The following letter to the editor was published in The Golden Star on August 12, 2015.

Dear Golden Community,

The Age Friendly Community Plan (AFCP) process in 2014 sparked serious discussions on Golden's AFCP #1 priority, “Community Support and Health Services.” Several members of the community have expressed publicly and online their frustrations with trying to access care in a timely fashion.

The May 20th, 2015 Age Friendly Community Committee (AFCC) Golden meeting resulted in the creation of the “Access to Care” committee, consisting of residents, physicians and politicians who have studied the problem, outlined broad principles and identified potential solutions.

The problems stem from a number of factors including:

·       No agreed upon protocols for transfer of patients with a given condition. Each case has to be negotiated with Patient Transfer Network and receiving centers, therefore causing delays.
·       Alberta is refusing to accept local patients, even visiting Alberta residents.
·       Patients must frequently travel to Kelowna, Kamloops and even Vancouver.
·       There is pressure to transfer patients out of acute care and into their community where locally, services are limited.

The Age Friendly Community Committee feels elderly residents benefit from staying in their community as long as possible. To do so, all of their needs, including access to medical care must be as readily accessible as possible. When responding to the Ministry’s Health Policy Paper on Rural Health Services, Doctors of BC stated they  “would advise against a standardized approach to implementation of these types of practices in favour of a flexible, incentivized approach.“ The Committee feels this is particularly relevant to Golden.

In fact, the “Access to Care” committee believes that Golden is an anomaly in BC healthcare for the following reasons:

•      Our Regional referral centre, Cranbrook, has limited capacity
•      The closest full service care centre, Calgary is in another Province.
•      Many Golden residents work or have family in Alberta.
•      Golden is frequently isolated due to weather or road closures. During those times, transfers out are frequently not possible.

Some of the solutions considered by the committee include:

•      Increased services at the local level within the constraints of what is deliverable. For example, consistent availability of ultrasound and laboratory services.
•      Improved local support programs for patients that are required to travel. There are financial needs but one must also consider assistance in navigating access to the many available programs.
•      Establish agreed upon referral protocols to the nearest suitable facility to expedite transfers and referrals. This should include access to services in Calgary. Continued health promotion through municipal government activities, education and service clubs.
•      Determine what services we should be providing locally based on the needs of the population and what is safe to provide.

These issues affect every citizen of Golden. Achieving solutions will require the efforts of the entire community and all health care providers.  We hope and trust that Golden’s residents and organizations will collectively and collaboratively lend their voice to push for improvements to health care access for older adults.


Signed,
AFCC Golden - Access to Care Committee


Contact:
Ryan Watmough, Coordinator
goldenloom.ca/age-friendly.html

Following a public Community Team Prototyping workshop facilitated by Charles Holmes, a group of Golden Community Resources Society (GCRS) staff have decided to focus on regular coordination and collaboration.

Inspired by the workings of the Jasper Community Team model in Jasper, AB, the GCRS team of Connie Barlow, GCRS Executive Director; Renee Quanstrom, Childcare Resource and Referral (CCRR) Coordinator; Jenn Keilty, Early Years Centre; Mike Symons, Youth Centre Coordinator; and Ryan Watmough, Age Friendly Coordinator, have begun weekly meetings to share ideas and challenges and align resources for their programs and Golden.

"We realized that improved coordination and collaboration is needed in Golden and as developmental stage outreach workers, we decided that we would step up and 'walk the walk,'" explained Ryan Watmough, a consultant with the recently completed Community Collaboration project.

"With this group of coordinators, we cover from pre-natal to 6 year olds and young families, youth from 12 to 24, and older adults 50+. We bring the opportunities and challenges from our groups to the GCRS team, which allows us to have a better understanding of the community's needs, overlapping services and gaps."

This group continues to meet once a week, and is experimenting with meeting formats in order to find the one that best fits their needs. Last week, the team tried a walking meeting, which included a stop at the construction site of the new childcare facility and the Food Bank.

Next on the agenda is improving communication and program participation through an improved community calendar.

A day of Community Team Prototyping took place Friday July 10, 2015; 8:30am - 4:30pm at the Golden Civic Centre. Charles Holmes facilitated the discussion and prototyping. As originally planned, this event could have resulted in the evolution of community-based decision-making and resource allocation in Golden & Area A. Now, it is up to all participants and residents to determine where this process will go - and how deep.

The following notes were summarized by Charles Holmes.

Content:
Charles introduced the group to the work of Peter Block and the 6 conversations of accountability and commitment. Participants had a chance to reflect and practice with this work.
Other content included the Ladder of Inference and dialogue on listening skills.

Reflections on Work in the Community:
In small groups, participants reflected on collaborative efforts that have worked and identified contributing factors.
It was acknowledged that there are many examples of effective collaboration.
Factors that contribute to effective collaboration were posted on flip charts and shared

Commitments and Next Steps:
A number of commitments to next steps were made including:
- Sharing of efforts related to Social Services in the community. A number of people (including Elina & Steph, et. al.) agreed to meet to identify how these could be more effectively integrated.
- Creation of a hub that integrates "back end" services was discussed but no commitment made.
- Of all the actions identified it was clear that the most important to the group is the creation of a Community Team, with a coordinator. The challenge; however, is that there is no funding. It was agreed that Caleb Moss would take the lead in creating a recommendation to be presented to CBT.