MEETING RECAP - 30th April 2018 (National Tax Day)
Submitted by Will Arscott
Sexual Health Initiatives for Learning Disabled Adolescents - Dr. Lee Murray
The meeting was held back at the Bessborough. The meeting was presided by President Mark Gryba.
Greeter - Mike Giesbrecht
Cashier - Wayne McGillivray
Visitors and Guests - Paul Gauthier
Set-up - Al Morton
Grace - Avis Hardy
O Canada was led by Wayne McGillivray
Grace - Avis Hardy gave grace and reminded us of our responsibilities as Rotarians and as citizens to our community, our country and the world beyond.
Visitors and Guests - Paul Gauthier
Huey-Ming Tzeng brought three guests from her work -
Lee Murray - Our Guest Speaker
Juan Martinez - nursing student
Allison Trask - nursing student
Donia A. - nursing student
The three visiting students have recently graduated from the UofS nursing program and are preparing to write their licensing exam. As part of their clinical work they participated in the adolescent program under Dr. Murray.
Announcements
- Nice to see Drew Byers back after three months in Hawaii.
- Meeting next week (May 7th) will be at Westmount School. We will be treated to a lunch cooked on the stove we recently purchased for the school. No need to announce your attendance ahead as they have allowed for fifteen to twenty to attend. The cost is reduced for next week to $20 for lunch. Westmount Community School is located at 411 Ave. J N. Our Rotary exchange student from Columbia - Simon will also speak.
- May 14th the Heavy Construction Association with Michelle Lipp. Regular meeting at the Bessborough.
- May 21st NO MEETING for the Victoria Day holiday.
- District 5550 Conference will be taking place 24th to 27th of May. You can still register. Go to the District 5550 Website and follow the links.
- LobsterFest Tickets we receive $45 per ticket we sell for our own club. The event will be on Saturday 2nd of June at the Soccer Center on Attridge Drive. Please consider attending it is always a good time. Volunteers are also needed so if you can give a couple of hours please see Dave Sundby.
- Grocery Cards Gary Rusu informs us that at the beginning of the meeting we had $6,500 in card inventory. During the meeting this was reduced to $6,000. The club would like these cleared off the books as quickly as possible so please help out. Once the inventory is sold the executive will make a decision about whether to undertake additional card purchases.
- KG Project Joanne Fisher announced that the reading program at King George School has had to be delayed until the fall due to a change in the school co-ordinator. This is just a delay and the plan is to go ahead in the fall.
Sergeant at Arms - Gary Rusu
- Gary began by giving us a weather report about how much better the weather had become since a few weeks ago. He must have thought none of us would have noticed. He should pay a fine at a future meeting for stating the obvious.
- Gary went on to quiz us about a Rotary International tree planting initiative that was undertaken by the RI president in 1990. The aim was to have Rotarians plant a million trees - a tree for every Rotarian. As it happened many more trees were planted. However, nobody in our club seemed to have a firm recollection of the initiative.
- Gary asked us what trees take out of the atmosphere (carbon dioxide) and what they put into the atmosphere (oxygen). At a future meeting Gary should be fined for assuming our members were not able to pass elementary school science.
- It was an interesting discussion but this scribe is not sure a lot of money was raised. At a future meeting Gary should be fined for not raising enough money as sergeant.
Happy and Sad
- S Steve Wilson but in a sad dollar for the one year anniversary of the passing of his father and our club member Kevin Wilson.
- H Dave Sundby for the bees getting going and already finding pollen somewhere.
- 2S Peter Zakreski for the funerals last week of two important Rotarian - Wayne Claypool of the North Club and Jeannie Walters life member of the Nutana club.
- S Will Arscott for seeing fresh corn in the supermarket a sure sign that fall is on its way.
- S Wayne McGillivray for the passing of Wayne Claypool.
- 3H Huey-Ming Tseng for the three graduating nursing students attending our meeting.
