Looking for a Long Term Care Home for our Seniors
By: "Al Mathias" <almathias@rogers.com>
03 Jan 2006, 04:02:46 PM

A small group of us, interested in identifying a selection of prescreened Long Term Care Homes for our Seniors, has been meeting and discussing this important matter since the beginning of last year. We realized that one, if not the, most important aspect that our seniors face is loneliness. Even though they may be placed in a home which has good care, services and facilities, if it does not have other like-minded, culturally compatible seniors with whom they can converse, meet, get together, pray or have companionship and fun, they will tend to feel very lonely. With that in mind our group has been exploring the possibilities of being able to come up with plausible solutions.
Please find attached the results of our findings for the first project, which meets our criteria and which we feel are very encouraging. Please circulate this to all your members as quickly as possible - time is of the essence for now - and kindly designate one or more persons who can coordinate their responses and interest in attending the meeting at Kipling Acres on Sunday, February 19th at 2.00 p.m. to obtain more information and look around the Home. Kindly let me know by Wednesday February 15th, how many of your members are interested in attending. Please emphasize that there is absolutely NO commitment or obligation at this stage. It is purely an Information Session.
Thank you.
Al Mathias, on behalf of the Group.

Attachment: Seniores Home_.doc (34K)

Survey: Acquiring New Skills Tops New Year's Wish List at Work

 TORONTO, Jan. 3 /CNW/ - New Year's resolutions typically include promises to eat healthier, exercise regularly or spend more time with family. But if managers could have one wish at work, it would be to develop a new skill. This was the number one career-related resolution for 40 per cent of executives surveyed recently. The survey includes responses from 100 senior Canadian executives --including those from human resources, finance and marketing departments --with the Canada's 1,000 largest companies. It was conducted by an independent
research firm and developed by Accountemps, the world's first and largest specialized staffing service for temporary accounting, finance and bookkeeping professionals. Executives were asked, "If you were to make a career-related New Year's resolution, what would it be?" Their responses:

Pension Woes Concern Canadian Public

Ottawa, December 6, 2005 - Four in five Canadians are concerned that a pension under funding crisis exists in Canada, according to a Conference Board survey.

Thirty-four per cent of 2,000 Canadians surveyed in September said they were very concerned about the pension under funding situation in Canada, while another 29 per cent said they were somewhat concerned, and 17 per cent were mildly concerned.

The results are similar to the findings of the second annual Conference Board-Watson Wyatt Worldwide survey of chief financial officers on pension risk in early 2005, outlined in the report The Pension Plan Crisis Continues. . . And Its Grip Is Stronger.

"Actuaries and financial managers aren't the only people concerned about the state of pensions in Canada-the general public is also worried about having enough for retirement," said Edward Reed, Senior Research Associate. "With the workforce aging, pension issues are moving to the forefront. Not only are organizations looking for ways to make their pension plans sustainable, they are also trying to use them as an effective attraction and retention tool."

Campaign offers another chance to quit smoking

VANCOUVER, Jan. 4 /CNW/ - The Canadian Cancer Society says do not despair if you have already slipped in your effort to quit smoking in the New Year, because National Non-Smoking Week, Jan. 15 to 21, offers would-be quitters another chance to butt out for good. "Stay positive even if your initial attempt to kick the habit failed," says BC and Yukon Division CEO Barbara Kaminsky."The most important action you can take to improve your health - at any age and at any time of the year - is to become a non-smoker." Quitting smoking can be hard. People often make several attempts before they are successful. Despite the challenges, says Kaminski, every year thousands of Canadians successfully quit smoking." Friends, family, and loved ones play an important role in helping anyone they know who smokes or is trying to quit."

The Canadian Cancer Society leads the fight against tobacco and offers a proven self-help quit smoking program called One Step at a Time, for smokers and those who care about them. Tobacco use is the number one cause of preventable disease, disability and death in Canada. Cigarette smoking causes about 30 per cent of cancers in Canada and more than 85 per cent of lung cancers.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death for both men and women. In BC, an estimated 2,300 people will die from lung cancer in 2005.For more information about lung cancer, tobacco and how to quit, go to www.cancer.ca, select "British Columbia and Yukon" and look under "What's new." Or call the toll-free bilingual Cancer Information Service at 1-888-939-3333.

HealthWrap: Vitamin D, for Death-Defying
From Monsters and Critics.com
By Dan Olmsted
Dec 28, 2005, 19:00 GMT

WASHINGTON, DC, United States (UPI) -- Seldom has a life-saving prescription come so simply or so cheaply: Get enough vitamin D daily and cut your risk of some cancers by up to half.That`s the good news from a study by cancer specialists at the University of California, San Diego, Medical Center. The bad news is that -- because the main source of vitamin D is sunlight and many of us have begun avoiding it -- many people aren't getting enough. \'For example, breast cancer will strike one in eight American women in their lifetime. Early detection using mammography reduces mortality rates by approximately 20 percent. But use of vitamin D might prevent this cancer in the first place,\' said co-author Cedric F. Garland, a professor at UCSD`s cancer center.
Overall, the authors conclude, \'vitamin D deficiency may account for several thousand premature deaths from colon, breast, ovarian and other cancers annually.\' The problem is particularly acute for people who live in the northeast and for those with more skin pigment, which lowers the body's ability to synthesize vitamin D.\'African-American women who develop breast cancer are more likely to die from the disease than white women of the same age, \' Garland said. \'Survival rates are worse among African-Americans for colon, prostate and ovarian cancers as well.\' The solution: public-health initiatives to get everyone's vitamin D up to protective levels -- 1,000 international units daily -- by taking supplements, consuming vitamin D-fortified foods and getting enough, but not too much, exposure to the sun's rays.\'Many people are deficient in vitamin D. A glass of milk, for example, has only 100 IU. Other foods, such as orange juice, yogurt and cheese, are now beginning to be fortified, but you have to work fairly hard to reach 1,000 IU (25 micrograms) a day,\' Garland said. \'Sun exposure has its own concerns and limitations. We recommend no more than 15 minutes of exposure daily over 40 percent of the body, other than the face, which should be protected from the sun.\'Dark-skinned people, however, may need more exposure to produce adequate amounts of vitamin D, and some fair-skinned people shouldn't try to get any vitamin D from the sun. The easiest and most reliable way of getting the appropriate amount is from food and a daily supplement\' that should cost about 5 cents a day, he said.

The researchers reviewed dozens of studies on vitamin D and cancer risk from 1966 to 2004 to form their conclusions. Elsewhere on the consumer-health beat, scientists were finding benefits from other vitamins and minerals: Eating foods high in beta carotene, vitamins C, E and zinc significantly cuts the risk of age-related macular degeneration in the elderly, according to a study in the new Journal of the American Medical Association. The condition is a degenerative disorder of the central retina.\'This study suggests that the risk of AMD can be modified by diet; in particular, by dietary vitamin E and zinc,\' conclude the authors, from Erasmus Medical Centre, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. \'A higher intake of vitamin E can be achieved by consumption of whole grains, vegetable oil, eggs, and nuts. High concentrations of zinc can be found in meat, poultry, fish, whole grains, and dairy products. Carrots, kale, and spinach are the main suppliers of beta carotene, while vitamin C is found in citrus fruits and juices, green peppers, broccoli, and potatoes.\'The study said that eating foods with high amounts of vitamin E and zinc appears more important than taking a supplement containing them.
E-mail: dolmsted@upi.com
Copyright 2005 by United Press International