During the project period, the Coordinating and Advisory
Committees met twenty times in their role of planning and
implementing project activities. Committee Minutes may be viewed
by selecting the Minutes of Meetings from the menu bar on the
right.
From April to December 1999, the major focus of the project
was organization and focus group meetings, primarily with
seniors, but also with service providers and health care
professionals. During the fall of 1999, 12 focus group meetings
were conducted:
- 9 meetings with seniors groups
- 2 meetings with service providers
- 1 meeting with Municipal and Regional Health Board staff.
The complete results of the Vancouver focus group meetings
can be viewed by clicking on Focus Group Summaries.
When the information obtained in the focus groups was
summarized and analysed the project entered into Phase 2 -
initiating action(s) to address identified issues.
Three types of action were undertaken in the project:
dissemination of the focus group results; presentations to
regional and municipal health authorities; and strategic
actions.
In the dissemination actions, more than 200 copies of the
report on the focus group results were distributed to:
- organizations that sent representatives to the focus
groups;
- individuals in municipal, provincial, and federal levels
of government whom members of the Coordinating Committee
identified as having expertise and experience with seniors;
- project committees in other participating cities; and
- seniors who planned and carried out the follow-up of a
"Seniors Summit" conference that involved 400
seniors of diverse ethnic backgrounds from all over British
Columbia.
As well, meetings were arranged with
organizations that sent
representatives to the focus groups to provide feedback and to
encourage these organizations to initiate strategies on their
own behalf.
Two major delegations met with the local regional health
authorities. Delegations from the Coordinating Committee made
presentations (1) to the Seniors Public Health Advisory
Committee of the Vancouver/Richmond Health Board and (2) to the
City of Vancouver Seniors Advisory Committee.
The Coordinating Committee implemented three major strategic
actions to address issues identified in the focus groups. The
first was the development of a full "Segmented Report"
on the issues developed in the focus groups. As well,
"Action Statements" were developed and sent to the
candidates in the Fall federal election and "Action
Statements for Provincial and Municipal Officials" which
were sent to 70 elected officials and senior staff members in
the provincial and municipal governments. Electronic versions of
these may be obtained from Patrick McGowan at
pmcgowan@interchange.ubc.ca.
In addition to these activities a Final Report was prepared
and translated into Chinese, Punjabi, and Vietnamese and then
distributed to the communities. For information on acquiring the translated versions, please contact
Patrick McGowan.
|
