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APRIL 2020

Society for Protection and Care of Seniors TRAIL

The Society for Protection and Care of Seniors (SPCS) is a non-profit, volunteer based Seniors’ health care advocacy group located in Greater Trail. We advocate and pursue options for adequate, accessible and the safe continuing care of seniors’ resources within our communities. We communicate, disseminate information and educate to accomplish these goals.

In 2004, many seniors had difficulty accessing appropriate health care. There was a need for an advocacy group to bring awareness to IHA. The Trail Health Watch was formed to speak out for seniors with health issues.

In February 2006, a tragedy now known as “The Albo case” occurred. The Albo family’s parents were both Trail hospital patients, when suddenly, contrary to the family’s wishes, the parents were separated. Their mother was transferred to a long-term care facility in Grand Forks where two days later, she passed away. Their father passed away just 10 days later. 

SPCS changed its name to The Society for the Protection and Care of Seniors. As a result of all the work SPCS has done over the past years, there has been considerable impact on how and what decisions are made by IHA. In 2010, a ten year span ‘Lost Services Report’ was created to identify detrimental changes to services – many are still concerns 15 years later! This Report can be viewed on our website: www.spcstrail.weebly.com. SPCS continues to advocate for improvements to service and to express concern regarding cuts to health care. An important role is to help citizens give voice to their valid concerns.

We are proud to be a part of Connected Communities – a West Kootenay group that meets regularly to discuss shared issues and advocate for change. Twice a year Connected Communities representatives meet with Kootenay Boundary IH Administration to discuss concerns and offer recommendations for dealing with identified concerns. This provides an avenue of transparency with IH. As a member of BCHC and COSCO, we also have a voice in provincial issues.

Members of SPCS find it rewarding to be actively involved in improving and enhancing positive changes to our health care system. SPCS advocates for the implementation of both the Ombudsperson’s and BC Senior’s Advocate’s recommendations. We continue to be a force for change locally, regionally and provincially.

We are driven by the mandate first voiced by Jim Albo: to keep meeting, attend vigils and give time, energy and expertise to SPCS “until there are changes for the better”. 

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MARCH 2020

About Adult Abuse, Neglect, and Self-Neglect

Adult abuse is any action causing harm to someone over the legal age of 18. Abuse may be financial, physical, sexual, or psychological. Other forms of abuse can include over or undermedication, censoring mail, violation of civil and human rights, denial of access to visitors, or invasion or denial of privacy.

Elder abuse commonly refers to adult abuse where the target is a senior or older adult. An abuser is someone who is likely known to the abused older person, like a friend, family member, or caregiver. 

Neglect is when lack of care, assistance, or attention leads to physical, mental or emotional harm, or loss of financial assets. Self-neglect is the failure to care for one’s self that causes serious physical or mental harm, or damage to or loss of assets.

BC does not have a law saying you must report abuse, however, Part 3 of the Adult Guardianship Act says if you do make a report to a Designated Agency, the claim must be addressed and in the least intrusive way. 

Community connection and awareness are keys to identifying and preventing all manners of abuse and neglect. 

The BC Association of Community Response Networks (BC CRN)

The BC CRN is a provincial, non-profit organization whose mandate is to partner with communities and local service providers to raise awareness of and educate the BC public on how to spot the signs of adult abuse, neglect, and self-neglect, and what they can do to correctly address it.

Community response networks (CRNs) are groups of concerned community members who come together to coordinate community responses to adult abuse, neglect, and self-neglect.

In 1993, CRNs were piloted in five communities – Duncan, Penticton, Castlegar, Abbotsford, and Vernon. Thanks to the efforts of the Regional Mentors, CRN coordinators, community partners, and countless number of volunteers, as of 2019, 80 CRNs serve 232 communities in the smallest of rural villages to the largest of urban centres province wide. This number also includes borderless CRNs who serve and support the Chinese, Francophone, Aboriginal, and LGBTQ2S+ communities.

How Community Response Networks Educate Communities

Local CRNs hold a variety of public engagement and awareness activities and programs while BC CRN provides resources and support in the form of resources and programs.

