Thanks to the generosity of our donors, we invested in a series of cooking classes at ACCESS Fort Garry (AFG) through our Healthy Community Grant Program. The My Health Team at AFG was granted $1,500 to host cooking classes for mental health clients using the AFG community kitchen.

Victoria Hospital Foundation’s Grateful Patient & Families Program allows patients like Hemant and their families to show their gratitude for the exceptional care they have received while at Victoria Hospital. As an unofficial community ambassador, Hemant wants everyone to know about the great work that Victoria Hospital Foundation does for Victoria Hospital and the health of our community - read Hemant's story!

Mental health is a critical component of being human intersecting all areas of life. Did you know the average working Canadian spends upwards of 60% of their waking hours on the job? As you might imagine, the quality of the workplace environment has a tremendous impact on all aspects of workers’ health and wellbeing!

Caregiving for a relative is often accompanied by unique challenges such as changes in roles, uncertainty, isolation, and grief. With the complex mental, emotional, and physical demands that caregivers manage, it is no surprise that they often experience elevated rates of depression, higher perceived stress, and lower levels of well-being. Common strategies for caregivers to bolster personal well-being include setting boundaries, setting aside personal time, and seeking social support.

Care giving can be rewarding but also stressful. Meeting the demands and requirements of caring for your loved one may become overwhelming at some times along the journey. Focusing intently on caring for your loved one may result in not caring for yourself resulting in caregiver stress/burnout.

For Victoria Hospital Foundation, the pandemic elevated our commitment to our community - to our patients, families, and staff. It didn’t take long for the Health and Wellness Committee to realize the importance of staff well-being during the pandemic. The Foundation’s Healthy Community Grant will help the Committee do just that, supporting their work this year and for the next three years to come. The continued emphasis on the health and wellness of frontline healthcare workers has empowered our staff, and supported creativity and innovation in patient care.

Mental Health Week is taking place from May 2-8, 2022 and it serves as an opportunity for all of us to learn more about mental illness and share our experiences with each other. It is also a good reminder to think about our own mental well-being and how we are practicing self-care.

Decreasing COVID-19 case counts, meeting vaccination targets, and loosening health restrictions have been a great cause for hope and celebration in our province. Meanwhile, as we look forward to what life might look like post-pandemic, there remain many challenges ahead when it comes to our community health.

As warmer weather approaches the motivation and time to make meals can changes. Summer is short! Let’s spend time outside enjoying the warm breeze, appreciating the blooming flowers and less time cooking in a hot kitchen!

It’s difficult to get all the nutrients we need to stay healthy. Learning what foods are rich in vitamins, which foods we should be eating more, and how to cook healthy and appetizing meals can feel like a chore. As we age, we often face even more barriers to getting all the nutrients we need. Eating well has a lot of benefits. It can help us prevent disease and injury, give us the energy to enjoy life, and help us keep our independence.

You can support your friends, family and co-workers who may be experiencing significant stress and feelings of fear, worry, anxiety, anger, or sadness by simply listening and empathizing with what they're going through.

You can probably list several things you’ve been doing lately to keep yourself healthy in the past few months: wearing a mask, frequent handwashing, and physical distancing. But what have you been doing for your mental health? Living through a pandemic is stressful. Scrolling through ever-updating information, worrying about you and your loved ones’ health, and being physically separated from your support system can all negatively affect your mental health.

These last few months have been a lonely time for many of us, as social distancing has kept us apart from family members, friends, and colleagues. The unfortunate reality is that an overwhelming number of older adults were already experiencing feelings of loneliness prior to the onset of COVID-19. According to Statistics Canada, as many as 1.6 million older adults in our country reported feeling lonely in 2016. With an increasing number of Canadians entering their senior years and social distancing being part of our daily lives for the foreseeable future, this issue is a growing area of concern.

For many of us, creating art is an enjoyable pastime. Whether you are drawing in a sketchbook, colouring in an adult colouring book, taking a pottery class, or painting your favourite landscape, there are so many ways that we can incorporate art into our daily activities. Regardless of your artistic ability, creating art can be an enjoyable and relaxing way to spend your day.

From TV commercials and greeting cards to music and movies, we are regularly told that the holidays are the most wonderful time of the year. And for many of us, December is indeed a time of joy and laughter that is spent in the company of loved ones.

“One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.” Bob Marley sang these words back in 1973 and they still ring true today. For many of us, music is a source of comfort during difficult times. It can invoke memories and inspire feelings of happiness or sadness. But can music actually help to heal us when we are sick?

In the last 50 years, advances in the field of medicine have helped our understanding of the prevention, diagnosis and management of physical disease. The result? People are living longer as the average life expectancy in Canada is now 82 years of age.

November is fall prevention month and there's a very good reason why an entire month is dedicated to raising awareness about the risk of falling. One in three older adults aged 65+ falls each year and it's the leading cause of injury hospitalization in Manitoba, accounting for $265 million in healthcare spending.