Bounce Back from chronic disease

New program: Addresses mental health issues that accompany long-term ills.

Living with a chronic disease can be downright depressing. That’s why the Canadian Mental Health Association and the province rolled out a new program in Salmon Arm last week.

Bounce Back: Reclaim Your Health is designed to help people with a chronic disease cope with their conditions.

Funded by the province and developed over the past year by a team of experts, the program is modelled on a successful Scottish program.

About one in three British Columbian adults suffer from chronic conditions such as asthma, diabetes or heart disease, and about a third of this group is affected by low mood or anxiety problems.

“We are really pleased to introduce Bounce Back because we know it can really help people living with chronic conditions feel better and get more out of life,” says Dawn Dunlop-Pugh, executive director of CMHC’s Salmon Arm branch. “It’s not uncommon for people with chronic conditions to feel anxious and depressed.”

Dunlop-Pugh welcomed Health Minister George Abbott and Interior Health Authority Board chair Norm Embree to the branch last Thursday for the official launch of the program, which will eventually be rolled out across the province.

Also on hand were Dr. Alan Gow, representing the British Columbia Medical Association and local doctors, Cliff Cross, IHA’s manager of mental health for the North Okanagan Health Service Area, and several other dignitaries and guests.

Abbott recognized the B.C. division of CMHA for developing what he described as “an important primary care and mental health initiative” and congratulated Interior Health for bringing Bounce Back to five communities in the Interior. Abbott also commended doctors and other primary-care workers, who will be instrumental in connecting patients to the new program.

Along with prospective benefits to patients living with chronic conditions, Abbott said Bounce Back will help relieve the increasing costs to the health-care system.

“As our population ages, chronic disease conditions are expected to increase significantly,” he said. “Chronic disease is the biggest obstacle to the sustainability of the public health-care system.”

Abbott noted that while only four per cent of the population suffers from clinical depression, 40 per cent of people with diabetes have depression.

Bounce Back, he said, is a welcome departure from a system that traditionally treated mental health problems independently of other conditions.

“This $6 million investment in Bounce Back brings primary care and mental health care together to create innovative solutions that benefit people,” he said.

“By integrating strategies to deal with chronic health conditions and accompanying mental health issues, B.C. is one of the first jurisdictions in the world to take this approach to improve the well-being of those people with chronic conditions.”

Focusing on self-help skills to improve emotional well-being, Bounce Back offers two forms of help.

The first is a DVD that provides practical tips on managing mood, healthy living, building self-confidence and activities and problem solving. The second is a guided self-help program with telephone support from a “community coach.”

Enter Salmon Arm’s enthusiastic coach June Meredith. Living with a chronic condition herself, Meredith said she is “super excited” to be part of the program.

“I have first-hand experience and am aware of the need in the community,” she said, thanking Abbott and CMHA for introducing the program. “We’re going to make this work.”

Following the official part of the program, Gow noted his long career in medicine and the many changes that have taken place since he started out. A doctor’s role in providing spiritual and mental health care in their general practices was lost, he said.

“This is a more holistic approach,” he said, maintaining health-care pro­viders must work together as resources decrease.

“Given the opportunity, patients are eager to share issues of dealing with chronic conditions, including moods and changes in relationships.”

Cliff Cross said IHA and CMHA have a long history of partnering to provide mental health care and have struggled with how to better provide service.

“Bounce Back brings service delivery into a whole new realm,” he said. “We can now look at better delivering services to those who are most ill.”

The program is now being offered in 100 Mile House, Kamloops, Kel­owna, Salmon Arm and Vernon through referrals from primary care pro­viders.

Other B.C. communities will introduce Bounce Back in the fall and next spring. CHMA estimates that close to 50,000 people will be able to access the program once it is fully in place.

For more information, visit www.bouncebackbc. ca.