OEBB Moda member Beth shares how the Better Choices, Better Health® (BCBH) online workshop has helped her better manage her chronic conditions through sharing with others in the program. “This program approaches participants from the heart. I appreciated the support of the facilitators. I enjoyed hearing others share their challenges, as it was comforting to […]
By Katy Plant & Corina Paraschiv More than three decades ago, the original Better Choices, Better Health®(BCBH) research team identified the important skills to develop for those self-managing chronic conditions. While these skills are consistent, the motivation for achieving healthy living goals, however, may vary greatly from one individual to another. So to better […]
Sara had never tried a group support program to manage her chronic pain before signing up for a Better Choices, Better Health®(BCBH) online workshop. Over the course of the 6-week workshop, she discovered how group support helped her refocus to better manage her chronic pain.
This Fall, VA Caregiver Support Services will be expanding their program of comprehensive assistance for family caregivers. Over the last 6 years, our Building Better Caregivers® (BBC) program has been available to all Caregivers who are caring for a Veteran from any era. To date over 9,000 Caregivers have enrolled in Building Better Caregivers. The […]
Samanta is a Caregiver for her husband, a Navy Veteran. Several years after they married, she noticed a change in his behavior. As he became more distant, she grew frustrated and even angry at times. When she discovered the Building Better Caregivers® (BBC) online workshop, she signed up in the hopes it could help her […]
Idena is a Caregiver for her husband, a Vietnam Vet. They struggled to communicate, and went through periods where he simply didn’t want to talk. She would get frustrated when he spoke of the war, because in her mind, it’s long over. But she kept trying; kept building her fortitude and resilience. She even moved […]
This month, we celebrate the life of our colleague Kathleen Mahoney who passed away in early August. Like many of our peers, Kathleen had facilitated our online workshops for close to a decade helping hundreds of workshop participants and was a close colleague and friend to many. She was a seasoned facilitator and became a […]
By Wendy Wood Many, many, years ago, I found myself in a drug store looking for a band-aid for my boyfriend. For the first time in my life, “flesh color” did not denote the color of skin I was trying to match. My mind was blown that I had never noticed this before. I […]
By Wendy Wood Yoga was the air I breathed and the food I ate; until it wasn’t. A back injury came between my yoga-yes and my yoga-no status. When practicing yoga was no longer an option for me, I was left with a shattered self-image and a directionless routine. If I didn’t practice yoga, […]
By Canary Coaches Team Canary Coaches are healthcare professionals who provide support to individuals who want to lower their risk of developing type 2 diabetes by losing weight and becoming more active. With the heightened recognition of structural racism, we are increasingly aware how our biases influence our thoughts, words, and actions. We have […]
As committed, I want to be accountable to you, to the broader community to reducing any bias in our organization and our programs. Here, I am reporting on what we have done this month to ensure that we continue our effort. This month we reviewed our workshop demand projections and the staffing needs given […]
By Serena Weisner -Community Manager for Canary Peer’s Alumni Community “I don’t know how long we’re going to be in the midst of this COVID situation. I can sit around and complain about it and be bitter, or I can do other things to help myself.” Sara communicated to me. She said it […]
By Katy Plant Reflecting on how Canary Peers can best support the Black Lives Matter movement, I am reminded that cultural humility is one of our program’s guiding principles and that it starts with listening. So I am sharing a snippet of Starette’s story as captured through a Canary Peers’ team member, Kathryn Ramos. […]
By Carrie Pittman My parents married just 2 years after the Supreme Court ruled interracial marriage was legal in the United States. I was born 2 years after that, and by the time I was 7 years old, I learned to rank people based on their race. In doing so, I ranked myself. […]
This week Canary Peers announces our partnership with the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). UCSF has received funding for a 5-year National Institutes of Health research study on caregivers utilizing our Building Better Caregivers® program as the study intervention program. The study is open to caregivers living in rural areas of the United States […]
What makes Canary Peers uniquely peers, are our workshop facilitators and mentors. Often when people learn about our programs, they can instantly tell we are using a different approach than most digital therapeutic services. That’s because all of our online workshops are facilitated or coached by workshop leaders who are living with a chronic condition […]
May 6, 2020 Release CANARY HEALTH® LAUNCHES CANARY PEERS New Unit Uniquely Focuses On Peers To Further Drive Health Outcomes And Reduce Health Care Costs For People Living With Chronic Conditions Los Angeles, CA – May 6, 2020 – Canary Health®, a leading digital health and digital therapeutics company, announced today the […]
By Dawn Menning Lately, there has been a lot of discussion in our Better Choices, Better Health® (BCBH) workshops about COVID-19. Not surprisingly, in addition to the coronavirus directly increasing stress and anxiety levels, changes to normal life like orders to shelter in place have forced our participants to adjust their normal self-care habits. We […]
By Katy Plant In this newsletter and many other forums, we have shared the impact peer-driven self-management support has had to increase self-efficacy, reduce anxiety, and improve outcomes. With COVID-19 both exacerbating fears of co-morbid conditions and creating its own challenges through shelter-at-home, this kind of support is needed now more than ever. Unfortunately, in […]
By Mary Barbato You may be staying at home during COVID-19, but your garbage isn’t. How you handle your garbage could save the lives of your community members and those picking up your garbage. As we know, the coronavirus stays on certain surfaces for up to 3 days, and it is still not clear […]