New women’s clinic takes holistic approach

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This article was published 05/10/2022 (1232 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The first women’s clinic combining medical health and counselling services outside of Winnipeg is set to open in Brandon next month.

The Wellness Clinic, slated to open its doors Nov. 1 at 2-1711 Kircaldy Dr., will offer women’s health resources and family-wide mental health services.

Demand for the new clinic is already high, said partner Dr. Alise Gaiser-Edwards. There is already a waiting list for potential patients and clients.

The new clinic is offering specialized health-care services under one roof to make it easier for patients to get the care they need and for staff to deliver it in a timely manner, Gaiser-Edwards said. Along with partner Jenn Sherb, a registered therapist and social worker, the 10-person interdisciplinary team at The Wellness Clinic includes physicians, nurses, counsellors, registered dietitians, physiotherapists, yoga instructors, and meditation and mindfulness teachers.

Its medical services include prenatal and postpartum care, primary care obstetrical deliveries, infertility, miscarriage care, sexual health, menstrual concerns, Pap clinics, menopause, eating disorders and breastfeeding support.

Mental health and counselling services will be available to couples, families, individuals, children and adolescents, and will also offer mediation, parent coaching, parent co-ordination and perinatal mental health.

The reason for opening this clinic is clear, Gaiser-Edwards said: there is a need for one and it will contribute to the formation of a new kind of health-care community.

“A lot of women don’t have access to these services in our region,” she said. “I’ve been a family doctor for four years, and two years prior to that I was in residency under another doctor at the Western Medical Clinic and working in the hospital for six years. Over that time, I had primarily young women patients, so I did a lot of obstetrics and gynecology, and it became my passion.”

People are complex beings and one form of care, such as just medication or just counselling, won’t help manage their situations, she said. To really help them, it will be more effective to bring in an entire team to the clinic.

She explained this won’t be like the family practice she had before this clinic, meaning she won’t follow patients throughout their lives. Instead, she will be a referral-based women’s health-care physician. To access care, patients can self-refer, or they can be sent to the clinic by another physician.

Although she and Sherb come from different clinical backgrounds, they share a passion for women’s health and mental wellness.

Both agreed there are big gaps in women’s health, especially in a holistic setting — the only facility in Manitoba with medical and counselling services in one setting is the Women’s Health Clinic in Winnipeg, she said.

Mental and physical health are intertwined, said Sherb. She and Gaiser-Edwards noticed when they would meet with patients and try to plan care for them, patients said they couldn’t access programs or other clinics.

With mental and physical health in one location, it will be as easy as walking down the hall or calling in the appropriate team member to talk directly with the patient.

“We wanted to have these services in a place where they would be comfortable, and those services would be accessible without needing to look up different numbers and people every time,” Sherb said. “We really wanted to decrease the complexity of getting the care you need and deserve to be your best self. We really need to break the stigma of physical and mental health being separate and recognize that it is all connected.”

The clinic’s business and care model is being designed with expansion in mind, Sherb said. The hope is to include more physical and mental health programs, with Sherb hoping to offer more family-oriented services geared toward major life events like divorce and menopause.

“We need to normalize getting help when we are going through a major life transition like that,” she said. “When we are reaching out from a place of guilt or shame, we often don’t reach out, so I hope to expand on those services.”

Sherb opened a counselling and wellness centre, Jenn Sherb Wellness, in 2019. While she will not be operating that centre in tandem with the new clinic, she will continue to offer counselling services for her current and future clients at The Wellness Clinic.

More information can be found online at wellnessclinicbrandon.ca.

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