How a community-led health program with Japanese roots is helping Winnipeggers
How a community-led health program with Japanese roots is helping Winnipeggers
WINNIPEG -
A community-led health program running for decades is looking into why it's effective at helping people stay healthy.
It's called Hans Kai, which translates to 'group meeting' in Japanese.
The program brings neighbours together to learn about wellness and the importance of staying connected long after their education on health is done.
"Instead of going to the doctor and saying, 'oh yeah, you have to eat more of this, or you have to be more active,' it's letting you determine what's important to you, setting your own goals and doing that with the support of a group that's in a similar kind of situation," said Michelle Kirkbride, the community development coordinator at Norwest Community Co-op.
She explained the idea for Hans Kai came from a community health trip to Japan taken by a NorWest director.
Hans Kai starts with a nine-session health school on different wellness pillars like diet, social supports and access to services.
Afterwards, the group stays together, makes its own agenda, and meets up once or twice a month.
The program has been running in Winnipeg for more than a decade, and early research shows Hans kai helps especially with mental health.
"We want to know why the program works, not just does it work," said Kirkbride.
"Investigating participants' experiences is going to tell us how the program works, what are the mechanisms that make the program work," said Margherita Cameranesi, a clinical psychologist & MITACS postdoctoral fellow at the University of Manitoba.
She is running a randomized clinical trial on what makes Hans Kai effective.
Participants are followed for two years. Their physical and mental health are measured. There are also interviews and focus groups at different points along the way.
"So instead of being like, okay, what are the things you're struggling the most with -- now it's like okay, what was your experience in the past six months that you were in the program?" Cameranesi explained.
Hans Kai participant Myrna Evaristo knows about being active. The Zumba instructor has been teaching classes for years at the NorWest Community Co-op.
She later joined Hans Kai, the program she was teaching, because she herself was interested in more ways to be healthy.
"Before attending the Hans Kai program, I [didn't] know about eating healthy," she said.
It's nearly been four years since joining a group and they still meet regularly, and each time they do, they measure their blood sugar and blood pressure.
Evaristo, who is prone to diabetes, says her biggest change since joining Hans Kai is eating less sugar.
"I love to eat sweets but now its in moderation," said Evaristo.
She added she's also fostered new friendships and a support network to help stay healthy.
Kirkbride said NorWest Community Co-op holds the Canadian patent to the Hans Kai program.
It's trained people across Canada, except Newfoundland and PEI, and in the U.S. to deliver it.
The next step is taking it internationally to Kenya.
In the 2023 federal budget, the government is unveiling continued deficit spending targeted at Canadians' pocketbooks, public health care and the clean economy.
The federal budget proposes an across-the-board three per cent spending cut for all departments and agencies, a belt-tightening move after years of massive growth in the federal public service.
The increase in excise duties on all alcoholic products is being temporarily capped at two per cent starting next month instead of a planned six per cent increase.
The federal budget shows the government's proposed dental-care insurance program will cost more than double what the Liberals originally thought, driving it up by another $7.3 billion over five years.
Tucked into the 2023 federal budget unveiled on Tuesday in Ottawa, the Liberals have announced plans to explore implementing a standard charging port across Canada, in an effort to save Canadians some money and reduce waste.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal government plans to launch a National Counter-Foreign Interference Office, amid ongoing scrutiny of allegations that Beijing interfered in recent federal elections.
In the wake of another deadly mass shooting in America, that saw children as young as nine years old shot and killed, the gun control debate is going nowhere, writes CTV News political analyst Eric Ham.
Another American community is reeling after a shooter killed three 9-year-olds and three adults at a private Christian elementary school in Nashville. These are the three children and three adults whose lives were taken by the shooter.
Nashville police have released security camera footage of a suspected shooter entering the private Christian elementary school. The shooting claimed the lives of three children, all aged nine, and three adults.
