From the President

Spring General Meeting

Thank you to all the members who attended our Spring General Meeting on May 3.

It was encouraging to see such good attendance.

We had a very interesting group for our entertainment in May.

They are called "Stand Up for Comedy".

Their leader is humour coach Michael Cole.

All of the members of the group suffer from some form of mental illness and they use humour as a way of coping with their challenges.

It was at times quite funny and also very poignant as the members stood one by one and used humour to describe their experiences.

Annual General Meeting

Please mark your calendars for October 18 for our Annual General Meeting.

The suggested changes to our constitution will be presented, and we will be holding elections for executive positions for 2011.

We will be requiring several positions to be filled at that time.

Please take the time to consider if you would be willing to run for an executive position.

If you are wondering what is entailed in any of the positions please feel free to contact any of the current executive members.

On April 14 and 15, Sue Stephenson and I attended the District Presidents' Workshop put on by the Provincial RTO/ERO.

It was a very worthwhile experience with many carefully planned workshops and interesting sharing sessions.

Of particular note was a presentation made by Dr. Gary Naglie and two of his colleagues.

Dr. Naglie holds the Mary Trimmer Chair in Geriatric Medicine Research at the University of Toronto.

RTO/ERO was considering funding a second chair in geriatric medicine and Dr. Naglie was asked to give us some facts on the state of geriatric medicine in Canada.

The picture he painted was somewhat bleak.

At present, there are only 200 geriatricians in Canada.

Dr. Naglie estimates that we require 650.

Sweden with one quarter of our population has 500 trained geriatricians and the U.K., with twice our population has 1,000.

The over 80 group is the fastest growing demographic in Canada, so it is very obvious why training more doctors in geriatric medicine is imperative.

The aging demographic has been dubbed "The Gray Tsunami".

The University of Toronto (U. of T.) is the largest educator of physicians in Ontario and they are prepared to make a long term commitment to the field of geriatrics.

Recruiting is difficult as the discipline is not seen as exciting or lucrative.

In order to attract more doctors to the field they are planning a multi-disciplinary model that will maximize health and the quality of life.

They will also provide education and support to the families who are caring for aging family members.

This is a very exciting endeavour that will not only benefit members of an aging demographic but also bring RTO/ERO to the attention of a much larger segment of the population.

Spring Senate

On May 18 and 19, Larry Holseth and I attended RTO/ERO Senate.

I am pleased to report that the idea of funding a geriatric chair at U. of T. was passed.

There will be further information about this, available very soon.

Larry will give a more complete overview of the business of Senate in his report for Peelings.

Final Thoughts

I hope everyone has a wonderful summer full of sunny days and interesting activities but please take some time over the summer to consider running for an executive position.

It is interesting and rewarding and our many experienced executive members are always willing to lend a hand or offer sound advice.

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