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Recent News
- Seniors Advisory Committee from 2016-18 Discharged
- Public Washrooms Coming to Metro Vancouver Transit System
- Knowledge Café: Low-Risk Drinking Guidelines for Older Adults
- Help UBC Researchers Understand Health After Stroke
- SAC Presents Technology-Related Recommendations for Seniors’ Isolation and Loneliness
- Accessible Voting Options for October Election
- Affordable Housing Panel Discussion at VPL, October 9
- Solutions for Chronic Loneliness Require Innovation and Vision
- Official Launch of Vancouver Chapter of Aging 2.0, September 27
- Climate Change and Seniors’ Health: Suzuki Elders Report
Links of Interest
South Granville Seniors’ Centre Open House
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Sunset Seniors Centre
We are pleased that the City is moving ahead with a new seniors centre in the Sunset area. For more information, please read this administrative report.
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Arbutus Greenway Open Houses
Have your say about the Arbutus Greenway at one of these upcoming open houses:
– Kitsilano – September 17, 1 – 3 pm
– Marpole – September 21, 7 – 9 pm
– Kerrisdale – September 22, 7 – 9 pm
See also our recommendations for this project.
Posted in Mobility, Safety, Transportation
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SAC Featured in The Vancouver Courier
We are pleased to be featured in the July 6th Lifestyles section of The Vancouver: Courier: http://www.vancourier.com/living/message-from-the-city-s-seniors-advisory-committee-1.2296168
From left to right: Thomas Crean, Eva Beda, Beatrice Ho, Dellie Lidyard, Eddy Elmer, Colleen McGuinness
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Great Time at Annual Strawberry Festival
Our members had a great time at this year’s Strawberry Festival at Barclay Manor. Thanks very much to the West End Seniors Network for putting together this great event!
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VPL 2020 Strategic Planning Partner Session, June 28
The Vancouver Public Library will be holding a partner engagement session from 3:30-4:30 pm on Tuesday, June 28 at the Alice MacKay Room, Lower Level, Central Library. For those who have not RSVP’d, we would appreciate if you could let us know by Friday, June 24th if you are attending. We are looking forward to hearing from our key community partners about how VPL can best meet the future needs of the community and the city.
RSVP to Chrysalyn.Tolentino@vpl.ca
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Public Asked to Weight in on New St. Paul’s Concept
Providence Healthcare has released a pair of new concept designs for the planned St. Paul’s health campus on the False Creek Flats. The public is also being invited to weigh in on the concepts through an online survey.
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See us at the Strawberry Festival, June 25, 2016
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Seniors Encouraged To Access BC Property Tax Deferment Program
As the deadline approaches for BC homeowners to pay property taxes, BC Seniors Advocate Isobel Mackenzie is encouraging seniors to consider property tax deferment as a way to stay living independently. BC’s Property Tax Deferment program allows individuals, including senior homeowners, to defer paying taxes for a low simple interest charge (currently 0.7%) that accrues until they withdraw from the program voluntarily, upon ownership transfer, or upon death.
Read more in the press release from the BC Seniors Advocate.
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BC Seniors’ Advocate Launches Residential Care Survey
The BC Seniors’ Advocate is launching the province’s first-ever survey of all residential care facilities in the province. The survey will explore a range of questions on privacy, food, safety and security, comfort, respect and responsiveness of staff, personal relationships, medications and activities in the facility. Residents will be interviewed in-person and their most frequent visitor, who is usually a family member, will be sent a mail-out survey. This survey will allow the province to understand what impacts residents’ quality of life and whether their needs are being met.
If you are interested in being a volunteer survey-taker, please visit the following site: http://surveybcseniors.org
Volunteers will be screened and if suitable will participate in a one-day training session and will be asked for a commitment of at least 30 hours over the survey period. Each volunteer will be assigned to a facility and will be responsible for surveying a certain number of residents in that facility. Administrative support will be provided.
