{"id":52009,"date":"2025-02-03T18:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-03T22:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelaker.ca\/?p=52009"},"modified":"2025-02-03T18:30:00","modified_gmt":"2025-02-03T22:30:00","slug":"veterans-wellness-centre-officially-opens-to-much-excitement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/?p=52009","title":{"rendered":"Veterans wellness centre officially opens to much excitement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;115&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;232&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ELMSDALE:<\/strong> A first-of-its-kind wellness centre in Nova Scotia aimed at helping Veterans, including first responders, opened its doors to much fanfare on Monday morning in Elmsdale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Veteran Farmer, a national innovative wellness centre, provides comprehensive wellness support, medical cannabis access, and psychological programs for veterans and military personnel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They say their mission is to help veterans and first responders navigate and access the resources needed to thrive, including assistance with getting injuries recognized by Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) and facilitating access to a wide range of healthcare services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The grand opening had a great turnout from the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There was even firefighters from Enfield; Lantz; Elmsdale; officers with East Hants RCMP; Councillors with the Municipality of East Hants (Norval Mitchell and Michael Perry); Kings Hants MP Kody Blois; and representatives from the East Hants &amp; Districts Chamber of Commerce who stopped by to check the new facility out, and speak with founders Autumn and Lloyd Farmer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ADVERTISEMENT:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate group=&#8221;2&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;111&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_5970-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-52013\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Mount Uniacke councillor Michael Perry speaks with two veterans at the grand opening of The Veteran Farmer in Elmsdale. (Healey photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The Veteran Farmer, a not-for-profit organization, provides all their services at no cost, ensuring every veteran receives the support they deserve without any financial stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Both Autumn and Lloyd are from Nova Scotia. She\u2019s a Waverley native, while Lloyd is from the South Shore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In an interview with The Laker News, Autumn said the Elmsdale office\u2014located in the former Strides gym was&#8211;has been in the making for a few years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt just took finding the right location,\u201d said Autumn. \u201cWe&#8217;re very much a community service so we were really looking for a community to have good roots in, to have a good veteran population and easy access for all our veterans across Nova Scotia to come to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe Elmsdale office and what the community is offering felt like it was a good match up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She said the couple feel like it\u2019s an up-and-coming community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe population, the veterans are RCMP, our first responders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ADVERTISEMENT:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;230&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;190&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She said The Veteran Farmer is a community support service, one that provides a variety of services from our veterans for all our veterans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Among that is assisting with their Veterans Affairs paperwork or they need access to a health practitioner, etc. They are open at 550 Hwy 2 in the MacMillan Centre in Elmsdale Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Elmsdale office is their seventh office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They host between three and six events per week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe idea is to provide them a nice, comfortable space to get together for whatever activity that they&#8217;re hosting,\u201d said Autumn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Autumn said The Veteran Farmer provides a good atmosphere and some fantastic staff in Elmsdale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThey&#8217;ve been in place for three months now, so they really know what they&#8217;re doing,\u201d she said. \u201cThey&#8217;re really excited to open up some and have some new programs at this office here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She added there\u2019s more to come here too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn the next two months, we&#8217;ll have a nurse practitioner on staff. We&#8217;ll have our men&#8217;s erectile dysfunction clinic will be beginning. And we\u2019ll also have a dietitian on staff,\u201d said Autumn.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_5992-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-52014\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Autumn Farmer, one of the founders of The Veteran Farmer, speaks about the services to Enfield and Lantz firefighters. (Healey photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_6004-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-52015\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">There were lots of treats available. (Healey photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ADVERTISEMENT:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;78&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;87&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Autumn said it was exciting to see the turnout from the community on the grand opening day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt&#8217;s been a long time coming for us,\u201d she said. \u201cLike I said trying to find that right community atmosphere, so it&#8217;s a relief.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The opening of the Elmsdale location also means they can focus on other projects in their bag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt&#8217;s a relief because right now we&#8217;re building a brand-new wellness center in New Brunswick by our head office,\u201d she said. We&#8217;re going to start construction for that in the spring.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cNow we can focus on construction and dealing with that project now that construction here is done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For more on The Veteran Farmer check out their website at: <a href=\"https:\/\/theveteranfarmer.ca\/\">https:\/\/theveteranfarmer.ca\/<\/a> and on Facebook at: search for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=100069441862686\">The Veteran Farmer NS<\/a> and you will find their profile).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_5950-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-52012\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">It was a welcoming atmosphere and a great crowd at the Veteran Farmer&#8217;s grand opening on Feb. 3 in Elmsdale. (Healey photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;218&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;92&#8243;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;115&#8243;] [adrotate banner=&#8221;232&#8243;] ELMSDALE: A first-of-its-kind wellness centre in Nova Scotia aimed at helping Veterans, including first responders, opened its doors to much fanfare on Monday morning in Elmsdale. The Veteran Farmer, a national innovative wellness centre, provides comprehensive wellness support, medical cannabis access, and psychological programs for veterans and military personnel. They say [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52011,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[965,12],"tags":[196,986,501,471,1077,7717,1539,1642],"class_list":["post-52009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-hants","category-featured","tag-east-hants","tag-elmsdale","tag-first-responders","tag-mental-health","tag-nova-scotia","tag-the-veteran-farmer","tag-veterans","tag-wellness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/52011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}