Some examples of the provincial offerings include the It’s Not Right! and Gatekeeper programs that help communities learn the signs of abuse, neglect, and self-neglect (BC CRN is the authorized provider of both programs.), and near monthly provincial learning events on various topics. All events are free of charge and everyone is welcome. View a sampling of local CRN events and projects.

How You Can Get Involved

If you’re interested in getting involved in the activities of the CRN in your community, please contact your local CRN Coordinator.

If no CRN exists in your community and you want to set one up, please contact the Regional Mentor for your area.

To stay updated on the latest, join BC CRN’s Facebook or Twitter, subscribe to the free
E-Connector newsletter by emailing info@bccrns.ca, or visit www.bccrns.ca.  

Sharon Johnson, CPA, CGA
Director of Administrative Services
BC Association of Community Response Networks (BC CRN)
sharon.johnson@bccrns.ca
604-290-5110
www.bccrns.ca

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FEBRUARY 2020
Support Our Health Care Society (SOHC)
Princeton

Support Our Health Care (SOHC) was formed in April, 2012 in response to the gradual deterioration of health care services in Princeton. The tipping point was reached when Interior Health announced nighttime closure of our Emergency Room at Princeton General Hospital beginning May 1st. We originally called ourselves Save Our Hospital Coalition but changed our name to Support Our Health Care to better reflect a collaborative and cooperative approach to improving Princeton’s health care model. 

Through a connection with Dr. Barbara Pesut at UBC Okanagan, SOHC organized a Health Care Community Consultation held on January 29, 2013. Dr. Pesut facilitated this research-based consultation with assistance from her research assistants. The Rural Health Services Research Network of BC also provided support and assistance. Over 40 stakeholders from Princeton and Area attended the Consultation, where they were asked to identify both positive and negative aspects of the community’s health care model. From the information gathered, Dr. Pesut prepared the Princeton Health Care Community Consultation Summary which was released to the public in early February, 2013.

In response to the Consultation Summary, Interior Health and community leaders formed the Princeton Health Care Steering Committee. The committee included representation from local governments, Princeton healthcare practitioners, Princeton General Hospital administration, BC Ambulance Services, South Okanagan Similkameen Division of Family Practice, SOHC, and Interior Health. Beginning in February 2013, the committee met once a month for six months and developed the Princeton Health Care Action Framework, outlining a strategy for the implementation of an improved and sustainable model of health care for our community.

Over the past several years, SOHC has worked collaboratively with its local healthcare providers, Interior Health, and local government to stabilize and improve our healthcare model. Our community now has five Family Physicians, two half time Nurse Practitioners, a full complement of Registered Nurses, Licensed Practical Nurses, and a team of allied health professionals providing a full range of services. Other improvements include the installation of a tele-health station at the hospital, increased access to specialist services at PGH, and beautifying Cascade Clinic through the donation of artwork by local artists.

Over the past year, SOHC has been focusing on succession planning to guarantee the stability and viability of our healthcare advocacy efforts. We have also shifted our efforts into developing community wellness programs that address the social determinants of health. 

SOHC is a founding member of the BC Rural Health Network and actively supports the programs and initiatives of this organization.

For more information, visit SOHC’s website at www.sohc.ca or visit our member page here at
https://bcrhn.ca/princeton/

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JANUARY 2020
Health and Wellness Coalition
Ashcroft

This community group was founded in 2014/2015, when we had only one physician, and the Emergency room was closed more than it was open. Our health site supports a catchment area of 7,500.

At that time the group was assisted by Dr. Barbara Pesut and the Princeton SOHC (Support Our Health Care Society) who organized a Community Consultation. From this a plan of action was developed. (https:// bcrhn.files.wordpress.com/2019/05/ashcroftcommunity-consultation -summary_final-3.pdf)

Interior Health located physicians through the Practice Readiness Assessment program. However, these physicians did not stay once they met their contractual obligation. Over the past years there have been as many as two physicians at any given time, with a rare occasion of three for a month or two. For this reason, our emergency services deteriorated to opening hours starting on Friday at 1800 until Monday at 0800. Medical Clinic hours were short and inconsistent, and patients were unable to get in for urgent care needs.

In 2018 a revitalized meeting format was put in place, with guest speakers from various programs and services within the community.

Municipal representation was sought and the six First Nations Communities were invited tothe table. Membership grew to 50.

