Human Resources Committee on Oct. 31st, 2017

[Vera Pawis Tabobondung]

For sure we have engaged and we're negotiating for continued funding for the friendship centres so that we have core dollars.

We know that across the nation many people and many of the friendship centres have accessed programming, the new horizons for seniors program, and in some places we're in a competition for those dollars because there is great need. We know that.

However, in order for our seniors to be engaged and to have those community consultations that you talk about, we need the person, we need Vera Pawis Tabobondungs who I can get to volunteer. We also need somebody who has the ability to bring people together whether they come by public transit...and in some communities we can't do that. We still want to do outreach, the whole thing about picking up the phone and calling because we care. I think we need that kind of capacity in the friendship centres.

We're trying to put our centre programs together so that we have wraparound service, with a bus that could bring the doctor and everybody else on the team along, and so we could still address what the seniors identify as the priorities in the community of their friendship centre.

[Mona Fortier, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

You were saying that you have 117 friendship centres in the country. I would like to better understand, and maybe you can give us an idea, how services of a friendship centre might vary between an urban setting, a rural setting, or a northern setting. Can you maybe explain to me a couple of challenges for each type so I can better understand the need?

[Vera Pawis Tabobondung]

The challenge is that not all governments understand friendship centres. Not all governments, whether in the north or elsewhere across the country, give us the same credit that you and other members of the panel who have an understanding of the kinds of work and the people who we work with do. Some of us can work with 10, yet some of us have thousands. It's all about access. It's all about equality and ensuring that communities create their own vision. We know what the basic premise of a friendship centre is, but they're all designed and put together according to the priorities and the cultural grouping of where they come from.

Yes, you have to have an open-door policy and be status-blind at a minimum, but there is no minimum for us. It's always that one shoe doesn't fit all friendship centres. That model doesn't work, and we know that.

It's all about governance. It's all about creating, being creative, having one dollar and making it stretch into $9. I think we know that pretty well.

[Mona Fortier, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

You know how to work through it.

[Vera Pawis Tabobondung]

We'd like to have the capacity to continue to design the programs, deliver the programs, and still do policy work and help with what the policy should look like and make sure we feel we're included in the design and delivery.

[Mona Fortier, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Very quickly, I understood and I'm glad you mentioned youth as being of key importance in the approach you're suggesting. If we could make one investment in youth in your friendship centres, what would we do? Where would we put our money?

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Be very brief, please.

[Vera Pawis Tabobondung]

I would say a youth worker. It's the same. They're 24-7 just as seniors are 24-7. I wish I could say that nobody has a need on Saturday and Sunday.

[Mona Fortier, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Thank you.

Now we'll go to MP Rachel Blaney.

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Thank you.

Thank youso much for being here with us today. I would like to start off quickly by asking everyone to answer “yes, no, or abstain” to a question. Do you believe the government should implement a national seniors strategy?

[Dr. Birgit Pianosi]

Yes, please.

[Vera Pawis Tabobondung]

A national indigenous strategy, yes.

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Can I get you to answer, Kevin? Yes, no, or abstain?

[Kevin Smith]

Yes, based on the WHO framework.

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Thank you.

Finally, Natalie.

[Natalie Sonnen]

Yes, I believe so.

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Thank you so much.

Linda, I would love to start with you today. Again, thank you so much for being here. As the seniors critic for the NDP, sadly I'm all too familiar with the cost barriers to medications in our country for our most vulnerable people.

In the report “Down the Drain: How Canada Has Wasted $62 Billion Health Care Dollars without Pharmacare”, you demonstrated the need for pharmacare today. Can you share with us why this is so important? Also, what are the next steps the government should be taking?

[Linda Silas]

There are two prongs here. If we look at pharmacare, it's, one, having a formulary that's based on the evidence. I'm scared every day to hear reports—and that's not a CNFU report, that's the Beers report—that 40% of the prescription drugs prescribed to seniors are inappropriate for them. They end up in hospitals and in long-term care facilities, where they should not be. We would have the science behind the formulary and better prescription habits.

For seniors, it is about looking at safety. I often say that we all want to be 92 years old and play racquetball, but some of us will be sick, and some of us will need secure home care services and secure long-term care services.

I was very impressed with all the volunteer organizations. They all talked about volunteers, but trained volunteers. We're not trained to take care of a sick senior in our homes, or of a sick baby either, but with the seniors, they'll be there 24-7. It's about safety training.

Also, pharmacare not only will save money, but it will save lives, and it's time we get to it.

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Yes, I agree. I've had too many health professionals come to me and talk about giving people medication or prescriptions for medication and people not filling or taking half a dose when they really need to take the full dose.

We've heard loud and clear how very hard the work is for health care professionals. Can you expand a bit on how labour practices can impact care? Also, is there an issue in retention around this sector?

[Linda Silas]

There's no issue on retention. It's almost the ghetto of where we go in health care, which is kind of sad, because as you heard from many of the speakers, seniors and the aging population are a richness in our country. We need to mix the professional help that is needed from doctors, specialists, and personal care workers with help from volunteers and family caregivers and make sure that everyone is working in a coordinated team—of course with the family and the senior leading the team—regardless of the cultural appropriateness of what is needed.

It's about working as a team and making sure that if they have medical or health care needs, they're filled. We cannot push seniors and their families into their homes if it is not safe. As I said earlier, some of them are very sick and need support 24-7. Sometimes the volunteer or the aunt can't do it. We have to guarantee our seniors of today and tomorrow that our health care services will be there.

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Thank you.

We're hearing a lot about the need for training. We're hearing a lot about the fact that attracting people to work with seniors is a challenge. We know there's an intensified focus on the need for clinical data standards and the interoperability of clinical information systems across all the provinces. Do you see other needs that would fulfill something like a national standard?

[Linda Silas]

Yes. We had Dr. Pat Armstrong from York University do a paper for the council of the federation two years ago. It was all about building national standards for seniors care and having it be legislated.

Let's be clear. The federal government will never deliver the care, but the federal government can deliver the standards that will be in each province and territory and can also have the clinical data available for everyone. The federal government could easily build a training program for all the volunteers and caregivers, paid or not, that would be appropriate in every setting for seniors. That can be an EI program. There can be so many programs that can be led by the federal government to ensure that all older Canadians are taken care of.

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Thank you so much. I see my time is winding up, but I will be coming back to the friendship centres soon.

I wanted to say that one of the elders in our community taught me that if we were traditionally appropriate, all of our magazines would have elders and seniors on the covers because they would be the people who we respected and followed.

I look forward to having a conversation with you in the next little while about what we need to do to support friendship centres in our communities. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Thank you very much.

Now we'll go to MP Robillard, please.