People from across Atlantic Canada are gathering in Sydney later this week to take part in this year’s Nova Scotia Hospice Palliative Care Association (NSHPCA) annual conference. The Nova Scotia Health Authority’s Palliative Care Service in Cape Breton is hosting this year’s event. The conference takes place May 27 & 28 at the Membertou Trade & Convention Centre. This year’s theme is “Integration, Information and Inspiration”.
The Hospice Society of Greater Halifax and Nova Scotia Health Authority have signed a Memorandum of Agreement to collaborate on the establishment of a 10-bed residential hospice in Halifax.
An international trial led by Halifax cardiologists and electrophysiologist Dr. John Sapp, director of the Heart Rhythm Service at the QEII and professor in Dalhousie Medical School’s Division of Cardiology, shows that catheter ablation is a better treatment for recurrent ventricular tachycardia (VT) than increased drug therapy. The international study was published May 5 in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Farmers helping farmers is a motto Nathan Dennis and Stewart King live by. Dennis recently donated a kidney to his friend King, drastically improving his life. The surgery took place at the QEII Health Sciences Centre.
Helping out comes naturally to NSHA staff. For Earth Day, staff, students and people from the community took to the shoreline behind the Yarmouth Regional Hospital to give Mother Nature a hand and pick up more than 350 kilograms of garbage.
A new technique in the Cape Breton Cancer centre is helping some breast cancer patients with their treatments.The Centre recently adopted the breath/hold technique. The technique requires the patient to take a deep breath and hold it to allow radiation beams to focus and hit their intended area. While the technique has been used elsewhere, the Centre is the first in Atlantic Canada to adopt the technique.
A new initiative relies on the pain relieving power of skin-to-skin contact to help reduce the pain experienced by newborns during medical procedures, such as having blood drawn.
Josh Viner’s fate seemed pretty clear -- in his early thirties and facing charges for possession of drugs with the purpose of trafficking, he was staring down up to 56-months in a federal jail cell. A new father with a long history of substance abuse, he had one last chance to turn it all around, and that came in the form of a program between the Department of Justice and NSHA Mental Health and Addiction Services.
Patients in acute care mental health units often arrive with very few belongings. Issues that often bring them into hospital include health problems due to poor living conditions, no home or clothing and few social supports. But with the help of members from 123 Wing Shearwater and clothing program through NSHA, mental health inpatients in Halifax are getting the items they need.
In the comics, a team of heroes with special abilities saves the day. The same is true in interdisciplinary health care teams, as professionals from different disciplines come together to provide the best care for people.
