Aging Together as Community Haliburton Highlands’ (ATAC) upcoming event Feb. 10, focusing on medication safety for seniors, was born out of a chance encounter between the group’s lead, Bonnie Roe, and a County-based physician in a local grocery store last summer.
Dr. Barbara Clive, a geriatric medicine specialist working in the Geriatric Assessment and Intervention Network (GAIN) clinic at the Minden Health Hub will lead next month’s event, taking place at the Haliburton Legion.
Roe said it’s the first of at least four planned events for ATAC this year. Speaking to her run-in with Clive, Roe said one of the key topics to be discussed is something all seniors should be wary of.
“She told me she had been thinking of getting in touch with our group because she was horrified, going out into the community and into people’s homes, at the number of pills she’d found that people hadn’t opened and were now old and outdated,” Roe said. “She was really concerned about it, enough that she felt it would be a very beneficial topic for us to unpack through ATAC.”
Clive, who has worked at the Minden facility since July 2024 following a 39-year career as a physician in the GTA, said while she spends a lot of time at the clinic, she also conducts home visits for seniors with mobility challenges.
Speaking to GAIN, Clive said there are 12 clinics across the Central East LHIN – with the one in Minden covering patients from across the Highlands. The clinic boasts specialized doctors, nurse practitioners and other professionals in the healthcare field, such as occupational therapists, pharmacists, dieticians and social workers, who all specialize in caring for the elderly.
“The people who utilize GAIN are usually elderly and quite frail – they’re not your robust seniors. Patients are typically referred by their family physicians for an assessment… or by a homecare nurse,” Clive said. “Probably the most common things we would see are people with memory concerns, people experiencing falls, or those on multiple medications.
“We try to sort these issues out but also work very hard connecting people with other community resources,” she added.
As a geriatric medicine specialist, Clive said she makes recommendations patients can take back to their family doctor.
At next month’s talk, the physician said she plans to discuss polypharmacy – the concurrent use of multiple medications – and the potential risks.
“About two thirds of people over 65 are taking five or more different medicines and almost three quarters of those are also taking over the counter, non-prescribed medications,” Clive said. “So, I’ll be talking about why people get prescribed so many medications – a lot of it has to do with multiple chronic diseases, multiple co-morbidities with each one having their own medicine.”
She said prescription cascades – the practice of being prescribed medications to counteract the side effects of another medication – are a serious concern for the older generation and said she’ll be preaching the importance of people taking control of their situation.
Clive noted that, as you age, medications are distributed differently throughout your body.
“You don’t metabolize them as you did when you were young. So, there’s a need for reassessing, usually once a year,” Clive said. “A lot of times patients will say to me ‘oh, but I’ve been taking those my whole life.’ But that doesn’t mean you should be taking it, or that you have been taking it in a safe manner.
“Taking accountability for your own medications is very important… it’s kind of a miracle how many people come to a doctor’s office and do not even have a list of the medications they’re on. They don’t know what they’re taking,” Clive added.
One of the things she advocates for is de-prescribing. She highlighted several questions she feels people should ask their family doctor or nurse practitioner regarding medication – why they are on a certain medicine; what are the benefits and potential harms; will it affect memory, or cause issues potentially leading to falls; and can you stop or reduce intake.
Clive said websites such as deprescribing.org and choosingwiselycanada.org are great resources for seniors.
This will be Clive’s second time presenting for ATAC, having participated in a dementia panel in early 2023. She feels the group plays an important role in the community.
“There are very limited resources in these rural areas and so educating people about how they can help themselves and what is available is really good,” Clive said. “I think when you bring people together, a lot of times people learn more from each other more than they do from a speaker.”
Roe said other featured guests include Sabnam Vora and Khushboo Patel, from the Shoppers Drug Mart pharmacy, who will provide helpful tips about the expansion of a pharmacist’s role. Registered practical nurse Tina Gilbert, who provides private homecare services to County residents, will also be presenting.
Attendance is by donation, with lunch provided – courtesy of the Haliburton Legion womens’ auxiliary. It runs from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. Register by Feb. 4 to secure your spot – contact agingtogetherhc@gmail.com or 705-879-9412. The event is supported by the County’s Seniors Active Living Centre (SALC).
