Community rallies behind seniors

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This article was published 15/06/2021 (1626 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Wolseley Residents’ Association wants to explore ways the neighbourhood can support its seniors during an upcoming “Idea Jam” virtual meeting on Mon., June 21 at 7 p.m.

The meeting, which is open to all, will feature guest speakers who’ll lead discussions around alternative approaches to senior care and a new initiative the group is kicking off later this month.

Judith Harris is a professor of Urban and Inner-City Studies at the University of Winnipeg and new addition to the Wolseley neighbourhood.

Harris recently presented on the topic of long-term care for seniors at a national conference, and WRA chair Marianne Cerilli invited her to share her work.

“I can get people’s feedback, and they can comment, and we can have a good discussion,” Harris said.

She plans to speak to community-based senior care, a model that many communities — Canada and abroad — have adopted and found to be successful.

The notion of home care co-ops and the possibility of adopting a similar system in Winnipeg — or right in Wolseley — will underpin the discussion.

“My impression of Wolseley over the last six months is that it is a very friendly neighbourhood,” Harris said.

“Community is really important for keeping seniors healthy and helping them to stay at home as much as they can.”

During the talk, Harris will focus on three main lessons she and long-time co-op advocate and industrial relations scholar Russ Christianson collaborated on this year.

Harris will lead with points about how the pandemic highlighted flaws in the personal care home system­, particularly the for-profit private facilities.

Next, she’ll move on to an examination of ageism and how it helped fuel the COVID-19 long-term care home crisis.

“We treat seniors as if they’re not full members of society,” Harris said.

The subject of senior care is familiar to both she and Christianson as they’ve both had experiences with long-term care homes in their respective families.

“For us, it’s a personal issue,” she said.

The final topic in Harris’ presentation will be the undervaluing of personal service workers.

“They’re underpaid. They have irregular hours. And they don’t have any benefits,” she said.

Harris recommends the book Humanizing the Economy by John Restakis for those interested in learning more about co-operatives.

WRA secretary Larissa Skakum Boning will be the evening’s second speaker.

Skakum Boning is leading the new initiative to distribute window signs to older adults in Wolseley that they can use to signal to other members of the community that they’d like to be visited or need support.

“Sometimes it just means that, ‘I need someone to help me with groceries’ or ‘help to get to an appointment, and they may not know who to contact,” Skakum Boning said.

The signs will have a minimalistic ‘thumbs-up’ or ‘thumbs-down’ design.

“There’s lots of seniors living in this neighbourhood, and some of them are living alone,” she said. “We don’t want anyone to be alone during all of this.”

Harris said the signage will be an opportunity for some seniors to invite social interaction.

“This idea of putting a sign in your window if you’d like to have somebody come and have tea or talk to you at your door. I think that would help a lot of people,” she said.

Throughout the meeting, participants will be invited to suggest any other wellness ideas the group can tackle in the upcoming months.

For details on how to register for the Idea Jam Zoom meeting, visit wrawpg.ca or email wrawpg@gmail.com