Regina Mayor Sandra Masters said the city will more than likely continue to follow Health Canada guidelines when it comes to asbestos cement pipes (ACP) that carry drinking water to residents’ homes.
In the 2023 federal budget, the government is unveiling continued deficit spending targeted at Canadians' pocketbooks, public health care and the clean economy.
A Saskatoon couple says they felt ignored by police after their five-year-old foster son was attacked by a dog outside the Meadowgreen Confectionary on March 22.
The driver of a pickup truck, a 47-year-old woman, has died after a crash with a tanker on MR55 in the Greater Sudbury community of Lively on Tuesday morning, police say.
The mother of a five-year-old girl said her daughter was allegedly bullied so badly she was left with a partially amputated finger from an incident in the washroom.
The Pizza Hut employee who was shot at his workplace earlier this month is on the long road to recovery, his sister has confirmed Tuesday to CTV News Edmonton.
In the 2023 federal budget, the government is unveiling continued deficit spending targeted at Canadians' pocketbooks, public health care and the clean economy.
The 22-year-old accused of fatally stabbing a teenager at a Toronto subway station Saturday night has been wanted in Newfoundland for almost two years, CTV News Toronto has learned.
The mother of a five-year-old girl said her daughter was allegedly bullied so badly she was left with a partially amputated finger from an incident in the washroom.
A Toronto man is wanted for a February incident in which he allegedly sexually assaulted a woman he followed off public transit before taking her phone and sexually assaulted her again, police say.
In the 2023 federal budget, the government is unveiling continued deficit spending targeted at Canadians' pocketbooks, public health care and the clean economy.
Rima Rifai thought her furnace had exploded Monday when the house across the street burst into a ball of fire, sending 10 people to hospital with serious injuries.
A Quebec provincial police officer was fatally stabbed Monday night while performing an arrest in Louiseville, west of Trois-Rivieres, Que. The Surete du Quebec (SQ) has confirmed the identity of the officer, Sgt. Maureen Breau, who had been on the force for over 20 years. She was assigned to the post of the MRC de Maskinonge. Another officer was injured during the incident, but their life is not in danger.
Montreal police say they have identified two more victims found in the rubble of a fire in Old Montreal 12 days ago. Charlie Lacroix and Walid Belkahla, both 18, are the sixth and seventh victims of the fire.
A 22-year-old McGill student who suffers from a terminal disease could soon lose access to the medication she needs because she's graduating from university.
The federal budget proposes an across-the-board three per cent spending cut for all departments and agencies, a belt-tightening move after years of massive growth in the federal public service.
One person is dead after an early morning fire in Kanata, while another person is being treated for smoke inhalation after being rescued from the burning home by a bystander who spotted the fire while driving to the gym.
In the 2023 federal budget, the government is unveiling continued deficit spending targeted at Canadians' pocketbooks, public health care and the clean economy.
Almost three years after a man disguised as a Mountie started murdering people in Portapique, N.S., on the night of April 18, 2020, the senior RCMP officers and staff involved in the tragic case have all either retired or moved into new jobs.
In the 2023 federal budget, the government is unveiling continued deficit spending targeted at Canadians' pocketbooks, public health care and the clean economy.
New Brunswickers suffering from a mystery neurological disorder are calling for an investigation into potential environmental causes of the health problems they've been living with for more than two years.
In the 2023 federal budget, the government is unveiling continued deficit spending targeted at Canadians' pocketbooks, public health care and the clean economy.
Authorities are asking witnesses to come forward after security at Simon Fraser University discovered the head of the school's Mahatma Gandhi bust had been removed.
A Victoria landlord and property management company must pay more than $30,000 in damages and rental reduction to a tenant who complained of exposure to asbestos and excessive noise while their apartment building was renovated.
British Columbia wants a federal government clamp down on prescription rules after thousands of doses of the hyped weight-loss drug Ozempic went to Americans, doled out by a single practitioner in Nova Scotia.
