Absolutely.
We receive operational funding every year. I was just with the Nova Scotia Department of Health and Wellness yesterday asking for additional funds. Our numbers have increased about 15-fold in the last three and a half years. We have well over 4,600 members in our database. We need that operational funding for consistency such that we're able to hold 21 monthly support groups around the province, as well as using some innovation where we're doing it now. We also have a teleconference base for people who do not have access to transportation or have other reasons that they can't attend in-person support groups.
We offer some educational workshops on everything from caregiver stress management to safer medications, oral care, and advance care planning. Those are just some that we're offering now, but we have more in the works. We need to have that continuity where I can have the same staff staying in their places doing their jobs. It takes between six months and a year for someone to get up to full speed. The project funding is nice when we are able to get it to do a specific project, but it really is the operational funding that we need.
Part of that operational funding, and unfortunately, we don't have it right now—it's one of our recommendations—is to continue to publish hard copies of resources. I can't state that one enough, although many people think it's a simple thing to have a little booklet. There is a 94-page caregiver's handbook that people can sit down with when their caring day may end at about 10 p.m. They can actually sit and read through some of this or keep going back to where it supports them; it helps them get started on things and continue on with their care responsibilities. Personally, I feel that the caregiver's handbook is worth $4 and that we should be funding this. Whether it comes from the federal government or the provincial government, it's something that I come back to.
So operational funding—