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PORT LUDLOW VILLAGE COUNCIL WELLNESS COMMITTEE Tom Stone, Chair Tom Stone (At Work & at Festival by the Bay 2011) MISSION STATEMENT: The purpose of the Port Ludlow Village Council Wellness Committee is to assist residents in accessing relevant wellness information that supports their personal health care choices. GOALS: Relevant information will be provided through the following three tracks: Wellness Education Forums Wellness Education Resource Center Wellness Support Groups OBJECTIVES: Annually, there will be four Wellness Education Forums offered to our community. By the end of the calendar year, a Wellness Education Resource presence will be established through written, online and with a physical presence in the community. By the end of the calendar year, a needs assessment for Wellness Support Groups will be completed with plans for development of new support groups. See also: "Wellness Committee: Its Goals and Activities," PL VOICE, October 2011 (Click, then scroll to p.25) The complete Sept/Oct Report of the Committee can be found here! Click! Wellness Committee: Its Goals and Activities The Wellness Committee celebrates its first anniversary in April 2012. A year earlier, an organizational meeting took place in the Bay Club where a group of Port Ludlow health advocates (in cluding many health professionals) met to identify health and wellness education needs in the community and develop an initial list of health concerns from which more specific topics were to be selected for the health forums of the first year. The Committee has been formed in response to changes in American healthcare that make it difficult for patients to communicate with their doctors and be sure they are making the right healthcare choices. The Committee has taken a three-pronged approach to making information more available to the residents of Port Ludlow, using educational forums, establishing an education resource center and developing wellness support groups. The following are comments from the heads of these areas. Organizers of Health Education Forums, Tom Boughner of Home Instead Senior Care and Peggy Schafran, write the “continuum of care” available today far exceeds the options of a generation ago. Navigating those options and finding the right ones can be daunting. A series of health forums to demystify choices will alternate between the Bay and Beach Clubs. The first with Dr. Michael Haberpointner will be on Wednesday, October 12, 6:00 p.m. at the Beach Club. (See the related article on page 5.) Additional forums will be scheduled every few months. Ursel Krumme, RN MA, reports that the Education Resource Center has begun compiling reference materials of patient decision aids for high priority health conditions such as heart attack, stroke and diabetes. The notebooks are available for review and also at the Health Forums (until a more permanent location can be found). Kathleen Traci is setting up a caregiver support group. She writes that caregiver’s schedules often prevent them from meeting on a regular basis. They have told her they would like to be made aware of special forums and area events that would provide them needed information. The Jefferson County Caregiver Coalition is presenting a free caregiver conference entitled “A Time for You” on Saturday, October 1, 8:45 a.m.-3:30 p.m. at Quimper Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 2333 San Juan Avenue in Port Townsend. Liz Taylor, founder of the Aging Well Consortium, is the keynote speaker. The Wellness Committee also is establishing a weight loss support group similar to the support group that has been active for two years at the Beach Club. The group will meet on the first and third Mondays of the month from 10:30 to 11:00 a.m. with a weigh-in from 10:20 to 10:30 a.m. The first meeting will be at the Bay Club on Monday, October 17. Interested persons should contact Kathy Traci at 437-7874 or tracipkt@aol.com. For more information on the Committee and to obtain health and wellness related information, go to its website, plhealth.org. ABOUT PLHEALTH This Web site is "under construction", i.e. it represents many kinds of "work in progress". It originated in January 2010 as part of a community effort to assemble wellness oriented information and Web sites which were potentially useful for the discussion of health issues and options for residents of Port Ludlow. It now has become somewhat better organized and has also been linked to the recent effort of the Port Ludlow Village Council to establish a Wellness Committee, initially consisting of three initiatives, namely: organizing quarterly Health & Wellness Forums, the establishment of an Education Resource Center, and the facilitation of Support Groups. It is hoped that the Web site will prove useful in helping residents access appropriate and reliable online information -- with or without additional one-on-one navigational assistance. We will try to go beyond linking to information about providers, disease conditions and treatment options, but also to refer to choice situations and "decision aids", i.e. concepts and tools suitable for preparing for and engaging in shared decision-making with physicians and other providers. The individuals behind this assembly of resources cannot be responsible for the content of the sites to which they have provided links. No part of this site should ever be construed as providing medical advice. (See full disclaimer on the bottom of this page!) All users are urged to provide critiques & suggestions related to this site to the organizers of the Resource Center. "PORT LUDLOW ONLINE" PLHEALTH.ORG is loosely connected to other Port Ludlow Web portals. These Web sites (Port Ludlow Archives, The Voice, Port Ludlow Today and Port Ludlow Village Council) are based on the volunteer work of Port Ludlow residents committed to improving communication within the community using different Internet technologies (including for some of them, "content management systems" [CMS]). These sites differ in content, organization, focus and intent; thus, they add up to a wealth of information and a rich local knowledge base, probably quite unique for a community of the size of Port Ludlow. APRIL 5, 2011 MEETING AT THE BAY CLUB Convened by Tom Stone, PLVC President, an organizational meeting for a "Port Ludlow Village Council Wellness Committee" was held on April 5, 2011 at the Bay Club. A wide representation of residents from the community provided lively input and support. Among the attendees were health professionals representing physicians, nurses, home care providers, caregivers, physical therapists, occupational therapists and health educators along with many actively involved community members . A great start! The purpose of the meeting was to identify wellness and health information needs of the community and to explore whether such needs could initially be best served through regular Wellness Education Forums, a Wellness Education Resource Center, and an initiative to encourage and facilitate Support Groups. A diversity of wellness issues and interests were reduced to a list of 18 topics identified for "forums"; beginning exploration of a physical site for brochures and pamphlets along with a computer for Internet exploration with a volunteer to assist; and identification of current support groups and those needed. The enthusiasm at the first meeting was contagious. Please contact Tom Stone or Ursel Krumme with your suggestions or areas wishing to volunteer.