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Have Your Say: TransLink Fare Review Survey
TransLink is launching its first fare review in over 30 years. In order to determine the best fare structures, they are soliciting public input. Have your say and fill out the Transit Fare Review survey before June 30, 2016.
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Free Lecture: Home, Health & Disability Along the Process of Ageing, June 8
Free public lecture hosted by the Department of Gerontology at Simon Fraser University, Wednesday, June 8, from 3:00pm-4:30pm, room 1530 at SFU Harbour Centre.
Speaker: Susanne Iwarsson, who holds the endowed Maria and Seved Ribbing Professorship in Gerontology and Care for Older People (2015) at the Faculty of Medicine, Lund University, Sweden.
Summary: Although a comprehensive approach that addresses the capacities, needs, and changing contexts in which older people live in is needed, the paucity of studies on home, health, and disability along the continuum of ageing is striking. The knowledge of the situation affecting different population segments is even weaker.
The expansive ENABLE-AGE project started in 2002 as an EC-funded initiative involving five countries, and has grown through a series of of follow-ups and new, inter-related studies. The over-riding and complex research task is to study objective and perceived aspects of home as related to aspects of health along the process of ageing in different European countries, as well as among different age cohorts and groups with specific diagnoses in Sweden.
A cross-cutting theme is to contribute to the development and optimization of methodology for comparative, longitudinal research on home, health, and disability dynamics, with specific attention to mixed-methods approaches. The evolving knowledge base has relevance for ageing and health research targeting different groups of the ageing population, with potential to nurture the development of evidence-based housing interventions and housing provision supporting activity, participation, and health in later life.
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South Granville Seniors’ Centre Spring Bazaar, June 4
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World Health Organization Passes Resolution on Ageing
The World Health Organization agreed today to implement a global, healthy ageing strategy.
From the press release: “The proportion of the world’s population aged 60 years or over is predicted to double between 2000 and 2050, rising to 22%. A WHO report released in October 2015 revealed little evidence that older people today are experiencing better health than their parents did at the same age. Moreover, good health in older age is unequally distributed, both within and between countries.
“Most health problems are linked to chronic conditions, particularly noncommunicable diseases that can be prevented or delayed by healthy behaviours across the life-course. The aim of the strategy is for every country to commit to action on healthy ageing. It calls for the development of age-friendly environments and the alignment of health systems to the needs of older populations. It envisages the development of sustainable and equitable systems of long-term care, and improved measurement, monitoring and research. It emphasizes equity and human rights, including the important role of involving older adults in all decisions that concern them.”
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SAC Passes Motion Regarding Medical Precinct
Today the Committee passed the following motion regarding proposed changes to the “Medical Precinct” along West 10th Avenue.
MOVED by Dellie Lidyard
SECONDED by Eva Wadolna
WHEREAS
- In 2013, Council ratified the City’s plan to seek formal recognition from the World Health Organization as a “Global Age-Friendly City;”
- In 2014, the Province of British Columbia officially designated Vancouver as an “Age-Friendly Community;”
- Both of these actions have committed the City to follow an “Age-Friendly Action Plan” which refers to “making streets and sidewalks more accessible and reviewing accessibility in areas where seniors live or gather;”
- The Transportation 2040 Plan prioritizes the needs of pedestrians above all others and further states that “a special emphasis will be placed on safety for at-risk groups to get to where they need to go comfortably and safely;”
- Seniors require safe and efficient access to West 10th Avenue so they may attend the numerous medical facilities in the area, including the emergency department at Vancouver General Hospital; the BC Cancer Research Centre; the Eye Care Centre; the Arthritis Centre; the Blusson Spinal Cord Centre; the Centre for Hip Health and Mobility; and the Gordon and Leslie Diamond Health Centre;
- The addition of a dedicated bicycle route would increase traffic along this route and therefore increase the risk for collisions with pedestrians, especially those who are disoriented or mobility-impaired;
- The addition of the bicycle route would also leave inadequate space for taxis, HandyDart, private cars, or emergency vehicles (especially in cases of vehicle breakdown or catastrophic events);
- The current plans do not provide safe, dedicated pick-up and drop-off locations for seniors accessing medical facilities;
- The proposed removal of up to 77 parking spaces would require seniors and/or their caregivers to park and walk a much greater distance to and from medical facilities;
- The current designs do not provide for sufficient lighting or other features that improve safety and comfort for vulnerable seniors;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT the Seniors Advisory Committee request Council direct staff to:
- Investigate more suitable options for the proposed protected bicycle lane, which may include relocating it to the designated bicycle path on West 7th Avenue between Oak and Ash Streets;
- Ensure sufficient sheltered drop-off/pick-up locations in front of entrances to each medical facility along West 10th Avenue, directly connected by gentle ramps and raised crosswalks to slow traffic;
- Ensure clear signage to caution motorists about vulnerable pedestrians and to give priority to emergency vehicles;
- Ensure adequate lighting, crossing signals, and benches for the safety and comfort of vulnerable pedestrians.
CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY
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Late-Life Issues & Innovations: Annual SFU Friesen Conference
Throughout the late-life period, people and their support systems often experience heath and social issues that impact their well-being and contribute to frailty. This conference discusses innovations in addressing these issues including advance directives with special attention given to representation agreements, tools that familiarize people with options available to them and assist them in choosing between them, new support services such as “death midwives” and person-centred rather than “best practice” approaches to deciding when to initiate palliative and end-of-life care.
The conference will also address ethical and legal issues for the person, family, health professionals and policy makers related to care (who, where it will be provided), income and assets management (who, what, with what accountability), dying and death (including pros and cons of physician assisted suicide). Cultural/religious differences in approaches to dying and death and access to end-of-life services and social support will also be discussed.
Host Organization: The Simon Fraser University Gerontology Research Centre in collaboration with the AGE-WELL Network, BC Hospice Palliative Care Association, and the SFU Lifelong Learning Adult 55+ Program
For more information and to register, visit: http://www.sfu.ca/fc/2016
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Impact of Permanent Closure of 800-Block Robson Street
Council voted yesterday to approve a permanent pedestrian plaza along the 800-block of Robson Street. This means that no vehicular traffic, including buses, will no longer be able to travel along that block.
The Seniors’ Advisory Committee did not have ample time to discuss this issue in detail at its last meeting, but previous committees have provided several comments, which we refer to in our letter to Council dated April 19.
In particular, the committees indicated that re-routing the #5 Robson/Downtown bus in previous years (during temporary closures of the block) posed a barrier to many older adults (especially those in the West End) who are dependent on the bus for safe, convenient, and direct access to amenities and services in the downtown core. This kind of access is vital to help reduce social isolation, which we have recognized as problem with major health consequences.
We strongly urge Council to ask staff to continue working with relevant stakeholders (e.g., TransLink, West End groups, and the Seniors’ Advisory Committee) to consider different transit alternatives that may better serve the needs of seniors now that this plaza is permanently closed to traffic.
Posted in Mobility, Social Connectedness, Transportation
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Open Houses & Online Survey for 10th Ave Corridor Changes
The City is holding two open houses (April 23rd and April 26th) for members of the public to provide comments about proposed changes to the walkways and bikeways along the 10th Avenue Corridor, also known as the Health Precinct. There is also an online survey which will be open until May 15.
Seniors, persons with disabilities, and patients/visitors who use the hospital may be impacted by these changes, and we therefore encourage them to study the project and provide any feedback they think may be helpful to staff as they move forward with this project.
From the Committee’s perspective, there is concern that the current proposal focuses too heavily on access and usability for cyclists, to the exclusion of those who are most in need of safe and convenient access along the corridor, especially patients and visitors to Vancouver General Hospital and the surrounding medical facilities. In fact, at our April 15 meeting, several members indicated that there should be no bicycle routes at all along this corridor, especially in front of the hospital.
If you have any concerns about the proposed changes, you are asked to share them with staff at one of the open houses, on the online survey, or on this page. You can also contact us directly.
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Future of the Vancouver Public Library
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