Well...the adventures of Betty-Lou (and my work wife Christina). Off we go to Calgary to facilitate five different presentations for the Centre for Innovation in Peer Support. Both Christina and myself deal with a lot of "issues". (That is the glory of being lived experience/family advocates, peers and system leaders - we are perfectly imperfect and gloriously embrace our "quirks"). ( Admittedly I am probably the one with the bigger, bolder "issues") LOL
The short version of what could go wrong?
- I was stuck in the middle seat with no room to breath for four hours on the plane to Calgary. I was so freaked out by my anxiety, panic attacks and feelings of claustrophobia that I swore the flight would never end. I was sure that I would be on the news later that day as the "unruly passenger" that freaked out as she ran up and down the aisle screaming to get off the flight, and the plane had to be diverted because it was not legal to just pitch her off the plane! My work wife Christina through some fluke ends up scoring "preferred seating" and she is at the other end of the plane as cool as a cucumber "living the easy life" for this flight. Like seriously??!!
- Flight home. I pre-booked an aisle seat to try to alleviate my "issues". Thought that would be a solution to allowing me a better opportunity to "breath" and do some meditation and visioning to get me through the flight home. Yes...I got the aisle seat I booked AND I GOT A THREE YEAR OLD RIGHT BESIDE ME!!!! (enough said)
- We put an enormous amount of work into our two very large poster presentations. We "misplaced" them four times! Left them in a car that was going into an auto repair service and hence had to rescue them from the service bay late in the evening (and yes the owner had to be woken up to get them). Left them ON THE FLOOR at the front desk by the reception area of the Calgary hotel. Left them in the dirt of a little garden where Christina and I had stopped to sit and get some fresh air. Left them ON THE FLOOR in the food court at Calgary airport. In each case a significant amount of time had passed and then we would look at each other and say "Where are the posters??!!". Then a flurry of panic, running and re-tracing our steps to find them. (and a lot of laughter)
- We arrive back at Pearson airport after midnight and we just follow people because we are NOT seasoned travelers. We are walking, and walking, and walking, and walking; only to finally arrive at the exit doors. We followed the wrong people! We followed the people who did NOT have checked baggage. Like OMG. (more laughter). We hiked all the way back, clueless as to where we were going and then had to enter through an opening that said "DO NOT ENTER" and there across the room was our lonely luggage (the only two pieces of luggage left) doing the lonely circling waiting for their owners to pick them up and take them home.
- The best part of the conference? It was Christina's birthday on the Tuesday. Shaleen (the ED of Peer Support Canada) and Robyn Priest (international peer support expert) and myself decided that we had to do something. (but we are all a little bratty). Christina is a very humble person who does NOT like the spotlight; whereas I am the whole department of "shameless self promotion". LOL. So...on that Tuesday morning Shaleen called Christina on stage, plunked a big white cowboy hat on her head and had 400 people in attendance sing happy birthday to Christina (peals of laughter). I tried to get a picture but Christina- bright red- ran off the stage as fast as she could and sat back down in her seat next to me with threats of getting even one day.
And yes we are the Directors for the Centre for Innovation in Peer Support! No problem. We got this. LOL. We did actually deliver all we were supposed to do though. I co-facilitated a peer support research Community of Practice (COP) and my "work wife" co-facilitated a peer support mentoring COP. We facilitated a 90 minute workshop on the Centre called: Promising Practice- Centre for Innovation in Peer Support. We also presented our two posters. The first one was: Development of Research Tool- Integrity, Quality and Impact of Peer Support and the second one was: Governance Relationship Structure-Centre for Innovation in Peer Support.
It was an AMAZING conference! I think the very coolest thing that happened was that two of our Mississauga Halton LHIN leads; Sandy Rao, Director, Regional Programs – Mental Health & Addictions for the Mississauga Halton LHIN and Liane Fernandes, Vice President, Regional Programs for the Mississauga Halton LHIN traveled all the way to Calgary to support us and to find out more about peer support in general. Like WOW...how many other people have LHIN leads like that?
Below are some pictures. First two with LHIN leads. Third one with Robyn Priest. Next two ????? LOL. And then finally our posters.
Posters ( I attached PDF versions that you can down load below and actually zoom in and read)
If you want more info on the Promising Practice feature of the Centre please go to EENet.ca for web version or see this previous post on EENet Connect (and I attached PDF of Promising Practice below)