On April 15th 2019, in collaboration with United Way and Interior Health, we hosted a very successful Navigating Healthcare Fair within our community. At the time of the fair we created a survey with the help of Dr. Barb Buckley, Thompson Rivers University Assistant Professor.
Through this gathered information we found out how people were managing with inadequate emergency services and insufficient doctors. It also told us that they wanted emergency services extended to meet community needs.

HAWC created an electronic petition, and booths were set up in each of the four communities. 2,000 plus signatures were obtained and the petition was forwarded to the Minister of Health, CEO and President of Interior Health, and our local MLA. We asked for recruitment and retention to become a priority for all disciplines required to keep our emergency department open.
Sheila Corneille, President Ashcroft Healthcare and Wellness Coalition a38400

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DECEMBER 2019
Salt Spring Community Health Society

As a result of a chronic shortage of family physicians on Salt Spring Island (approximately 1/3 of the population was without a primary health care provider) a group of 11 concerned citizens formed a steering group in the fall of 2017 with the idea of one day opening an inter-disciplinary community health centre.

We researched existing primary and community health centres on other Gulf Islands, in rural and remote communities along the coast and elsewhere across Canada to better understand how they operate. We studied Island Health’s Local Health Area Profile for the Gulf Islands. We developed Terms of Reference so people understood what we were about and what we were trying to accomplish. We became a BC Society in January 2018 and began recruiting members and supporters, holding information meetings and town halls. Knowing we would need to begin fundraising at some point, we set about becoming a registered charity – which we achieved in December 2018. 

In the fall of 2018, the local chapter of the Division of Rural and Remote Family Physicians announced they had recruited three new doctors to the island. It had happened before, but we were hopeful it would work out this time. But what about us? Would people think the new doctors would address all the residents’ health needs?

Before we decided whether or not we should fold our tent, we thought it was important to find out from individuals in the know what they thought. We interviewed some 30 connected community leaders and people with expertise in health care, community health, and community services. 

Building on that knowledge – the final and most important step – was to hear from the residents themselves. We hired a consultant to help us create a comprehensive community health needs assessment focusing on the Social Determinants of Health, access to health services and community health needs. Once the final report was written, we developed a marketing and communications strategy that ensured the report was heavily promoted and would get into as many hands as possible because the report contained important information for many service providers and community groups.

As a result, numerous individuals and organizations are using the report for planning purposes, we’ve been approached by several individuals with significant health and mental health care experience wishing to become advisors to the board and/or board members, and we’ve learned the information gathered through our needs assessment will be key to developing a proposal to the Ministry of Health to fund a community health centre. 

And finally, the report has opened doors to what we anticipate will be meaningful conversations with our local physicians, and other health care and mental health service providers about how we might begin to fill gaps in much-needed services, remove barriers to accessing those services, and ensure all Salt Spring residents receive the right kind of care when they need it.
Martha Taylor,
Board Member, Salt Spring Community Health Society

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OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2019
Community First Health Co-op
NELSON

We mortals know that Wellness is a Mind, Body, and Soul journey. Through the shared values of co-operation, connectedness, compassion, education, inclusion, and kindness, community is engaged in serving wellness with Community First Health Co-op. 

Community First Health Co-op is a not for profit co-op, incorporated in 2003 with a volunteer community board, now with membership of over 1500 community members across the full spectrum of the community.  Creating community responses through the lens of the World Health Organization’ Social Determinants For Good Health has provided unlimited possibilities and adventures to create more opportunities for wellness for all in our community.  Social connection to others and community is a key determinant for good health.
The Co-op’s, Nelson and Area Wellness and Education Centre (Health Centre) has tracked over 70,000 (a conservative count), annual visits.

Programs provide outreach programs and services, educational sessions including multidisciplinary self-management chronic pain programs, drug awareness, addictions treatment and support, counselling, street outreach, multi-sector health promotion, home visits and or telehealth for those that are unable to come to the centre in communities across the Central Kootenay and Kootenay Boundary Regional Districts.

Accessibility, prevention and health promotion activity, client and family-centeredness and chronic disease management contribute to
community enthusiasm and satisfaction.

Research has shown that Community Health Centres reduce hospital emergency room visits as compared to other models. The Nelson and Area Wellness and Education Centre, exceeds expectations in reducing emergency room visits.

