Retirement of Northern Health's Mary Wesley receives tribute from MLA Rice in Legislature

North Coast MLA Jennifer Rice used some of her Legislature time
on Wednesday to salute the work of Mary Wesley, 
who recently retired from Northern Health
(Photo from MLA Rice FB page)

North Coast MLA Jennifer Rice has shared word of the retirement of a long time employee of Northern Health, highlighting thirty years of service to the Health Authority from Mary Lester. 

Speaking in the Legislature Chamber on Wednesday, Ms. Rice recounted some of the milestones in Ms. Wesley's career as an Aboriginal Patient Liaison with the Health Authority, where she was a familiar face around Prince Rupert Regional Hospital and around the community.

"With a quiet disposition but a giant smile and presence in our lives, we celebrate Mary. 

Mary Wesley has recently retired from more than 30 years of committed service to Northern Health and Aboriginal communities across the northwest.  12 of those years, she served as the Aboriginal patient liaison at the Prince Rupert Regional Hospital. 

She was the first Aboriginal patient liaison in the north and helped shaped the program that has now been established throughout the province. As an early innovator, she also served as a mentor to other APLs. And for that, we are so grateful. Mary has helped to dismantle racism by developing cultural understanding. 

Through her work, she has facilitated meaningful communications between Indigenous patients and health care providers. She was also the co-chair of the North Coast Indigenous Health Improvement committee, which recently won an award from the B.C. Patient Safety and Quality Council. 

Mary has helped numerous staff orientate to the local First Nations communities and has been an advocate for the needs of Indigenous people."

Ms. Rice also provided a glimpse into Ms. Wesley's active involvement on community wellness checks for many visiting First Nations residents; along with her extensive work at the All Native Basketball Tournament each February.

You can review her presentation to the Legislature from the Hansard archive here appearing just after the 1:45 PM mark , as well as to view it through a video posted to the MLA's Facebook page.

 

For more notes on the work of the MLA at the Legislature see our archive page here.

Correction: The above is a corrected version of our story of earlier in the day which had mis-identified Ms. Wesley, our apologies for the error, we wish her well in her retirement.