Health
What to do in those first few days after an accident
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Schlachter- Pursuit Physiotherapy
So you hit a deer, or a car hit you, or you slid into a pole. You may have whiplash. This article is for those people who have been seen in the ER and sent home with a diagnosis of whiplash, or feel that aren’t hurt bad enough to warrant an Emergency Room visit. If you are at all concerned about your symptoms, please see your doctor. This article is speaking about the muscle and soft tissue injuries that can occur with whiplash. These are some tips you can use immediately after the injury.
It is best you see a physiotherapist for treatment, but these are some things to
start with until your appointment.
During a collision, your head is moved suddenly on your neck. The muscles, ligaments, and soft tissues in your neck are not prepared for these sudden movements, and can get overstretched, or strained and sprained. Like all acute injuries there will be inflammation and pain, and a risk of re-injury for the first 3-10 days. So for these early days, you might have to modify your job task or hours, rest your neck, avoid lifting, avoid leaning over where your neck muscles have to support your head-your head and brain weigh approximately 11 pounds. This first time frame is all about resting your neck ligaments and muscles.
Resting your neck for the first few days is very helpful to healing. I suggest after you have been up and about-possibly to work, or doing home chores, to lie flat on your back with ice under your neck for 10 minutes. This means usually with one pillow only-you shouldn’t feel “propped up on pillows”. That position actually pushes your head and neck forward-more overstretching. Just a reminder that our body doesn’t stay strong if we rest too much, so keep this limited to the first few days.
There are often things we do that we don’t realize can cause strain to your neck.
- Carrying anything over about 7 lbs will cause strain to the neck muscles. Choose carefully what you carry, and whatever you do have to carry, use 2 hands and keep it close to your chest. If you carry bags in one hand for example, that bag is pulling down on those muscles that have been already overstretched.
- Be aware of how you are sitting both at work, and while driving. During both activities we are concentrating, and often leaning forward. You might have to adjust your seat to have more back support, and head support.
- After a shower, wearing a damp towel on your wet hair adds weight to your head that your neck muscles aren’t up to supporting. Or vigorously shaking your head to style and dry your hair is too aggressive for the neck.
- Changing the laundry can be a challenge for the neck-either pulling wet, heavy jeans out of a washer, to looking into that front loading washer to make sure you got all the socks. You may have to ask for help with these tasks or make the loads smaller or get right down on your hands and knees to look into the washer.
- Unsupported leaning forward or prolonged looking down makes the neck muscles work hard to hold your head up. Tasks that require this are bathing children in the tub, doing dishes, wiping muddy dog feet, reaching down into the freezer. Frequently our leisure activities have us looking down for long periods, such as texting and playing games on our devices, reading, sewing, doing puzzles.
- In Alberta climates, there is snow in the winter. Those first couple of weeks, I would suggest getting help pushing the grocery cart through the snowy parking lot-when we feel good, we don’t realise the effort moving one of those carts takes and it’s especially worse after a fresh snowfall. Also asking for help with shovelling is a good idea-lots of leaning forward looking down, and lifting with shovelling.
So make sure in those first few days after an accident you rest your neck, and make an appointment to see a physiotherapist. Our staff at Pursuit Physiotherapy would be happy to help you get back to your normal function, strength, and comfort level.
Posted by Leanne Schlachter
Pursuit Physiotherapy in Red Deer, promotes balanced, healthy living through dedicated, individualized physical therapy for those in pain, unable to participate fully in their daily activities, wanting to maximize their function for work or sport, and wanting to prevent potential problems.
If it is affecting your quality of life, then we want to help you to optimize your function and minimize your pain.
We are committed to your health and want to encourage you to be too.
Addictions
Ontario to restrict Canadian government’s supervised drug sites, shift focus to helping addicts
From LifeSiteNews
Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government tabled the Safer Streets, Stronger Communities Act that will place into law specific bans on where such drug consumption sites are located.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford is making good on a promise to close so-called drug “supervision” sites in his province and says his government will focus on helping addicts get better instead of giving them free drugs.
Ford’s Progressive Conservative government on Monday tabled the Safer Streets, Stronger Communities Act that will place into law specific bans on where such drug consumption sites are located.
Specifically, the new bill will ban “supervised” drug consumption sites from being close to schools or childcare centers. Ten sites will close for now, including five in Toronto.
The new law would prohibit the “establishment and operation of a supervised consumption site at a location that is less than 200 meters from certain types of schools, private schools, childcare centers, Early child and family centers and such other premises as may be prescribed by the regulations.”
It would also in effect ban municipalities and local boards from applying for an “exemption from the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (Canada) for the purpose of decriminalizing the personal possession of a controlled substance or precursor.”
Lastly, the new law would put strict “limits” on the power municipalities and local boards have concerning “applications respecting supervised consumption sites and safer supply services.”
“Municipalities and local boards may only make such applications or support such applications if they have obtained the approval of the provincial Minister of Health,” the bill reads.
The new bill is part of a larger omnibus bill that makes changes relating to sex offenders as well as auto theft, which has exploded in the province in recent months.
In September, Ford had called the federal government’s lax drug policies tantamount to being the “biggest drug dealer in the entire country” and had vowed to act.
