{"id":898526,"date":"2026-09-17T00:16:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T00:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/898526\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T00:16:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T00:16:12","slug":"20-year-old-rapids-family-health-team-in-sarnia-expanding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/898526\/","title":{"rendered":"20-year-old Rapids Family Health Team in Sarnia expanding"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Rapids Family Health Team is growing again.<\/p>\n

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The three-site Sarnia health-care provider with 37 physicians, alongside nurses, nurse practitioners, and health professionals, marked its 20th anniversary Wednesday by announcing an expansion.<\/p>\n

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In the same Pontiac Drive building, two doors down from its main office, a new prevention care clinic is opening Oct. 15, said board chair Donna Morreau.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe space will be home to Rapids nurse educators and a range of programs and services helping people manage their health, prevent illness, and live well,\u201d she said, noting programs in the new 3,000-square-foot (280-square-metre) space will include diabetes education, women\u2019s health and menopause care and chronic disease support.<\/p>\n

\"Donna Rapids Family Health Team board chair Donna Morreau. (Tyler Kula\/ The Observer) jpg, SO, apsmc<\/p>\n

Similar education programs happen already at Rapids, but the extra space \u2014 with funding for more staff through the Sarnia Lambton Ontario Health Team \u2014 opens up more room at the existing 16,000-square-foot (1,500-square-metre) main office, and gives patients seeking information more privacy, said executive director Lynn Laidler.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe have so many programs and staff . . . (and) I\u2019m out of space,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Opening up more room in the existing office will also be helpful for a new family doctor residency program, expected to start in 2027, she said.<\/p>\n

\"Lynn Rapids Family Health Team executive director Lynn Laidler. (Tyler Kula\/ The Observer) jpg, SO, apsmc<\/p>\n

The program has been sought at Bluewater Health for years, and Sarnia has been eyeing two or three spots for specialty program training for family medicine residents from Western University\u2019s Schulich School of Medicine.<\/p>\n

Bluewater Health chief of staff Dr. Michel Haddad said earlier this year<\/a> the new program is likely to start in mid 2027.<\/p>\n

Rapids Wednesday also announced its 37th physician, Dr. Dilani Cumarasivam, is starting in February, and is accepting patients.<\/p>\n

A speaker of seven languages who recently completed the family doctor residency program in Petrolia, through Bluewater Health and Schulich, Cumarasivam also specializes in women\u2019s health, Morreau said.<\/p>\n

Cumarasivam has clinical experience in Sri Lanka, Maldives, the United Kingdom, Ireland and India, as well as Canada, where she\u2019s lived since 2012, she said.<\/p>\n

\"Dr. Dr. Dilani Cumarasivam. (Tyler Kula\/ The Observer) jpg, SO, apsmc<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re happy to have her,\u201d Laidler said.<\/p>\n

Rapids started in 2006, in a 280-square-metre space with four staff, said Laidler, who\u2019s headed the agency ever since.<\/p>\n

Today, after multiple expansions, it has about 70 staff, and about 76,000 patients, she said.<\/p>\n

Marking 20 years is exciting and surreal, she said, thanking her team, local physicians and the community for years of support.<\/p>\n

Rapids hosted an open house and barbecue Wednesday to mark the occasion.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been a journey,\u201d Laidler said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I just want to say that we\u2019re not done yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

tkula@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Article content The Rapids Family Health Team is growing again. Article content The three-site Sarnia health-care provider with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":898527,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392],"class_list":["post-898526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=898526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/898527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=898526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=898526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=898526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}