A new hospice will open its doors in Geneva on 1 October, providing palliative care for people at the end of their life, who can no longer be cared for at home but who do not wish to spend their final days in a hospital.
Situated in Chêne-Bougeries, La Maison de Tara will provide a warm, caring and friendly environment for residents… a real home from home… as well as much-needed support for families and friends. As a non-profit, secular foundation, the hospice is able to operate through the generous support of several communes in the region, and through the help of compassionate donors and volunteers.
The hospice will be set up along similar lines to the Dutch hospice movement, where most care homes are small to conserve a family-like atmosphere. Patients staying at La Maison de Tara will have access to the same medical care as they would have received at home, and will be able to retain the same medical and social networks that existed before admission, including doctors, home help nurses, and physiotherapists etc. Skilled carers will be on hand, day and night, to provide reassurance, respond to needs, and offer a friendly ear and companionship. Families will be able to have the same level of "involvement" as they would at home, but will be able to take advantage of the additional support provided by hospice staff and volunteers for relatives and friends.
HealthFirst, one of the leading providers of health-related training for the English-speaking community in Switzerland, has just launched a new website that will make it easier for users to access the very latest information about their courses and other developments.
Located at www.healthfirst.ch, the website will prove popular not only with private individuals who are interested in receiving training in First Aid and Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) for adults and children, but also schools, sport institutions, playgroups, businesses, NGOs and other organizations, who require tailor-made courses on First Aid, as well as general health information and promotion.
Each of the standard courses provided by HealthFirst will be bookable online, including two new certified courses that should be available by October 2011: a “Basic Life Support and Automated External Defibrillation (AED) course”, certified by the Swiss Resuscitation Council, and the “First Aid for the Swiss Driving Licence course”, certified by the organisation RESQ.
Special discount for knowitall.ch clients
A new cosmetics company in Nyon has been attracting lots of interest since it opened its doors in the region last year.
Under the sign Custom Colors®, the boutique provides customized foundations that are blended and tested on the premises for clients, while they wait, ensuring the perfect match for their skin tone. Catering for all complexions, including caucasian, asian, mixed, and black; Custom Colors® Foundation will also cover blemishes caused by freckles, rosacea, vitiligo and tattoos.
CEO and Founder, Ronke Obajimi, says, “I set up Custom Colors® out of sheer frustration: I could never find foundation to match my skin tone! So in April last year, using my business experience and the knowledge I had gained through my Master’s degrees in International Law and Business, I decided to take the plunge and set up my own company in Geneva, selling customized cosmetics. However, the business grew so quickly that I needed to move to larger premises in Nyon shortly afterwards.”
Asked why her company has been so successful, Ronke explains,
By Dr. Cressida Dawson, Dentist
Why does your dentist nag you about seeing the hygienist regularly and why does your hygienist lecture you continually on cleaning your teeth? Well, it’s not just because they don’t like treating people with bad breath, it’s also because if over the long term you neglect your gums you will become long in the tooth providing that is you’ve still got any teeth.
If you don’t clean your teeth properly and if you don’t get the tartar regularly scraped off by a hygienist then food debris and plaque accumulate around your teeth which make the gums inflamed. If your gums are continually inflamed the gums become unattached from the teeth and pockets form where more debris can easily accumulate. This causes more inflammation and thus the gums to become further detached and the pockets get deeper and so on.
As the pockets get deeper the bone around the teeth disappears and so ultimately if this process continues the teeth become mobile and the eventual scenario is that they can fall out or have to be taken out.
People look ‘long in the tooth’ because during this time as a response to the inflammation the gums also recede and the roots of the teeth become exposed. This is great news for the manufacturers of toothpaste for sensitive teeth but not for you. Exposed roots are sensitive and much more prone to decay and also means that there is less bone around the teeth so they are less solid.
Two visits a year to the hygienist costs a fraction of what one implant, one bridge or one denture costs - let alone the time that you would have to sit in the dentist’s chair, which hard it is for we dentists to accept, is not where our patients want to spend too much time!
Request a list of recommended Doctors and Dentists here. This list has been compiled for knowitall.ch by people like you. If you know of someone who is not listed and you would like to recommend them, please fill out this form here.
On another note: Tooth fairy or La petite souris?
Traditionally, Anglosaxons subscribe to the Tooth Fairy, but in these parts children are visited by La Petite Souris (little mouse). Find out the usual amount that the local Tooth Fairy or Petite Souris normally brings, before your children lose a tooth, as once the subscription starts you cannot change it. A recent survey has stated that this amount is between Fr. 2.- and Fr. 5.- for a tooth that falls out on its own, but double for one that is pulled out by a dentist!
Check out these websites for more info:
www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks1/english/tooth_fairy/index.htm
If you’re looking for a doctor who is familiar with the “English way” of doing things, then you may have discovered that the options can be somewhat limited in this region.
Whilst there are plenty of English-speaking doctors, there are few that are familiar with the practices of UK doctors and the National Health Service. For those of you wishing to compare the treatments available here with those in the UK, it can be extremely useful to discuss the various options available with somebody who understands the issue from both sides.
Helping to bridge this gap is a UK-trained doctor called Dr. Karen Hofmann, recently arrived in the area at the end of last year. Dr. Hofmann has just opened a new practice at a cabinet in Begnins (near Nyon). Her services will complement those of swiss doctors Raimondi and Bischoff-Tieche, allowing for medical cover throughout the week.
Qualified at St. George’s Hospital medical school, London University in 1989, and having practiced as a GP partner in the UK for 8 years, Karen will continue to offer a general medical service, but with a special interest in women’s health (and will do smear tests). A mother of three boys, aged 9, 7 and 3, Dr. Hofmann is sensitive to the needs of children and will see babies and youngsters of all ages.
Fluent in English and French, Karen currently works 50% of the time, on Tuesdays and Fridays from 8am to 6pm, and on Wednesday mornings from 8am to 12 noon.
