Epilepsy Ontario retreat focuses on helping agencies build capacity

June 16, 2016

A recent retreat hosted by Epilepsy Ontario for community-based epilepsy agencies was aimed at building knowledge capacity for executive directors and staff members throughout the province.

The retreat, which was funded by the Trillium Foundation of Ontario and held June 6-8 in Innisfil, Ont., brought together representatives from 11 of the 14 agencies Epilepsy Ontario works with.

Attendees at the recent Epilepsy Ontario retreat listen to a presentation from Dr. Kathryn Hum of EpLink.
Attendees at the recent Epilepsy Ontario retreat listen to a presentation from Dr. Kathryn Hum of EpLink.

A major focus of the event was maximizing efficiency when delivering programs. There were also several guest speakers who discussed important research related to epilepsy in Ontario.

Paul Raymond, Epilepsy Ontario’s executive director, says many of Ontario’s epilepsy agencies may not have the resources to bring in experts to discuss program delivery, so he says he hopes the retreat filled a gap.

“We really hope that the executive directors and staff walked away with some knowledge and information that will help them provide better services to people with epilepsy at their agencies,” he says.

The retreat featured guest speakers from the Ontario Brain Institute and as well as experts in areas such as medical marijuana, fundraising techniques and strategies for supporting clients.

Based on feedback from the retreat, there was a lot of interest in the presentation on medical marijuana from Hanan Abramovici of Health Canada, who provided updates on the federal government’s stance on the subject. Suzanne Nurse, Epilepsy Ontario’s director of client services, and Arthur Schafer, director of the University of Manitoba’s Centre for Professional and Applied Ethics, also addressed the issue.

The issue of using cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychoactive substance derived from the marijuana plant, to treat seizures has been a topic of much debate in the epilepsy community in recent years.

“It was an important session,” Raymond says. “There was a lot of discussion and it was ranked the highest in the evaluation after the retreat. This is something (people said) they found helpful to go back to their agencies and talk to their clients about, because a lot of agencies just aren’t sure how to talk about it.”

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