Back to the Future for Health Care advocacy as Northern Health/City Council explore reboot of previous program

The long sought after creation of an Health Advisory will in the end seemingly just pick up where a previous committee left off, with Julia Pemberton, the Health Services Administrator for Northern Health in Prince Rupert recommending the rejuvenation of the Health Communities Integration Committee, a collective which was in operation from 2011-2018 and then suspend its operations.

The calls for some kind of advocacy instrument have mainly been led by Councillor Barry Cunningham, who it seems has been seeking such a forum almost from the time that the HCIC collective stopped their work.

Monday night, Ms. Pemberton provided for the benefits of re-introducing the program for Council recalling some of it's history.

"As someone who is relatively new to the community I was kind of missing some institutional memory as around how we can engage with the community in a meaningful way ... And what I was able to find as the most sustainable model that's been demonstrated to work in Prince Rupert is something which some of you actually might have participated in already, is the Health Communities Integration Committee or HCIC. 

So the history that I'm learning is that this was a co-chaired committee by local government and the health authority and was in place for seven years between 2011-2018 ... the aim of this committee is to really to get to a local forum that provides advice and assistance in addressing health improvements through a community based approach.  

Which is exactly the approach I would like to use address things like patient travel and have a better and open ongoing dialogue with people in our community.

I'd like to provide a forum that isn't just Facebook, as a way for the community to work with different partners and the Health Authority to understand what their experience is, what their ideas are, what their challenges are.

So this was something that I think would be really worth revitalizing, as way to build connections and partnerships moving forward" -- Julia Pemberton, Northern Health Prince Rupert

Ms. Pemberton also noted how the program had sustainable funding at the time from Northern Health and still carries a balance in their accounts locally; observing of some of the programs that it introduced and explored in the community prior to its suspension.

Among those areas of note, work with at risk youth program, seniors wellness programs, workshops and planning sessions and did  a lot of work with the Prince Rupert Youth Centre.

She suggested that the revitalization of that committee would help to address some of the gaps in services and how to support the community and to bring it to the community would help to support the residents of the region.

The Health Administrator also outlined how it could bring in many partners to help to deliver some problem solving for community issues.

"It's a community based approach, even though it's co-chaired by local government and Northern Health ... there's many different types of partners ...  in the past we've seen Transition House, Friendship House, Tsimshian Health Directors, RCMP, Hospice Society, Seniors Centre, those are the kind of groups that can come and sit at this table.

I think it would be a great forum where we can have feedback with the community, but also come up with some problem solving and be able to take the regional programs and decisions that Ciro and Jaco are putting in place and create some really positive localized conceptualizations to those choices that will fit for Prince Rupert"

The overview from Prince Rupert Council was relayed mainly through Mayor Lee Brain who observed on the focus for the Committee should the project move forward.

"One of the things if this committee does get rolling again, is we should surveying the community and really making sure that the people are getting their voices heard in what they believe the problems are and so that there is a clear place for people to express those concerns.

Cause the fact that people have to come to City Council to advocate for health care issues is I think a problem. That's not our job  we're here to run the community in another way. But we are advocates for the community and if that's where they feel they can trust that information then this is why this has been organized today for you guys to come forward.

So I think a place where we jointly work together making sure peoples voices are heard, making sure we're addressing those concerns ... so lets continue the work of the committee"

Further discussion between Northern Health and City Staff will shape the focus for the program as they look to re-introduce it to the community.

The conversation on the plans to bring back the suspended program  can be reviewed below, the first at the 45 minute mark of the session an overview from Ms. Pemberton, followed by comments from Mayor Brain on the path ahead at the one hour forty three minute mark.

Our look at the full presentation from Northern Health can be examined here.

More notes on Health Care in the community can be explored from our archive page here.

A look at other notes from Monday's City Council session can be found through our Council Timeline feature and our archive of the Monday meeting.