- H President Mark for getting out and getting his yard going.
Guest Speaker - Dr. Lee Murray Adolescent Sexual Health among those with intellectual disabilities.
Dr. Murray is on the faculty of the UofS College of Nursing. Her specialty is adolescent mental health. Dr. Murray was trained at the university here. She has championed mental health nurses in schools. She has developed a program in the Saskatoon Catholic schools in partnership with several outside agencies. The purpose is to promote healthy partnerships and sexual relationships and to prevent abuse
Dr. Murray began by thanking Dean Huey-Ming Tseng and introduced the graduating students who had worked in her program.
The rates of abuse for those with intellectual disabilities is shocking. It is estimated that up to 40% of males and up to an incredible 80% of females with intellectual disabilities experience sexual abuse. These rates are not generally acknowledged. There is a need to provide education to the intellectually disabled so they can recognize abuse and seek help. The goal is to teach them what a healthy relationship feels like. However the onus cannot be on them.
A multi-disciplinary team has been established at E.D. Feehan High School. The object is to address the entire situation of the adolescent including social determinants. The presence of poverty or addiction greatly increase the chances of abuse occurring although abuse is present across all demographics.
Those with intellectual disabilities are often seen as opportunities for abusers. They can also be very trusting. Their situation can make them more dependent than other people on others to provide for their basic needs. They are often used to much less privacy than others their same age. This is often very well meaning but can do a disservice for the individual particularly when they are picked out to be a victim. The victim my not be able to understand when things are abusive or to communicate it adequately to others. These things are often compounded by the low self-esteem of the person with the disabilities. Many organizations still do not have adequate policies around these issues.
People with intellectual disabilities have the same feelings as anyone else. This includes sexual feelings. The world has trouble with this and can treat them both as non-sexual beings or treat them as uber-sexual. Often these people do not have the same outlets as non-disabled people. Sometimes they are viewed as not being able to learn about intimate relationships.
The right to intimate relationships is a basic human right. The intellectually disabled have as much right to experience intimate relationships as anyone else. They need to be able to negotiate intimacy the same as anyone else. Dr. Murray has developed programs to aid them in achieving this goal.
The program at E.D. Feehan involves the College of Nursing, the Separate School Board, the Saskatoon Sexual Assault Center and several additional organizations. The aim is to promote healthy sexuality and prevent abuse. There are several components that are addressed:
- Healthy relationships
- Healthy dating relationships
- Consent in depth - what is really required
- Recognizing at risk situations
- Bullying and setting boundaries
- Identifying feelings
- Learning to value and understand privacy.
Perpetrators most often are someone the victim knows or loves. Not only does the potential victim need to be educated but the parents of the person need to be educated. Too often parents act on the basis of the same myths that pervade society. The educators have to recognize when a disclosure appears in the education process and have a plan to deal with it. Starting in 2015 a peer to peer model was developed around the topic of healthy dating.
For further information we can go to the College of Nursing website. Under Dr. Murray’s profile there are two videos. One is a short teaser video. The second is a 22 minute description of the program.
More recently the program has been reaching out with a train the trainer program. This has extended the program to places such as LaRonge. In these areas there may be additional problems of extreme poverty, greater family breakdown and fetal alcohol syndrome.
The program provided to intellectually disabled adolescents is interactive. A basic series of five sessions may involve two interactive sessions, two sessions involving story boards and a final session using puppets. The puppet session is most popular and is called ‘Wide Open Theatre.’ The puppets offer two disclosures of sexual abuse. The students immediately relate to the puppets and are barely aware of the puppeteer. In the discussion that follows they will often talk directly to the puppets.
Altogether they have now developed 12 story boards and 3 puppet shows. Dr. Murray sent a sample story board around the room. It described a very typical situation where a young couple is negotiating touching in their relationship.
Dr. Murray was thanked by President Mark. The regular donation will be made to Bethany House.
Adjournment
Submitted by Will Arscott