Living with Quadriplegia and Succeeding in Business
July 29, 2014
Hosted by Dr. Gordon Atherley
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Guest Information
Episode Description
Dan Thompson’s life altered in 1980 following a car accident which left him with quadriplegia. Now he has his own company, DeeGee Rehabilitation Technologies Ltd, www.deegeerehab.com, which operates across North America. He talks about his experience of family caregiving, his training, qualifications and work experience, and his company. He explains its services and the types of injuries and health conditions served. He describes his journey to Hotel Captain Cook, Alaska for his August 26, 2014 presentation ‘Dispel Attendant Care Myths’. He explains the myths and the ways he overcomes the most challenging of the physical and psychological challenges he encounters in living with quadriplegia and also in running a successful business. He says what more he would like to do to and see done to provide more help to people living with quadriplegia so they can live fulfilling and successful lives. He shares his message for family caregivers with family member living with quadriplegia.
Family Caregivers Unite!
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Family caregivers are the people who provide care to partners, parents, children, brothers, sisters, cousins, friends, neighbors and even co-workers. They are the people who provide care when everyone else has gone home. They are the people who organize the functioning of the home for the person with special needs, and for the family as a whole. They are the coordinators of care, the managers of appointments, the preventers of loneliness, and the makers of decisions even to the point of Power of Attorney. And they are so often people who themselves are burdened with their own health challenges and who may be in only marginally better health than the persons to whom they are providing family caregiving.
Dr. Gordon Atherley
Dr Gordon Atherley holds the British equivalent of the Canadian PhD and MD degrees, and LLD, Honoris Causa, from Canada’s Simon Fraser University. His awards include Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, UK. His medical specialties are occupational medicine and public health.
As first President and Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety, the Canadian equivalent of the US National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, he led the creation of Canada’s electronic information service in occupational health and safety, now used in more than 40 countries.
In academia, he held senior, tenured, full-time positions, including departmental chair, in university faculties of physics, engineering, and medicine. He is the author of a textbook and numerous articles and publications.
Since retiring from medical practice, he’s built up Greyhead Associates, which critically researches the safety, effectiveness and fairness of health services for persons with special needs.
Through Virtual Care International, a company of which he’s President, he’s involved in providing sensible technology to family caregivers to help them with their responsibilities, workloads, and concerns.
Now an activist, he urges family caregivers to unite because, more and more, it’s not just their families who depend on them, it’s also the healthcare system as a whole, as it struggles to meet more and more needs of more and more people.