‘No’ new drug sites in Ontario, vows Health Minister
In speaking about the new bill, Ontario Minister of Health Sylvia Jones said the Ford government does not plan to allow municipal requests to the government regarding supervised consumption sites.
“Municipalities and organizations like public health units have to first come to the province because we don’t want them bypassing and getting any federal approval for something that we vehemently disagree with,” Jones told the media on Monday.
She also clarified that “there will be no further safe injection sites in the province of Ontario under our government.”
Ontario will instead create 19 new intensive addiction recovery to help those addicted to deadly drugs.
Alberta and other provinces have had success helping addicts instead of giving them free drugs.
As reported by LifeSiteNews, deaths related to opioid and other drug overdoses in Alberta fell to their lowest levels in years after the Conservative government began to focus on helping addicts via a recovery-based approach instead of the Liberal-minded, so-called “safe-supply” method.
Despite public backlash with respect to supervised drug consumption sites, Health Canada recently approved 16 more drug consumption sites in Ontario. Ford mentioned in the press conference that each day he gets “endless phone calls about needles being in the parks, needles being by the schools and the daycares,” calling the situation “unacceptable.”
The Liberals claim their “safer supply” program is good because it is “providing prescribed medications as a safer alternative to the toxic illegal drug supply to people who are at high risk of overdose.”
However, studies have shown that these programs often lead an excess of deaths from overdose in areas where they are allowed.
While many of the government’s lax drug policies continue, they have been forced to backpedal on some of their most extreme actions.
After the federal government allowed British Columbia to decriminalize the possession of hard drugs including heroin, cocaine, fentanyl, meth and MDMA beginning January 1, 2023, reports of overdoses and chaos began skyrocketing, leading the province to request that Trudeau re-criminalize drugs in public spaces.
A week later, the federal government relented and accepted British Columbia’s request.
Nurse practitioners expand primary care access |
The Alberta government’s Nurse Practitioner Primary Care program is showing early signs of success, with 33 nurse practitioners already practising independently in communities across the province.
Alberta’s government is committed to strengthening Alberta’s primary health care system, recognizing that innovative approaches are essential to improving access. To further this commitment, the Nurse Practitioner Primary Care Program was launched in April, allowing nurse practitioners to practise comprehensive patient care autonomously, either by operating their own practices or working independently within existing primary care settings.
Since being announced, the program has garnered a promising response. A total of 67 applications have been submitted, with 56 approved. Of those, 33 nurse practitioners are now practising autonomously in communities throughout Alberta, including in rural locations such as Beaverlodge, Coaldale, Cold Lake, Consort, Morley, Picture Butte, Three Hills, Two Hills, Vegreville and Vermilion.
“I am thrilled about the interest in this program, as nurse practitioners are a key part of the solution to provide Albertans with greater access to the primary health care services they need.”
To participate in the program, nurse practitioners are required to commit to providing a set number of hours of medically necessary primary care services, maintain a panel size of at least 900 patients, offer after-hours access on weekends, evenings or holidays, and accept walk-in appointments until a panel size reaches 900 patients.
With 33 nurse practitioners practising independently, about 30,000 more Albertans will have access to the primary health care they need. Once the remaining 23 approved applicants begin practising, primary health care access will expand to almost 21,000 more Albertans.
“Enabling nurse practitioners to practise independently is great news for rural Alberta. This is one more way our government is ensuring communities will have access to the care they need, closer to home.”
“Nurse practitioners are highly skilled health care professionals and an invaluable part of our health care system. The Nurse Practitioner Primary Care Program is the right step to ensuring all Albertans can receive care where and when they need it.”
“The NPAA wishes to thank the Alberta government for recognizing the vital role NPs play in the health care system. Nurse practitioners have long advocated to operate their own practices and are ready to meet the growing health care needs of Albertans. This initiative will ensure that more people receive the timely and comprehensive care they deserve.”
The Nurse Practitioner Primary Care program not only expands access to primary care services across the province but also enables nurse practitioners to practise to their full scope, providing another vital access point for Albertans to receive timely, high-quality care when and where they need it most.
Quick facts
- Through the Nurse Practitioner Primary Care Program, nurse practitioners receive about 80 per cent of the compensation that fee-for-service family physicians earn for providing comprehensive primary care.
- Compensation for nurse practitioners is determined based on panel size (the number of patients under their care) and the number of patient care hours provided.
- Nurse practitioners have completed graduate studies and are regulated by the College of Registered Nurses of Alberta.
- For the second consecutive year, a record number of registrants renewed their permits with the College of Registered Nurses of Alberta (CRNA) to continue practising nursing in Alberta.
- There were more than 44,798 registrants and a 15 per cent increase in nurse practitioners.
- Data from the Nurse Practitioner Primary Care Program show:
- Nine applicants plan to work on First Nations reserves or Metis Settlements.
- Parts of the province where nurse practitioners are practising: Calgary (12), Edmonton (five), central (six), north (three) and south (seven).
- Participating nurse practitioners who practise in eligible communities for the Rural, Remote and Northern Program will be provided funding as an incentive to practise in rural or remote areas.
- Participating nurse practitioners are also eligible for the Panel Management Support Program, which helps offset costs for physicians and nurse practitioners to provide comprehensive care as their patient panels grow.
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