to the Burnt Islands Recreation Commission for a very successful project and promoting active living in your community!

Western Regional Wellness Coalition Steering Committee:

Dave Jones – AIDS Committee of NL Janice Galliott – Grenfell Campus Jade Kearley- Community Mental Health Initiative Alison Dower – Western Health Bernice Hancock – Community Education Network Mariel Parcon – Western Health Cara-Leigh Wyllie – Canadian Cancer Society Robin Wight – City of Corner Brook Christine Young – Humber Community YMCA Wendy Lowden – Ministerial Association Ashley Christopher – Community Youth Network

Thank you for your continued support!