R2R Panelists Discuss Wellbeing for a Rural Community
It might seem impossibly broad to imagine what a “healthy” rural community looks like. But rather than considering this as a stumbling block, the R2R panel on Thursday afternoon rose to the challenge by describing many important aspects of reinforcing rural community wellbeing.
Some panelists, such as Gwen Deveraux, took the approach literally by discussing the medicinal challenges faced by rural communities. Deveraux works for the Gateway Centre of Excellence in Rural Health, based in Goderich. As Deveraux described it, rural communities lack health research and education in comparison to an urban environment. This is compounded by the added rural challenges of a larger ageing population and higher rates of conditions such as diabetes, obesity and arthritis.
To combat this, Deveraux described how Gateway attracts researchers to rural areas, making the communities seem “more urban in their eyes,” while also creating spaces for students to do hands-on learning and research projects in their home rural communities.
“Health research is key to a healthy and wealthy society,” Deveraux said. “Why wouldn’t everyone want their rural population to be healthy?”
Another panelist, Robert Winslow of 4th Line Theatre, took a more metaphorical approach.by exploring how his theatre company affected the social health of his community. The company operates in Millbrook, Ontario, a small Hamlet near Peterborough. Despite the very small population, Winslow says that theatre can thrive in the community by allowing locals to tell their own stories, with themes relevant to their environment — not dissimilar to the Blyth Festival.
Also featured as panelists were Dr. Al Lauzon from the University of Guelph’s School of Environmental Design and Rural Development, Libro Credit Union’s Liz Arkinstall, and Dr. Heather Mair, of the University of Waterloo Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies.
While the various elements of the panel all came from different faculties and paths of life, the talk eventually blended together during the Q&A session. The panelists blended their discourse together towards themes of mental health, inclusivity, and engaging all the diverse members of a community — whether that means attendance at a play or curling match, or hosting more “Newfoundland-style kitchen parties,” in Deveraux’s words. “People’s health is compromised when they don’t have relationships,” said Mair.
To illustrate the celebration of community relationships, all the participants finished the event by marking Gateway’s tenth anniversary with homemade chocolate chip cookies.
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Find video of the panel here:
