UPFRONT | News BOOK New book touts personalized approach to health care Functional medicine expert Dr. Jeffrey Bland will be travelling to Toronto and several U.S. cities for special book signing events for his latest work, The Disease Delusion: Conquering the Causes of Illness for a Healthier, Longer and Happier Life. Sponsored by Metagenics, a nu-trigenomics and lifestyle medicine company, the book launch and signing events take place beginning April 30 to June 20. Bland is sched-uled to be in Toronto on June 5. These events are designed for health-care practitioners to learn about the future of medicine – health care rather than disease care – as seen through the eyes of Bland, known in the health-care community as the “father of func-tional medicine.” In his newest book, Bland intro-duces the reader to the medicine of the 21st century, one that is person-alized to the specific needs of the patient to result in health – not just the treatment of the symptoms of disease. This form of health care, which Bland defines as functional medicine, focuses on the under-standing of the cause of chronic illness and its treatment using a blended approach of lifestyle, diet, nutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals. The Disease Delusion provides a personalized approach to the pre-vention and management of chronic illnesses through the application of breakthrough discoveries in health science made in the last 10 years – whether the concern is diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, dementia, autism, obesity, chronic fatigue or pain, or a feeling of premature aging. At the book signing receptions, sponsored by Metagenics, Bland will give health-care practitioners an inside look at how his new book can help change patient focus to health care, along with an overview of his approach to personalized lifestyle medicine. The cost for each event is $60, which includes the book and an op-portunity to get it signed by Bland. A portion of the registration fee will be donated to the Personalized Lifestyle Medicine Institute, a non-profit organization that collab-orates with leading medical experts, scientists, educators, advocacy groups, medical institutions, medi-cal societies and legislative groups to advance its mission to integrate the principles of personalized lifestyle medicine for the prevention and management of chronic illness into health-care systems worldwide. Alberta Budget 2014 takes care of seniors With the number of seniors set to grow by five per cent this year, Alberta’s Budget 2014 is increasing funding to programs designed to help seniors stay independent. Funding increases are tar-geted in a variety of areas, including home care, contin-uing care, supplementary benefits including optical and dental, and special needs as-sistance for people living on a low-income. “With the population of seniors continuing to grow, the government continues to take steps that ensure seniors have the supports they need to maintain their quality of life and stay close to family and loved ones as they age,” said Fred Horne, Minister of Health Targeted spending will add capacity to a number of sen-iors support programs, in-cluding: www.canadianchiropractor.ca SENIOR CARE • Six per cent increase ($21 million) to the Alberta Seniors Benefit for a total of $353 million: • About 150,000 low-income seniors will continue to re-ceive benefits; • 23 per cent increase ($6 million) for special needs assistance for items such as appliances, home repairs and medical expenses for a total of $31 million, to help ensure this unique program continues to be available to the most vulnerable seniors facing unexpected costs; • $11 million increase to the seniors supplementary health benefit for things such as dental and optical care for a total of $127 million; • 44 per cent increase ($12 million) for enhanced home care and rehabilita-tion services, for a total of $40 million: • $2 million will be used to help 1,000 more people go home from the hospital with enhanced home care support, and $10 million will be invested in continu-ing care research designed to make further improve-ments to quality and safety; • $20 million budgeted for the Seniors Property Tax Deferral Program. “Seniors are a very impor-tant part of this province, and Budget 2014 reflects that importance. It will help sen-iors to stay happy, healthy, and in their homes and com-munities, which is where they want to be,” said Dave Quest, associate minister of seniors. Budget 2014 also invests in infrastructure for the prov-ince’s continuing care system, including $252 million over three years for the Affordable Supportive Living Initiative to support the development of affordable supportive living spaces across the province. The government is also in-vesting $294 million over three years for other continu-ing care projects. In the last fiscal year, more than 150,000 seniors received almost $324 million in finan-cial assistance through the Alberta Seniors Benefit. More than 88,000 seniors received a total of $69 million in dental benefits, and 37,266 received a total of $7.5 million in opti-cal benefits. More than 26,000 seniors received $22.8 million in fi-nancial assistance through the Special Needs Assistance for Seniors program. The number of home care clients in 2012/13 was 108,855. This is an increase in home care clients since 2010/11 of 8.3 per cent. From 2010/11 to 2012/13 home care spending increased by 24.4 per cent. May 2014 Canadian Chiropractor 13
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