On Wednesday, Jan. 30 the Comox Valley seniors are getting together from 1 to 3 P.M. in the upper Conference Hall of the Florence Filberg Centre in Courtenay.
Two speakers will focus on Community based Home Support Services and the public is welcome to this free meeting.
Gloria Levi, the first speaker, is a gerontologist and the coordinator of the Integrated Care Advocacy Organization.
Marcy Cohen, an Adjunct Professor of the Health Science Department at Simon Fraser University, has been a researcher with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
Levi and Cohen have valuable information about what’s been happening to health care for seniors in Canada in general and in BC in particular. They both say “There is a need for an integrated system delivering a seamless continuum of care so that people will be able to age in the place of their choice.”
It is of note that in 2011 the first baby boomers retired. Between the years 1996 and 2006, the number of people over the age of 100 has increased 50%.
Levi says, though, that “the Special Senate Committee on Aging 2006 Report pointed out that the rapid rise in health care costs are NOT mainly due to this dramatic population increase but can be attributed mainly to a rise in medications, technical advances, improved surgical techniques, and increased physician and patient requests for diagnostic testing.”
Cohen adds that this “uncoordinated patchwork quilt of services makes it difficult for seniors to navigate,” and leads to “large gaps of unmet needs.”
This Seniors’ Town Hall is being co-sponsored by the Comox Valley Retired Teachers’ Association, the Comox Valley Chapter of the Council of Canadians and the SOS (Support Our Seniors) Comox Valley. Many community groups and agencies will have information booths there. It is free and there will be refreshments.
For more information, please contact 250-338-6265 or 250-218-3958 or www.supportourseniorscomoxvalley.com.