Tag: members in the media

The Sudbury Star article published December 22, 2020

By Colleen Romaniuk

Elliot Lake city councillors voted to extend the community’s Age Friendly Delivers program into the new year at a regular city council meeting on Monday.

Council last approved an extension of the program to the end of December, but because of a steady demand for service, city staff recommended the program continue until March 2021.

“The program, in my opinion, should be considered a success,” said the city’s economic development coordinator Ashten Vlahovich. “It has been running pretty smoothly for the last eight or nine months now, and it has served a purpose in a meaningful way.”

The Age Friendly Delivers program is a grocery shopping and delivery service that was established by the city at the onset of the pandemic this year.

Vulnerable members of the community, including the elderly, can take advantage of the service which allows them to submit a grocery list and have the items delivered to their door.

“As of Dec. 3, there were just under 2,700 deliveries, 457 clients have been served, and almost $200,000 groceries purchased,” said Vlahovich.

The city is currently completing about 200 deliveries per month, with 27 clients who have used the service over 20 times. April was the highest month in terms of usage to date, with 735 clients served.

According to a report Vlahovich submitted to city council, the preferred method of payment for most clients is via credit card over the phone, and 99.3 per cent of invoices have been paid in full.

“Being considered a retirement community, Elliot Lake has a higher average age than most Canadian cities resulting in a high percentage of vulnerable persons and many without local family for support,” said the report.

“Knowing this staff identified potential issues with the recommended isolation for such a large percentage of the population, being access to necessities and contact while in isolation.”

To address this challenge, the city established the Age Friendly Delivers program along with Age Friendly Check-ins.

The Age Friendly Check-ins program is a daily contact service for those in self-isolation.

Initially, the check-in program was administered by the city, but the Elliot Lake Family Health Team has since taken over.

The grocery delivery service is still being run by the city, with one full-time shopping/delivery staff, treasury staff for invoicing/payments, economic development for oversight and managing the phone line, and one recreation staff for taking/processing orders.

The program is funded by the COVID-19 Relief funding Elliot Lake received from the provincial government.

“With cases in Ontario still at some of the highest rates, the continued recommendation from public health officials to limit exposure by staying home as much as possible, and the constant demand by community members, it is recommended that council continue to support the Age Friendly Delivers program,” concluded the report.

City councillors voted unanimously in favour of extending the program.

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The Sudbury Star article published January 1, 2021

It has been more than 10 months since Ontario first had evidence of community spread of COVID-19 and the first person tested positive in northeastern Ontario.

Since that time, the nightly news has tended to focus on the impact of COVID-19 in larger centres, but small towns like Elliot Lake have also seen dramatic changes as a result of the pandemic.

The community of Elliot Lake took many initiatives to help stop the spread of COVID-19 back in March. Right away, the city took steps to help keep the population safe, including starting a grocery delivery program for seniors and people with compromised immune systems.

The businesses of Elliot Lake also took proactive steps, with many non-essential businesses shutting down even before being ordered to do so by the provincial government.

Even the ski hill shut down in the middle of March Break, foregoing days of anticipated revenue.
These were tremendous sacrifices for these businesses, but important to help stop the spread of COVID-19. Most important, the people of Elliot Lake took the advice of Public Health and stayed home.

Then people pitched in.

People and businesses donated PPE to the hospital: masks and face shields, and over two dozen people sewed hundreds of isolation gowns for the hospital, made from sheets donated by individuals and businesses.

The work and dedication of the administration and staff of St. Joseph’s Hospital as they took steps to protect the patients and residents and prepared for a surge of patients was phenomenal.

Hours were spent putting policies into place and procuring needed equipment and supplies, as well as training staff, all during a time when our understanding of COVID-19 was changing rapidly.

The clinic, too, took prompt action to help stop the spread of COVID-19, transitioning over one weekend to providing mainly virtual care for patients. A COVID-19 Assessment Centre was set up and running before the Ministry of Health even requested it.

The anticipated surge of people sick with COVID-19 has not yet been seen in Elliot Lake.

This is no accident of fate. The surge never came because the people of Elliot Lake did what they had to do. They stayed home, they practised social distancing and they avoided nonessential travel.

Then, when the restrictions lifted, there was more commitment. People wore masks out in public, many people even before it was mandated. Businesses carefully planned to reopen. They put out hand sanitizer for customers, put up plexiglass barriers, and reorganized their businesses to protect their clients.
As expected, with the lifting of restrictions, the second wave has come.

But the people of Elliot Lake are still being careful. Sometimes they debate what is the best way to stop the spread of COVID-19, but they try to keep each other safe.

Through all of this, the people of Elliot Lake have also taken action to raise the morale of the community.

People have decorated their windows with hopeful messages, and organized parades to celebrate important events: birthdays and retirements and even Easter.

The schools made signs for graduating students to display to celebrate their success, and the City organized a static Christmas parade.

