New Bedford clinic to serve retired military and RCMP

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Igor Gimelshtein’s newly opened clinic in Bedford offers a laundry list of services exclusively to military veterans and retired RCMP officers, but it’s the clinic’s specialty of ED treatment that is drawing attention.

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Even after they’re told shock waves will be applied to the “affected area.”

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“Why erectile dysfunction?,” said Gimelshtein, the CEO of Echelon Wellness. “We don’t know the exact causes of it, but we know that military veterans and RCMP have a high incidence of mental health issues upon their transition out of the service. We don’t know exactly why that’s the case, but there are certainly trauma-related injuries and physical manifestation of mental injuries and mental manifestation of physical injuries.”

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Of the 200 patients that have visited the clinic which also offers chiropractic, osteopath, physiotherapy, pedorthics, massage and individual and group counselling, half have sought treatment for ED.

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“What we’ve found is that there is a significant overlap between erectile dysfunction and PTSD, so there’s a huge unmet demand,” Gimelshtein said. “Our therapy helps to increase the blood supply to the affected area without the need for medication. It sounds a little daunting, but it looks like a little ultrasound machine…that delivers targeted shock waves instead of ultrasound. It doesn’t hurt, it only takes a few minutes and it really helps. If we look at the international index for erectile dysfunction, we’ve had an almost 80 per cent improvement in scores after the first course of therapy, across our patient group. Even more impressive, we’ve had 100 per cent retention of our patients, not a single one has dropped off the therapy.”

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The ED treatment is administered by a nurse practitioner. Echelon has the capacity to treat large numbers of patients.

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“We are staffed/equipped/capitalized to service every single veteran in need,” the CEO said. “We are 100 per cent self-referred, you don’t need a doctor, you can just come in … and we take no form of payment from any of our patients, ever. We don’t even have payment processing, we are 100 per cent covered by the benefits that these people have earned over their careers, paid either by Veterans Affairs or Blue Cross.”

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Echelon treats retired RCMP, but not municipal police officers, because Mounties have the same health insurance across the country.

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The Bedford clinic is the first of what is expected to be 10 to 15 across the country, with the second Echelon Wellness scheduled to open in St. John’s in the next four to eight weeks.

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Gimelshtein said starting in Halifax was an easy decision.

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“We picked Halifax based on the concentration of military veterans, it has more veterans than any other municipality in the country and also the highest concentration of those veterans. But there’s need and a lack of service all the way from Victoria to St. John’s,” he said. “We are looking to expand and service the community. According to Veterans Affairs statistics, there are over 16,000 veterans in this community and we’d like to service as many as possible.”

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The Larry Uteck area was chosen because it’s easily accessible by car. Some of the health-care professionals who work at Echelon are also veterans.

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Captain (Ret.) Dennis LeBlanc, who served 20 years with the Royal Canadian Regiment, and is a veteran’s ambassador for Echelon, said the clinic, which started seeing patients in February, is a godsend.“

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As an injured veteran myself, having one designated clinic for all or most of my appointments is a relief,” LeBlanc said. “The stresses that I have day to day, trying to be sure I’m at the right appointment … can be stressful. This is a game changer for me.”Gimelshtein was three years old when he came to Canada from the Soviet Union, where many of his relatives were conscripted into the military, and also has family in Israel, all of whom are all in the military.

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“So I have a long history of understanding the sacrifices that it takes to defend our way of life.”