Media Clippings Archive

Staff, volunteers and participants in a groundbreaking intergenerational program being supported by the Williams Lake Seniors Village.

Over the past three years, the BC Care Providers Association (BCCPA) has been promoting the development of intergenerational projects across the province. There is a growing body of research pointing to the health care and quality of life benefits for both the seniors and the youth participating in these grassroots, community based programs.

In 2008 and 2009, BCCPA worked with educators and care providers across the province to develop a guide for communities interested in developing inter-generational programs. Since then BCCPA has also encouraged the federal government to provide funding to expand these programs through their national New Horizons fund - with success.

A call for proposals was issued last fall and projects across the country are expected to be announced later this year. But care providers and educators are not waiting - and the media is starting to notice.

A national article in the Globe and Mail profiled an innovative program that Invermere's Columbia Garden Valley retirement home has developed that puts a kindergarten in a seniors' home for two days a week. One 84 year old resident in the article said she was surprised the kids wanted to spend time with the seniors but the class's teacher said, "They're just completely accepting of each other. It makes for a million magic moments."

Home-support programs succeed thanks to a dedicated workforce

By Isobel MacKenzie, Times Colonist

A number of professions contribute to an effective and sustainable health-care system. Doctors, nurses, pharmacists and therapists have all been acknowledged for years as vital to maintaining a healthy society.

However, over the past 20 years, "health care" has expanded from the doctor's office and hospital to the home. With this move has come an increase in client centred care and the evolution of a new health-care provider - the community health worker, also known as a home-support worker.

by Richard Watts, Victoria Times Colonist

Residential care-home operators want Vancouver Island Health Authority to itemize its spending of extra money from increased fees levied on seniors. The B.C. Care Providers Association says it has asked for an accounting. When it announced an increase in daily fees for people living in subsidized residential care homes in 2009, the provincial government said money would go to residential care, mostly serving seniors. The B.C. Care Providers say other health authorities, notably Fraser Health, have provided a detailed accounting, right down to how much extra is going to individual care homes. But VIHA has not been so forthcoming.