Seniors lobbying MLAs to act

Lloydminster Concerned Citizens for Seniors Care Society president Graham Brown. File Photo

 

The Lloydminster Concerned Citizens for Seniors Care Society wants to see the horse put before the cart as soon as possible with an updated community health plan.

The organization’s president, Graham Brown, says until the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) and Alberta Health Services (AHS) revise the old 2013 Lloydminster Integrated Health Services and Facility Infrastructure Needs Assessment, nothing will get done.

“They have to have that report in front of them in order to get projects approved,” said Brown at Tuesday’s regular meeting at the Legacy Centre.

“When we had our meeting on Oct. 4, both SHA and AHS made it pretty clear we cannot take another step forward until that plan is done.”

That point was also directed at Vermilion-Lloydminster, Wainwright MLA Garth Rowswell, who was invited to the meeting in the hopes he conveys the urgency to health minister Jason Copping.

Lloydminster residents have mailed dozens of letters to Copping and Everett Hindley, minister responsible for seniors, and rural and remote health in Saskatchewan, to update the plan.

“We made a good point with Garth that the community plan needs to be updated as soon as possible, then we have some valuable information to build on,” said Brown.

In the meantime, the seniors’ group has made home care its leading cause with the SHA and AHS favouring a 70/30 shift to aging at home as opposed to building long-term care facilities.

“We require more occupational therapists, we require more assessors in the home,” said Brown.

“We need more home care people making rounds to homes. That’s how we expand people staying in their homes.”

Brown told the meeting he thinks the government needs to look at how can they do a better job of housing seniors in ways that are accessible, affordable and safe.

Rowswell says he doesn’t have the answers for what we’ve got to do for home care but he thinks others are doing it better than we are in Alberta and Canada.

The Seniors Care Society will be directing the same issues at Lloydminster MLA Colleen Young, who will attend the Dec. 13 meeting.

Meanwhile, a group from the Lloydminster and District Health Advisory Council, headed by chair Paul Richer, is prepping for a chat with Hindley in Regina on Jan. 25 about health service gaps in Lloydminster.

“The meeting will specifically talk about health concerns around Lloydminster,” said Richer.

He told the seniors meeting a special team of Mayor Gerald Aalbers, Lloydminster Region Health Foundation CEO Stephanie Munro, Mike Sidoryk and himself will have a 30-minute audience with Hindley.

Richer says the council has identified 15 health service gaps, including the issue of medical file transfer, within all of Lloydminster. 

Another issue for Hindley’s attention is the lack of mental health support on the ground such as a PACT (mobile police and crisis team) for our RCMP. 

“We’re the only city of its size that doesn’t have one. Another high priority would be resolving the arbitration with WPD ambulance,” said Richer.

He says he doesn’t want to waste their time with Hindley talking about the weather.

“We have to get to the brass tacks and come up with an action plan,” said Richer.

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Geoff Lee
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