Latest news with #VTRA
CBC
23-05-2025
- CBC
Innovative horse simulator helps riders with disabilities saddle up
Social Sharing "Do you want to go faster?" Jayne Imeson already knew the answer she was going to get from her six-year-old son, Casey, sitting astride his new steed in a park in Central Saanich, B.C. He nodded with a smile. "Always faster — this kid loves his speed," Imeson said. Casey's usual ride is a Fjord horse named Valla, but on Thursday, he became the first official user of the MiraColt horse-riding motion simulator developed for the Victoria Therapeutic Riding Association (VTRA). The first-of-its-kind device combines a commercially available riding simulator with an app-based software application designed by CanAssist, an organization part of the University of Victoria, dedicated to helping people with disabilities. The system allows riders to control the speed of their simulated ride through a variety of virtual trails. The university says it's aimed particularly at people unable to ride a real horse. Casey has cerebellar ataxia affecting his muscle control, but he can ride Valla at the VTRA, which has 13 horses of different sizes and kinds. But Casey's toothy grin as he rode the MiraColt suggested it was a good substitute. Users who straddle and sway on the device the size of a large suitcase can pick the scene displayed on a screen — a local park, an urban street or the Arizona desert. "It replicates the movement of a horse at the gait of a walk," said Liza Gagel, executive director of the VTRA. "It can go from a very slow walk to a very, very fast walk, and the walk is actually the most beneficial gait for therapeutic purposes, for both physical and mental movement." Gagel said the simulator had the promise to help her organization meet growing demand, as they are limited by the number of hours, horses, and staff they have. "So we are trying to figure out how we are going to meet the needs of our community, and then CanAssist showed up at the right time," she said. Paul Green, associate director of operations and technology development with CanAssist, says the project is an "ideal example" of the collaborations they like to work on. "As much fun as it could be for me and the tech development team to hop into a room and start thinking of creating the next greatest assistive technology, that's not how we operate," Green said. "We work in response and ideate in response to requests from the community." That could be an individual with a disability, a clinician, an educator, or an organization like the VTRA, Green says. CanAssist determines whether there's an existing solution, whether that can be modified, or whether they need to design a new one from scratch. "This project was essentially a combination of that — some of it existed in terms of the MiraColt mechanical piece, but connecting that with a CanAssist-designed, more immersive experience for their clients and participants." About 230 participants take part in the riding association's program, Gagel said, with 50 more people waiting. She said the simulator would allow riders to warm up their muscles and improve core strength, or allow people with behavioural challenges to release some of their energy, before riding a real horse. The simulator can also easily move to other locations. "We can actually pick it up and take it to clinics or a physiotherapist's office or people's homes, if that is a need," Gagel said. Imeson says she's seen the benefits of therapeutic riding. Casey has been riding with the association for two years, and the improvements have "truly been incredible." She said the simulator "does an incredible job of replicating the horse movement," and she believes it would help her son make additional gains. "When he is in session here ... he's always improving his abilities and his balance and his motor skills and his reflexes," she said. "It's leaps and bounds." The simulator is the third project between the riding association and CanAssist during a 15-year collaboration with two local donors, Lynda and Murray Farmer, covering the full cost of the project, which is undisclosed. The other projects include a saddle support to help a rider with cerebral palsy sit upright, and a set of steps resembling a small staircase that helps riders get on a cart for one of the VTRA's programs.
CBC
09-04-2025
- CBC
Sudbury area groups renew commitment to community safety programs
Schools, police, colleges and other organizations in Sudbury and area are updating their training in recognizing troubling behaviour in people before they commit acts of violence in the community. Thirty-three groups in the region are signing a new commitment to learn about and respond to threatening behaviours before they escalate. The organizations have all taken training from the Centre for Trauma-Informed Practices. Executive director Kevin Cameron began developing the training after he was involved as a crisis counsellor in the aftermath of the fatal school shooting in Taber, Alberta in 1999. Cameron's theory is that people don't just "snap" and commit violent crimes. He says there are often signs long before and community members can be trained to recognize them and help before it's too late. "We have case after case quietly across Canada and parts of America where team members come back with their own jaws dropped and they're going 'Holy crap, we got close on that one," he said. "Grandfather's gun was in his grandson's room and nobody knew it, including the grandpa, that his gun and ammunition had been taken away." He credits the 33 organizations in Sudbury and Espanola, which includes school boards, hospitals, police, colleges, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, and new members Sudbury Multicultural Centre, Sparks Employment and Canadian Shield home health care with leading the way on these initiatives and keeping up on training and trauma response. Anna Maria Barsanti has been involved since the beginning in Sudbury, about fifteen years ago. Barsanti said a school superintendent heard Cameron speak in Ottawa and was inspired to bring his message and training to Sudbury schools. She said each of the 33 groups in the network has a responsibility to trigger an assessment if they witness a person behaving in a number of ways, including bullying, threatening, setting fires, cruelty to animals and other ways she describes as "cries for help." "So that if you're aware of someone who's on a pathway toward violence, you can initiate a Violence Threat Risk Assessment (VTRA)," she said. "It doesn't have to be the school, it doesn't have to be the police. It doesn't have to be child protection. You also have that ability to reach out to do what's necessary so someone's not hurting." Barsanti estimates there are about 90 assessments a year in the Sudbury area, but says there's no real way to measure success, except in terms of feeling more secure. "I think we all want to be able to be safe in our community," she said. "We want to know that things are being taken care of by the systems that are in place. "If we're doing our work and we're doing our work well, then they can walk wherever they want to walk in our community. They can be wherever they want to be in our community and things will be OK."
