OLDS — The IODE Baron Tweedsmuir chapter in Olds has given $1,000 to a Central Alberta-based group that works with veterans, first responders and health-care workers suffering from operational stress injuries (OSI) like PTSD.
Steve Chritchley of Torrington, founder of Can Praxis, received that cheque late last month from IODE Baron Tweedsmuir chapter president Dianne Powney. The money is part of the proceeds obtained from the group’s Second Time Around thrift store.
“It’s a very worthy cause. It’s going to help a lot of families. It’s going to help a lot of people,” Powney said. “It fits into our mandate: to help anyone in need; from babies and seniors.”
“We focus on education, citizenship and service,” Powney added. “We do the mind and the soul, mind and the body.”
Chritchley was pleased to receive the cheque. He said it will go towards programs the group hopes to get going this January, if COVID restrictions allow them to do so.
Chritchley founded Can Praxis in 2014. With help from a psychologist, it has provided equine therapy for veterans and first responders suffering from OSI. It offers specialized programs for the injured and their spouse, partner or family member.
Chritchley says it has now branched out into helping health-care workers who are suffering the same kind of issues as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said the program has grown to the point where it serves clients from across Canada.
During an interview, Chritchley said he himself has not been diagnosed with an OSI.
However, according to the Can Praxis website, he spent 28 years with the Canadian Armed Forces as a basic training instructor, as well as an advanced leadership instructor.
It says he also taught mediation programs in in the United Kingdom, Italy, South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, and Dubai.
During the interview, Chritchley also said he was deployed to Egypt, Cyprus and Bosnia.
“As a veteran who has extensive background in conflict resolution, harassment, discrimination, racism, I became aware that if you’ve been diagnosed with an operational stress injury such as PTSD, it could very well prove to be fatal. This is a very nasty injury,” Chritchely said.
“And with that, it all depends on one basic fact: if there’s no conversation, there’s no resolution. In other words, unless you learn how to talk about your injury and how to talk to your family, nothing will ever change.
“So the premise quite simply is helping people relearn how to have at least one effective conversation a day with the people most important to them – their spouse, for example.
“Because if you can one effective conversation, you can have two. If you can have two, then you’re set up for success.”
He explained what the name Can Praxis means.
“We’re not into chasing rainbows or hugging unicorns. This has the potential to be a fatal injury, so we’re quite serious in our approach,” Chritchley said.
"Can Praxis basically stands for the Canadian can-do attitude. It was a little over a hundred years ago that us wild colonials were told ‘You could never take Vimy Ridge.’ And as Canadians, we showed them – and we took it.
“Praxis, which is Latin, is to take theory and put it into practice. So basically, Can Praxis means ‘walk the talk'.”
