Former Occupational therapist Brenda Hanna brought more than a decade of healthcare experience to her previous position as a district care coordinator for the Toronto Central Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) in Canada. Brenda Hanna’s responsibilities included handling home care interventions for clients who received funding from the Ontario Health Insurance Plan. Ontario citizens of all ages could access home services under the plan, provided they met the necessary requirements. Home services were provided for seniors and people with complex medical conditions who needed medical support in order to remain in their homes and maintain their independence. The Ontario government covers expenses for a wide array of home and community services for qualifying individuals. Those who do not qualify may be eligible for co-payment assistance. Qualified individuals could arrange for health care professionals to assist them with daily personal care or receive assistance with routine household activities. Health professionals can also make home visits for various types of medical care, such as nursing care, physiotherapy, and occupational therapy. In addition, many Ontario programs offer end-of-life care for individuals who wish to spend their remaining days in the comfort of their own homes.
A former occupational therapist, Brenda Hanna’s range of experience includes designing and executing a vocational rehabilitation program for patients with physical and emotional disabilities to leading her own multidisciplinary rehabilitation practice. A district care coordinator with Toronto Central LHIN, Brenda Hanna has a wide range of professional interests including the use of meditation practices as they relate to mental health.
In an article posted on Harvard Health Publishing of Harvard Medical School, Julie Corliss, executive editor of Harvard Heart Letter, notes that anxiety, pain, depression, and mental stress may be alleviated through mindfulness meditation. The article points out numerous trials that met the benchmark for well-conceived studies and were published in JAMA Internal Medicine pointing to the positive effects of meditation practices.
While still not considered mainstream, mindfulness meditation involves sitting comfortably, concentrating on one's breathing, and having the mind focus on the present, without wandering into thoughts about the future or past. To have a better understanding of mindfulness meditation, you can visit the guide at www.mindfulness-solution.com developed by Dr. Ronald Siegel, an assistant psychology professor at Harvard Medical School.
Brenda Hanna is a former occupational therapist who operated her own clinic in Windsor, Ontario, from 2011 to 2017. For the past two years, she has provided home care as a coordinator with Toronto Central LHIN in Toronto, Ontario. Outside of the professional environment, Brenda Hanna benefits from the healing effects of meditation.
A practice that plays a major role in multiple international cultures, meditation means different things to different people. The basic principles of meditation, however, remain relatively consistent, asking participants to concentrate on a neutral and/or rhythmic focal point, such as their breathing, as a way to clear the mind of all thought.
Newcomers to mediation can begin the practice by following a few simple steps. After finding a comfortable place to sit or lie down, the meditator should close his or her eyes and place all his or her attention on the natural flow of each inhalation and exhalation. Each time that the mind wanders, the meditator must simply return focus back to his or her breathing.
This process can be far more challenging than it sounds. For this reason, beginners should generally restrict initial meditation sessions to five minutes or less.
