Veterans Affairs Committee on Jan. 31st, 2008

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

Now we have who I think is our last questioner--Mr. Stoffer, with the NDP--and then after that we still have some committee business to deal with, just so that everybody is aware.

Mr. Stoffer.

[Peter Stoffer, NDP, Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

A few years ago I was at the aboriginal affairs committee and we had a group of elders there, and through the whole presentation the people never once said the word “senior”. They always said the word “elders”. When I asked afterwards why, they said because “elders”, in their view, is a sign of respect; “seniors”, in their view, means an older person.

So I will just throw this out. Have you ever thought of changing the word “seniors” programs to “elder” programs? I was in Resolute Bay just recently. And this goes to Madam Hinton's point that we should be starting these physical education things much sooner than when they're seniors. Elders there are invited into the schools and they are an integral part of the education system. It keeps them fresh, it keeps them with kids, and it teaches them interaction, as you said, to be active in the community. I don't know if you've ever looked at that in terms of recommendations for federal to provincial to municipal...and for other community groups to interact elders with the school systems in order to promote that continuity of wellness in that regard.

That's the statement.

I want to say that Mr. Shipley raised a good point about the amount of drugs people take. I couldn't help but notice that Pfizer is one of the sponsors here in this group, and I just want to play devil's advocate here. Pfizer is one of the world's largest drug manufacturers in the world. Wouldn't that be seen, if you wanted to be critical at all, as possibly just a hint of a perception of conflict in that regard?

I'm glad to see Pfizer using their money to help research for seniors, and I don't want to say stop them from doing it, but couldn't there be a perception of conflict in that regard? I say that with the most positive of views, by the way.

[Dr. Linda Mealing]

Definitely. At CIHR we have a lot of programs in partnership with pharmaceutical companies. They bring in a lot of dollars, and through CIHR all the dollars are unconditional. They are actually co-funding that whole network about getting research in Alzheimer's disease into action. It's not just about whether this drug works well but also about non-pharmaceutical therapies that are being tested in that network. We conducted regional senior workshops across the country with just seniors and seniors organizations, and they sponsored supporting the cost of that because we paid the way for all the seniors. So yes, it can be perceived as conflict, but we have ways internally to manage.

[Peter Stoffer, NDP, Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

I ask the committee to bear with me for a second. I did say Mr. Stoffer would be our last questioner; however, Mr. Cannan has not had a chance yet, and Mr. Valley wanted 30 seconds to make some statements.

Mr. Cannan.

[Ron Cannan, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I know we're running out of time, so I'll be very quick.

I appreciate Mr. Stoffer's comments, and you alluded to non-pharmaceutical therapy. They used some placebo experimentation as well, so individuals sometimes think they're on the medication and they're not necessarily. So that's really good, because I'm an advocate of more natural health care in that respect.

I want you to verify, where you said one in three seniors falls every year, and falls account for 85% of all injury-related hospitalizations, how current is that statistic? Do you have any information to show, because you've gone on to some fall prevention programs, that you've been able to reduce that figure?

[John Cox]

I think the most recent data available was from the late 1990s, probably 1999. I think it was research conducted through SMARTRISK, an organization that's focused quite heavily on falls. Certainly in terms of programming, while we don't deliver the programs, we've been quite active both in collaboration with Veterans Affairs in the past, and in other fashions, both to test community-based approaches that then can be picked up, and many have, as well as trying to strengthen work around gathering the data that's necessary to approve programs. That work is going on now. We did the initial research to determine the extent of falls programming in Canada and released a report in 2005. The World Health Organization asked for our cooperation in replicating that on a more international scale, and that was done in the last year or so. So we are very much continuing to pay attention to that area, to try to promote it.

[Ron Cannan, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

There wasn't any breakdown as far as just seniors are concerned? It wouldn't have been specific in terms of vets versus non-vets?

[John Cox]

There would probably be information available with respect to the particular program that we ran with Veterans Affairs, but it wouldn't necessarily be generalizable to the full population of veterans and seniors across the country.

[Ron Cannan, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

In the next paragraph, on page 14, it says, “Among our work on this issue was a collaborative venture between Health Canada and Veterans Affairs Canada”. Is that ongoing?

[John Cox]

No. It was a four-year program to test ways of getting both veterans within communities and seniors working together and engaging with other partners within their communities to test out ways that they could either endorse or support prevention activities, or intervene where there had been an initial fall and hopefully reduce the probability of successive falls. From there, I think there was at least one reference in here to a program in Nova Scotia, for example, that has carried on. I think there are a number of others like that. Falls programming is something that provinces in particular have picked up on.

[Ron Cannan, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

So when did this end?

[John Cox]

I believe it was from 2000 to 2004.

[Ron Cannan, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

I come from the central Okanagan, in British Columbia, Kelowna—Lake Country. We have a high demographic of seniors, and our interior health program authority has excellent falls prevention education.

Also, my colleague Ms. Hinton talked about schools, and we do have the healthy school bus.

So it's a great program, from partnership with the municipality, working with the seniors, both from an environmental perspective and the perspective of exercise.

Thank you for your dedication and work and for your presentations this afternoon.

[John Cox]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

There's one quick thing I want to find out.

With all this talk about falls, I'm assuming that minimizing ice, minimizing multiple storeys and stairs, and minimizing troublesome tub enclosures are probably the big ones. Is there anything we're missing?

[Nancy Milroy-Swainson]

Carpeting, surfaces.

[Dr. Linda Mealing]

Stairs.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

So is carpeting good or bad?

[Nancy Milroy-Swainson]

Loose carpeting is bad, or carpeting that doesn't grip. So it's a question of making the environment stable.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

All right.

[John Cox]

Lighting is another issue.

[Dr. Linda Mealing]

Élisabeth Bruyère actually has a floor that, if you drop an egg on it, the egg won't break. So if a person falls on that floor, they won't break their hip.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

Where is it that has this?

[Dr. Linda Mealing]

The Élisabeth Bruyère Health Centre, down by the market. They're testing it.