Visions articles

Indigenous People

Reconciliation comes from truth and understanding, from acknowledging the past and present in order to build a more just and equitable future. Over 6,750 people shared their experiences of the Indian Residential School System with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Their testimony shed light on policies and practices so that all Canadians can bear witness and have better knowledge of the experiences of their Indigenous neighbours and community members. In its small way, this issue of Visions aims to give a voice to the mental health challenges—and resilience—of Aboriginal or ‘Indigenous’ community members in BC.

Vancouver’s Geriatric Crisis Service

A psychiatric geriatric emergency is an event with a psychiatric/behavioural component, involving an elderly individual, requiring a rapid response to ensure the safety of the individual and others, that can’t be managed initially in the current environment. The Geriatric Crisis Service exists to fill gaps in the emergency and crisis services to the psychogeriatric population through improved communication with the client and caregiver.

Listening to the North Okanagan

In 1999/2000 as part of a mental health system review conducted in what was then the North Okanagan Health Region (NOHR), CMHA BC Division completed a Regional Seniors’ Mental Health System Progress Report. Based on the information gathered, local Progress Report steering committees identified strengths of the regional seniors’ mental health system and areas for improvement.

Salmon Arm Mental Health Service Elderly Services Program

The development of community mental health services for adults over 64 years of age followed the implementation of services for the 19–64 age group. The elderly mental health service beacon was not switched on until the mid to late 1980s, when the Ministry of Health, Mental Health Division launched a program to address the specific mental health service requirements of this group. In Salmon Arm, our first exposure to the program was through educational workshops.

Elderly Outreach Service

The Elderly Outreach Service (EOS) is an interdisciplinary community mental health program for seniors that started as part of the Victoria Health Project in 1989. The program serves the Greater Victoria area of BC including the southern gulf islands, Salt Spring, Galiano, North and South Pender, Mayne and Saturna — a region where about 19% of the population is over 65 years of age.

In Search of Meaning

Dementia is an acquired illness that affects the functioning of a once-normal brain. As a nurse with the Elderly Outreach Service, my focus is to assist staff in providing care for seniors who are presenting with challenging behaviours due to dementia as well as other mental health challenges.

The Geropsychiatric Education Program

The Geropsychiatric Education Program (GPEP), an education service of the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, would be quick to respond to this request. They would assist the staff to do a resident care review, exploring the resident’s behaviour in relationship to her physical and mental health diagnoses, her personal history, the physical environment and the staff’s approach.

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