People also made donations to local charities to support community members through this, and a recent food drive raised more than $17,000 for the food bank.

And now there is hope for an end to this.

Vaccines are being delivered to the province and in the next six to nine months we will see a significant portion of the population vaccinated. We are more than halfway through this.

So, let’s hang in there and keep doing what we need to do.

We have a few challenging months ahead of us, with winter weather likely to increase people’s feelings of isolation and increase the risk of spreading COVID-19 as people spend more time indoors. This is a critical time to continue to support each other in our communities.

We need to renew our commitment to stop the spread of COVID-19 and remember that it was simple public health measures that brought the first wave under control.

We can do what we need to do to protect our communities while we wait for the vaccination programs to take effect.

Dr. Cathy Groh is a member of the Elliot Lake Family Health Team.

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The Sun Times article published December 15, 2020

By the Sun Times

The application for the Grey-Bruce Ontario Health Team has been submitted to the Ministry of Health.

The application, submitted by the health team planning committee, is supported by signatures from 20 health service provider boards and organizations across Grey-Bruce, according to a news release issued Friday.

The health teams are being established across the province to bring more co-ordination among local health-care providers, including hospitals, doctors, and home and community care providers. Under the new model, health-care providers will work as one co-ordinated team to make it easier for patients and those in the community to navigate the system and transition between health-care providers, it said in the news release.

According to the ministry website, more than 40 health teams are now operating in the province.

In July, the Ministry of Health granted approval to the Grey-Bruce OHT to submit its full application to become an OHT. In early November the planning committee announced it had hired Jennifer Kehoe as its transformation lead.
The partners involved with the Grey-Bruce team cover a broad scope of services, including primary and acute care, rehabilitation, complex continuing care, mental health, long-term care and support services.

They include hospital corporations, family health teams, mental health and addiction services, Grey County’s long-term care homes, home and community support services, and home care through the South West Local Health Integration Network. Other involved in supporting and collaborating with the team include public health and local EMS services.

The local team has identified its first-year objectives as mental health and addictions and the transition in care for frail seniors.

Click here to view the complete The Sun Times article.
 

The Expositor article published December 11, 2020

By Postmedia Staff

Beginning Dec. 14, the Rural Lambton COVID Testing Centre will be moving from Petrolia to Plympton-Wyoming.

Thanks to a partnership between the North Lambton Community Health Centre, the Central Lambton Family Health Team and the municipality of Plympton-Wyoming, the testing facility will now be located at the municipality’s new Health and Wellness Centre, located at 596 Broadway St. in Wyoming.

Following provincial guidelines, COVID-19 testing will continue to be by appointment only, which can be booked at testing.getcorigan.ca.

Family health team executive Sarah Milner said that the move will broaden access to COVID-19 testing in Lambton County.

“Our teams have been working collaboratively for several months now out of the Petrolia testing site,” Milner said. “Shifting testing to Wyoming will further broaden access. We are thrilled to partner with the municipality to provide this important service to the entire rural community. Mayor Lonny Napper and CAO Carolyn Tripp have displayed outstanding leadership through their involvement in this important, provincial health care initiative.”
“It is important to ensure access to COVID-19 testing in rural locations in Sarnia Lambton to benefit the residents by providing testing closer to home,” said Community Health Centre executive director Kathy Bresett. “Our team looks forward to continuing working together with the Central Lambton Family Health Team and the municipality of Plympton-Wyoming.”

Mayor Lonny Napper said the new Wellness Centre, located in the former TD Bank building, is perfectly suited for this new function.

“Plympton-Wyoming along with its community partners being the Wyoming Lion’s Club, Plympton-Wyoming Agricultural Society and TD Canada Trust Bank, are thrilled to be a part of this collaboration,” he said. “We cannot think of a better opportunity to introduce our new Health and Wellness Centre to Lambton County. The town is looking forward to working with the Central Lambton Family Health Team and the North Lambton Community Health Centre and supporting their endeavours in the future.”

Petrolia & North Enniskillen Fire Department chief Jay Arns said that the department’s partnership with the Rural Lambton COVID Testing Centre will continue at the new site.

“The CLFHT has been instrumental in the fight against COVID-19 since the pandemic hit. A continued collaborative effort between PNEFD and CLFHT for a COVID-19 testing center since the pandemic started has shown how strong our community is and the great things that can be accomplished with these types of collaborative efforts,” he said. “The new partnership between CLFHT /NLCHC and Plympton-Wyoming including the relocation of the COVID-19 assessment center to the Wyoming Wellness Center is yet another example of how rural communities come together on a united front to provide increased wellness for all residents.”

Hours of operations, testing processes and holiday hours will be made available on both primary care team and Lambton Public Health websites at www.centrallambtonfamilyhealthteam.com, www.nlchc.com and www.lambtonpublichealth.ca.

Read the full article here