WELLINGTON COUNTY – The past few months have presented new challenges to our community and those who call it home. In many cases, the pandemic has amplified existing shortcomings of our health system while at the same time, it has revealed some real areas that are working well. Having said that, we still have a ways to go to best support older adults, their families and their caregivers in our community.
In late 2018, the Waterloo Wellington Older Adult Strategy (WWOAS) was finalized with funding from the Waterloo Wellington Local Health Integration Network. Work to bring the WWOAS to life is moving forward with a broader range of partners in health services and community supports and more than 120 active participants, including 17 community members from across Waterloo Wellington.
Centre Wellington is home to a group of incredibly passionate women, determined to make a positive difference in the way older adults and their families access and derive value from the health system. They draw on the richness of their own personal experiences and those of people around them. They use their stories as a springboard from which to offer solutions and inform decision makers directly about what is important to people and opportunities for improvement.
Two of these local champions are Joanne Weiler and Colleen Roberts. Both were invited to participate in the WWOAS steering committee of 2018.
“Although our situation was very difficult, I accepted this opportunity to be a voice of lived experience,” said Roberts.
Weiler too was keen to be involved, saying “I can complain about service gaps or help find a way to make change. Being part of the work of the WWOAS makes me feel like I am a producer rather than just a complainer.”
Both women have spent time caring for their spouses at home and in long-term care. Weiler, whose husband now lives with dementia in a local long-term care home, spent much of her career working with older adults and families. Roberts’ husband was diagnosed with both Alzheimer’s disease and lymphoma in 2018, the latter of which took his life in February 2019.
“This journey was swift and fraught with many health care challenges; there was much to be grateful for but much that needed to change,” said Roberts.
While their contributions are many. The leadership role they continue to play with system and service partners in the Stay Safe – Lead the Way campaign – put into action early in April to bring information to older adults in the face of the pandemic – has been essential. The campaign’s goal was to reach out to older adults in rural and urban communities who are at risk of isolation, loneliness and the premature onset of frailty during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly those aged 70 years and older, and especially those not currently linked to services.
Weiler and Roberts have been intimately involved in shaping the campaign and its messages with their peers. Weiler notes that the campaign has been so successful, in part because it “launched quickly in response to COVD-19 because there was already an existing group of community members who were already working on the WWOAS. They were immediately available to give input and help on a weekly basis.”
According to Roberts, “having the opportunity to assess the needs of our community and have them addressed in a targeted way has been an important outcome of our work.”
The contributions of older adults and other community members have been recognized by health care and service providers and system leaders alike. Indeed, their direct involvement in shaping the future of the health system is viewed as an imperative as the health system continues to transform.
“It has been a privilege to tell our stories and the stories of others with the people who have the power to make change and I trust that they in turn, will be encouraged to have the will to make the changes needed to improve health care and long term care for all who need it,” said Roberts.
Submitted by Don Wildfong, RN, BNSc, MS Waterloo Wellington Geriatric System Team
