Wellness

Building a Health Meal (#3 in Nutrition Series) See "You Are What You Eat" and "Anatomy of a Food Label" below.

In this presentation you will learn about how to build a healthy meal! During this session, the following topics will be covered:
- Health impact of overweight/obesity and prevalence among individuals with vision impairment
- Meal planning strategies – timing, food groups, portion size, food safety
- Resource (links) to meal planning sites, recipe sites, tools/resources for individuals with vision impairment
CEUs: none
Length: 20 minutes
Resources:
- Way Around
- Look Out
- Insight4blind: How can a blind person maintain an accessible kitchen from grocery to pantry?
- Insight4blind: How can you read product labels if you are blind or have low vision?
- Pen Friend
- Reizen Talking Label Wand
REGISTER to view this free session. Please Note: The date you will see when registering for the "Focus" Talk is the date that the presentation was recorded. All "Focus" Talks are available for viewing immediately after registration.

Anatomy of a Food Label (#2 in Nutrition Series) See "You Are What You Eat" below.
Presenter: Marcia Richards, MEd, RD, MCHES

In this prerecorded session you will learn:
- Health impact of overweight/obesity and prevalence among individuals with vision impairment
- Review of information found on food labels including ingredients, health claims, nutrient claims, nutrition fact panel, Daily Value, and portion size
- Resources for facilitating label reading for individuals with vision impairment
- Focus on added sugar and how this impacts weight management
- Portion size
- Resources (links) and tools for individuals with vision impairment to assist with accurate portioning
CEUs: none
Length: 20 minutes
Resources:
- Insight for Blind:
  - How can you read product labels if you are blind or have low vision?
  - Creating an Accessible Kitchen
- Way Around - simple tag and scan tool
- Penfriend
- Reizen Talking Label Wand
- Look Out
REGISTER to view this free session. Please Note: The date you will see when registering for the "Focus" Talk is the date that the presentation was recorded. All "Focus" Talks are available for viewing immediately after registration.

You Are What You Eat (#1 in Nutrition Series) See Anatomy of Food Label above.
Presenter: Marcia Richards, MEd, RD, MCHES

In this prerecorded session you will learn:
- health impact of overweight/obesity and prevalence among individuals with vision impairment.
- 6 classes of nutrients and how they benefit health.
- strategies to reduce challenges associated with eating from all food groups (e.g., healthier convenience foods, pre-cut vegetables/fruits, frozen options).
- food groups and the nutrients each provides.
CEUs: none
Length: 20 minutes
Resources:
REGISTER to view this free session. Please Note: The date you will see when registering for the "Focus" Talk is the date that the presentation was recorded. All "Focus" Talks are available for viewing immediately after registration.

New Ways Caregivers Can Benefit from Guided Imagery: A Focus on Mentalizing, Mindfulness and Connectedness
Presenter: Felipe A. Jain, MD, Director of Health Aging Studies, Depression Clinical and Research Program, Massachusetts General Hospital Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School

Providing care to a person with a chronic or debilitating illness, whether as a family member or professional, can be challenging and stressful. Caregivers often struggle with a balance between empathizing with their care recipient’s pain or distress and maintaining their own personal sense of wellness, between providing appropriate care for the realities of illness versus holding normal “expectations” for what their care recipient can do, and between attending to their care recipient’s needs and engaging in healthy and fulfilling activities for themselves. The stresses of caregiving challenge the caregivers’ ability to understand the care recipient, the dynamic and changing social situation, and themselves. One approach that can help caregivers thrive is that of using mindful guided imagery techniques to facilitate greater self and other understanding, or balanced mentalizing, while recognizing concepts of connectedness emerging from a modern physical understanding of the structure of the universe to provide solace and inspiration. Dr. Jain will outline this approach, the evidence for its use in caregivers based on research at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Harvard Medical School, and measurable changes in brain connectivity that result from practicing these techniques.
CEUS: .5 ACVREP; Certificates of Attendance by request
Length: 44 minutes
Resources: Free website with Mental Imagery Therapy (MIT) techniques: https://fernhillcenter.org
REGISTER to view this free session. Please Note: The date you will see when registering for the "Focus" Talk is the date that the presentation was recorded. All "Focus" Talks are available for viewing immediately after registration.

Friends Matter! One Friend Can Change Your Whole Life

Presenters: Colleen Goff, Training Consultant; Maureen O'Rourke King, M.Ed., DDS SE Region Learning and Development; Luke Hutter Ross, Trainer; Zach Rosetti, Ph.D., Boston University, Wheelock College of Education & Human Development
Friendships are personally valuable and developmentally important relationships for all people. Yet friendship between individuals with and without intellectual developmental disabilities or vision loss remain infrequent. People with intellectual disabilities can really be faced with challenges of loneliness on a higher level. This panel discussion will share thoughts on friendship and strategies for growing friendships.
CEUS: .5 ACVREP; Certificate of Attendance by request
Length: 59 minutes
Register to view this free session. Please Note: The date you will see when registering for the "Focus" Talk is the date that the presentation was recorded. All "Focus" Talks are available for viewing immediately after registration.