Over 50 practitioners, several volunteer boards of partners and 17 volunteer community organizations work together to respond to emerging community wellness issues through support, education and services at the Wellness Centre and across Central Kootenay and Kootenay Boundary Regional Districts without additional financial burden on the participants. 

In 2018 Community First Health Co-op received $110,000 – available over three years- in transitional funding from the current Provincial government as part of their first step to invest in Community Health Centres.

Community First Health Co-op Health promotion is ongoing.  With the consensus of community experiences, volunteers and practitioners increasing support for mental wellbeing and physical activity are underway.  This year over 1.5 million minutes of activity in were collected by Community First Health Co-op, with over 500 events and activities and 1000 free pedometers enthusiastically taken by residents excited to join The Every Step Counts movement and conversation growing in our community while promoting community connections and inclusion.

You can learn more about our communities’ quest for wellness at http://healthco-op.ca or Community First Health Co-op or just email us at cfhcoop@shaw.ca if you would like more information.

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SEPTEMBER 2019


Support Our Northern Seniors
FORT ST. JOHN

SONS is a group of dedicated people wanting to make a difference in our community.
During the 1990’s we had local Health Councils, which gave us an opportunity to provide local input and to provide the Council with an awareness of the needs in the health community. SONS President Jean Leahy was on the first Peace Liard Community Health Council, which pushed hard for the creation of long-term beds, leading to the construction of Heritage Manor I and Heritage Manor II retirement housing in Fort St. John.

It was a painful time for a number of our families as there was a shortage of long-term beds in the North Peace and many loved ones had to be placed in Dawson Creek or Pouce Coupe. It tore couples apart causing a lot of grief. If the spouse left at home could not drive, it made the 50 mile drive seem like 500.

The drive for more beds picked up steam. A plan was put together for the North Peace Care Project. More beds were to be built and additions were to be made to the North Peace Care Facility.  

Nothing happened. There was no money for facilities. Statistics proved that we would continue needing more beds in our area, and so the fight began. 
The group of concerned citizens that would eventually become SONS applied for Society status and held information sessions. It made the community sit up and take notice. 
SONS members attended every meeting and public event that they could to spread the word—Trade Fairs, Select Standing Committees and Peace River Regional District among others.
SONS continues to advocate for infrastructure to help seniors living in Northern BC to age-in-place.

The purposes of Save Our Northern Seniors Society are:

SONS is well known for advocating on behalf of Seniors. 
Our goals are:

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JULY 2019

Eagle Valley Community Support Society (EVCSS)
SICAMOUS

A Profile, History, Roles and Partnerships
Our Mission Statement: To improve through education, the social, and emotional well-being of all members of the community, and to provide a place where services to support families and individuals are centralized and easily accessible.
Our Vision: To provide inclusive services and supports that enhance the social well-being of residents of Sicamous and its surrounding rural areas, regardless of age, gender, race, religious affiliation, or sexual orientation. To seek out, advocate for and apply for support services needed and to act as a partnering agency to enable others to successfully provide support services and programs of EVCSS and those of others whose services benefit the community.

Eagle Valley Community Support Society (EVCSS)was incorporated as a BC Society in 1992, and became a registered Canadian Charity in 1994. Its first program was resource and referral services and help with photocopying, faxing, form filling and applications. In 1995 the society expanded into children’s programs, in 1996 added a food bank and also began working with CRA to deliver the Volunteer Income Tax Program for low income households. During this phase EVCSS served as an umbrella organization for a local group of100 youth who fundraised to build a skateboard park, applying for grants and managing the funds that within 4 years built the Sicamous Skate Park, designed by and construction supervised by two local youth and a lead adult contracting on the project. So began their significant partnership role in the community and area….a role destined to grow.

In 2001 EVCSS leased the old Salmon Arm Savings and Credit Union building in the community and within a year of moving in had a plan to purchase the building with the strong support of then SASCU CAO Michael Wagner and a SASCU board member Alice Duck. The additional space encouraged steady growth including contracts with MCFD and IHA to deliver support services such as counselling, youth and family support, the creation of an early childhood development coordination body and programs, community development with other groups like Eagle Valley Sports and Leisure Society who designed and ran recreation programming using the building as their home base.

