PROBUS Club of Durham West

MAY SPEAKER

JAMES MELOCHE

AGING IN PLACE

May’s speaker will be James Meloche, CEO of Community Care Durham. He will speak about Community Care Durham and about OneConnect, a comprehensive community-based primary health care program that will help older adults living with frailty (complex health and social needs) and the relationship to the Adult Day program, and our experience with ALS+. 

James became CEO of Community Care Durham in 2019, bringing with him decades of experience in Ontario’s healthcare system at all levels, from public policy, system strategy and planning, to operational and change leadership.  What brought James to CCD was its strong legacy of community support, and its inspiring mission to help people live independently wherever they call home. He will tell you that CCD is his “dream job.”

He is an outspoken advocate for individual and community wellbeing, and by extension, the community organizations whose purpose is to help reach that goal.  

Accountable to this purpose, James and his team have relentlessly focused on quality improvement and innovation to improve the client experience, staff and volunteer engagement, and organizational efficiency and sustainability.  

The highlights of CCD’s accomplishments during this time are numerous. From new programs such as: Hospital to Home (transitioning patients directly out Durham’s Emergency Departments back home); integrating Community Nursing core community programs, and the Community Food Box and Mobile Market program that brings locally sourced food to the tables of families weekly.  Behind the scenes, CCD has adapted new technologies and processes to provide consistent, reliable and quality care while maximizing the resources at its disposal.  And looking forward to the future, CCD is about to embark on a new chapter of the Whitby Community Health and Wellness Centres, and OneConnect, the comprehensive alternative to Long-Term Care for persons living with frailty,

With the vital support of the Board of Directors and team, the objective is to make Community Care Durham a provincial leader in advancing healthy aging and wellness.  

James holds an undergraduate degree in philosophy (Carleton University), with graduate studies in political science (The Catholic University of America).  He is an avid cyclist, adventurer and photographer who loves to explore roads both near and far.

For more information on Community Care Durham click here.

April Speaker - Robin Clipsham
Improvisation for Adults and Seniors
"Laughing Matters"

Actor, director, writer, and theatre educator, Robin has spent most of her life in theatre. Robin’s career includes the creation and development of several new and unique comic characters, performed across Canada, and the realization of many other contemporary female characters; the foundation and development of a theatre company for young people, designed to foster and promote professional theatre experiences (PRISM 

Theatre In The Park, and Muskoka StageWorks); teaching theatre performance and production for Nipissing University; building virtual theatre performance experiences for Seniors; and award-winning improvisational theatre coaching and teaching for those 7 – 97 years of age! Winner of four awards for her work, one of Robin’s passions is the development of community through theatre and the arts, and participating in the growth and strength that such a community can foster in people of all ages. It takes a village.

Enjoy a fun session with professional educator and improv coach, Robin Clipsham, and learn all about the ways to open and maintain brain function and increase relaxation!

Engage in creative group activities in an expressive environment that is safe, fun and dynamic.  Improvisation combines the excitement of spontaneous conversation with listening skills, all while relaxing and playing.

There is no performance – no threat! Improv games are just good for the brain…and for your stress levels.*

Let’s build some brain food!

Below are pictures of member volunteers participating in some improv games. Everyone was enthusiastic about the session and several members expressed an interest in continuing with this activity.

For more information on Robin and her background Click Here.

*Northwestern University and Loma Linda University studies. 

March Speaker - Dr. Ken Shonk
Laughter is the Best Medicine

My presentation will include the latest research on laughter and humor along with examples, including the physiology, anatomy, biochemistry and classification of humor. I will give examples of the uses of humor in ageing, chronic illness, pain management and even death and dying and grief treatment. I will also make several suggestions on how to bring more humor and joy into your lives with all of this sprinkled with true stories from my 48 years of family practice.

For more information on Dr. Shonk and his background Click Here.

February Speaker - Lianne Harris

Forget Romeo & Juliet or Caesar & Cleopatra--there are other couples who had a love that would light the ages!  A love that was scandalous, tragic, forbidden, loyal . . . and oft-times entirely unexpected.

Drawing on eye-witness accounts, contemporary writings and actual letters, presenter Lianne Harris takes a peek inside the intimate, daring, wrenching, even tempestuous private lives of some of history’s ‘other’ great couples.

For more information on Lianne and her background Click Here .

January Speaker - Dr. Christopher DiCarlo
Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity

Dr. Christopher DiCarlo is a philosopher, educator, and author. He is the Principal and Founder of Critical Thinking Solutions, a consulting business for individuals, corporations, and not-for-profits in both the private and public sectors. He currently holds the position of Senior Researcher and Ethicist at Convergence Analysis – a UK-based organization focusing on AI Risk and Governance.

Dr. DiCarlo is also the Ethics Chair for the Canadian Mental Health Association and is also a lifetime member of Humanist Canada and an Expert Advisor for the Centre for Inquiry Canada. He often teaches in the Department of Biology at the University of Toronto (Mississauga) and at The Life Institute at Toronto Metropolitan University and is a past Visiting Research Scholar at Harvard University in Department of Anthropology and the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. Dr. DiCarlo has won several awards including TV Ontario’s Big Ideas Best Lecturer in Ontario Award and Canada’s Humanist of the Year.

Dr. DiCarlo has been invited to speak at numerous national and international conferences and written many scholarly papers ranging from bioethics to cognitive evolution. He is the author of several books and his best-seller: How to Become a Really Good Pain in the Ass: A Critical Thinker’s Guide to Asking the Right Questions, was released by Prometheus Books as a 2^nd Edition to mark its 10^th–year anniversary. His last book: So You Think You Can Think. Tools for Intelligent Conversations and Getting Along was published by Rowman and Littlefield Publishers and was released in June of 2020. And his current book from Rowman and Littlefield, will be released in January, 2025, and is called: Building a God: The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence and the Race to Control It.

Dr. DiCarlo also hosts a new podcast called: All Thinks Considered in which he engages in free and open discussion about current, important issues with world thought leaders, politicians, and entertainers through the lens of Critical Thinking and Ethical Reasoning.

Subsequent to Dr. Dicarlo's presentation, he has provided a link for trusted sources of information.  You will find 29 links towards the bottom of the article. To access Click Here

For more information on Dr. DiCarlo Click Here