Hi there.

My name is Ken Smith. I am married with two adult children, and two dogs. I live about 1.5 hours north of Toronto, Ontario, in the "Sunshine City", Orillia. I have had a very eclectic life and believe I could give Louis L'Amour a run for who has had the most jobs, most careers.

I grew up in Northern Ontario where hunting fishing and camping were common pursuits. For me interacting with nature in any of those activities is therapeutic. Just because I say I'm fishing doesn't mean I have a line in the water!

I retire this summer after 27+ years working as a paramedic. My last 10 years as a first response paramedic attending only lights and siren calls. And of that, the last 4 years I have worked as a Community Paramedic, providing in-home proactive care for high risk patients who have one or more chronic disease processes and are frequent 911/ER users. The program has reduced 911 use by at least 40% in the County of Simcoe. I now work in a senior role and am off the roster for 911 response. Yes I miss it. Our program has expanded to include assessment and medical support at shelters; at site COVID screening and swabbing; administration of influenza and COVID vaccines; and in-home support for patients awaiting long term care home placement.

The Community Paramedic Home Visit Program started out in two townships and a small city and is now rapidly expanding across the County of Simcoe as we recruit and train more paramedics to work in this new practice. All oversite is conducted by our Program clinician, or as an extension of the patient's Primary Care Giver( GP or NP).

I'm very lucky to have practiced good self care throughout my career and although I do have scars I do not have major injury to my mental health. I have networked with many wonderful people from all genres and this has helped me keep balance. I have volunteered to provide crisis intervention for first responders and health care workers for about 20 years. In that time I have founded a crisis support team in auto racing, peer support team at the County, and have coordinated a local CISM Team. This has provided me a foundation for, and the inpetus to, attend school to study to provide professional counselling for those groups.

I look forward to my semi-retirement working as a counsellor and travelling. There is a lot of Canada my wife and I haven't seen, and when things settle down we will visit some places and friends in the US with our home on wheels. We also want to travel to the UK and Europe.

I am very pleased to be part of this wonderful group of people where I can interact and learn about healthy living. I thank the Docs for including me in this network!