The society added a bus and service to outlying rural areas and developed food security programs such as the Canadian Diabetes Association sponsored “Food Skills” programs; the latter was shared regionally.

EVCSS has also been instrumental in the Development of a monthly Sicamous and Malakwa Interagency network group, the Shuswap Community Resources Co-operative (a co-op structure that provided support services to non profit members) and the work of building relationships between the Shuswap’s indigenous and non-indigenous communities through the Moving Forward Together Regional Planning learning/sharing events that became known as “Together Shuswap”.

All of the partnership work bringing programs and services to Sicamous, Malakwa locally and with other Shuswap groups and communities starting up new services opened the doors for the society in 2013 to take on a large regional contract for a program called Better at Home, a non-medical seniors support program designed to support seniors safely in their own homes longer. We are appreciative of the support given us by peer agencies to manage this Shuswap wide service contract with an impact on 20 communities and rural areas.

With incredible financial support and a lot of fundraising over many years the Sicamous location has been renovated the building for accessibility, creation of a teaching kitchen and a backyard garden for producing, processing and supplying the food bank, upgrades to lighting, heating and cooling, a new phone system, and furnishings inside the building and in the garden for a ‘serenity’ area for counselling and solitude.  Most recently, automatic doors, and cold storage was added to help us store fresh produce for distribution year round due to more amazing food partnerships coming our way. For the past several years we have been hugely supported by the Columbia Shuswap Regional District Area E Director Rhona Martin, the community of Malakwa and individuals to open a satellite Resource Centre and Food Bank in Malakwa.

Access being a challenge to those living 15 minutes and beyond out side of the Sicamous’ centre as like many rural communities we have no regular transit system yet. Much of our time that is not direct service hours has gone into supporting the work of others that make a difference in our community such as the Literacy Alliance of the Shuswap, the efforts of the Community Futures Shuswap and Work BC to support businesses and employment projects. The society works with Okanagan College to bring courses to the communities, Eagle Valley Senior’s Housing Society, the Malakwa’s Playschool Society, Sicamous and District Seniors’s Centre, local and regional governments, Interior health and others in the development of low income housing, health and wellness service planning and planning for much needed licensed daycare.

We are constantly networking with other groups and directly engaging community members about how they experience to life in Sicamous and area through a variety of surveying, interviewing projects and alongside many partners. The society is known locally and provincially for their passion, innovation and ‘wrap around’ approach to problem solving and has been recognized twice in past years by the Province of BC for the leadership shown. 

Now in its 27th year of operation, EVCSS is still seeing many shifts, changes and challenges, but is moving ever forward towards building sustainability of the communities it serves locally as well, for all Shuswap communities impacted by its services now and hopefully for many years to come.
Pam Beech 
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APRIL 2019

Autumn Services Centre
FRASER LAKE

Autumn Services Centre is a welcoming, age-friendly hub, that we recently renovated and re-located to the shop-ping centre in Fraser Lake. We became a not for profit in 2009 and just recently received our Charity status. Our centre is open Monday to Friday 10-2 pm, and we have enjoyed 100,000 visits since opening our doors in 2013.

To address community need and food security issues we run a Food Share and a Soup & Bun program two days a week. To provide social supports we offer potlucks, Fun Bingo, coffee chats and bring in speakers to address topics like Wills, Elder Abuse, Building Confidence, Scams and safety around the home. 

For healthy alternatives we offer a walking group and a light exercises with the focus on balance. Using our professional printer, we assist with printing documents and help with tech problems with lap tops and phones. We have organized 6 Health Fests, cooked three turkey dinners for 150 seniors, and we’ve hosted 4 Elder Abuse Awareness events. We offer a Better at Home Program to assist seniors to age in place and to focus on aging and rural isolation we write and mail a free community newspaper to all mail-box holders in our catchment area. 

The Village of Fraser Lake, the Mens Shed, the Crisis Centre and Northern Health support our programs and use our centre for meetings such as: Care-giver Support, Inspirational speakers, Wildfire Mental Health, Wharf Man-agement and ongoing craft and exercise programs. 

Our daily hosts man the centre up to 200 hours a month and our board of directors organize and attend many of our big events. We pay overhead costs through grants, funds raised from our membership fees, our UPS delivery, ads from our paper, room rentals, and donations from our soup program. Everyone over here is a volunteer and while we are constantly on the look-out for core funding, we push ahead, knowing that our hub is essential to the health and well being of so many who drop in on a daily basis. 
Elaine Storey 
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MARCH 2019

Johanna Trimble – ROBERTS CREEK

I feel like a bit of an impostor claiming “rural health” status. My husband and I moved to Roberts Creek on the Sunshine Coast in September 2018. Since my husband is a therapist and still sees clients three days a week in Vancouver we still live there part time. So I’m 4/7 rural and 3/7 city. However, we aspire to live on the Coast permanently in a couple of years. I hope to learn from all of you about rural health issues. Some of it I know about since I’ve been a member of the BC Patient Voices Network since 2010 and have been in conversations and meetings with lots of my rural compadres. But there’s nothing like the lived experience!

As for me, I’ve been a member of several patient groups advocating for patient safety and better care, especially for elders and particularly focused on medication safety and overmedication issues. It is our family’s history with a serious drug interaction experienced by my mother in law that inspired me to try to change a system that I saw wasn’t working well, or listening well to the patients and families it serves. As well as the Patient Voices Network, I am a long-time member of the national group Patients for Patient Safety Canada.

I am on the Public Awareness Committee for the Canadian Deprescribing Network and as part of our mandate we have reached out to senior’s groups across Canada. What we have found from working with these grass-roots senior’s organizations, is that there is a hunger for information about appropriate use of medication and avoiding overmedication. We’ve also found that these groups all have newsletters and we have worked to provide them with articles and other materials for re-publishing to spread the information to their members.

I worked as the “patient partner” on the Steering Committee of the provincial Polypharmacy Risk Reduction Initiative for five years, working to reduce medication burden for those in Care Homes by doing meaningful medication reviews designed to reduce unnecessary drugs for those who live there. Often folks are put on drugs and just left on them indefinitely. Of course the more medications you’re on, the greater the chance of drug interactions and trips to the Emergency Ward.

I serve as the public member on the Geriatrics and Palliative Care Committee with Doctors of BC. As well, for about 5 years I have been co-teaching a course in Care of the Elderly with some excellent doctors to the first year medical students as an Honorary Lecturer in the Department of Family Practice at the University of British Columbia. I teach about the value of including the family as part of the team when caring for the elderly. I’ve also taught in the PharmD program for the past two years on medication issues in Residential Care and the importance of family involvement. I am a team member in research studies at both UBC and McMaster University concerning medication safety. As you can see, I’m a bit of a one-trick pony but I hope I can be helpful to your organization and learn from all of you.

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FEBRUARY 2019

The Slocan Valley is an 83km long lake valley located in south eastern BC. There are three small rural villages located along Slocan Lake – New Denver, Silverton and Slocan. As well there are several smaller outlying areas.

The Slocan Community Health Centre was built in 1982 and served as the hospital for the entire Slocan Valley for many years. It was successfully operated by a local society.

In 2002 the entire site was taken over by the Interior Health Authority. In 2003 IHA announced their plans to close the entire facility. After a lengthy and intense battle a combined Valley-wide citizens’ group lobbied the Health Ministry and succeeded in keeping the health centre open until this time.

Over the years the facility has been allowed to deteriorate and until recently two physicians with locum help were able to keep up with patient demand.

Two years ago one of the physicians announced plans to relocate and suddenly we were faced with the same problem many small BC rural municipalities are facing – namely physician recruitment and retention. Visit www.slocanlake.com to see our video!

The Slocan District Chamber of Commerce decided to expand its long dormant health committee and took the leading role in physician recruitment. After two years of meeting and negotiating with IHA we are still at an impasse. The stumbling block as in so many small, semi remote rural BC towns is retention of our 24/7 emergency services.

The Health Committee joined the BC Rural Health Network in 2018 and recently the Village of New Denver has formed a Valley-wide health select standing committee. This committee is composed mostly of elected officials from the Slocan Valley and a representitive from the Chamber Health Committee.

Wish us luck and good luck to you all as well in our health service related struggles!

Colin Moss
ccm99@telus.net