LINDA: We make a huge difference for the seniors that we are able to access. But you're absolutely right, with our aging population and with the demands that we see on the forecast, I mean, we only have one bus named Doris out in the community that is picking up seniors on Tuesdays and with our groceries you know we're seeing that an optimum number for that shopping group is 10. So if that's 10 seniors every week that we're taking out we know that the population on the North Shore is so much greater than that and so many more seniors that we're not getting to. We have demand for our services for all of our programs and very often have wait lists. We try to be flexible in terms of not leaving anyone on a wait list so if there's someone there we get them involved in some way. But you're absolutely right, there's many seniors that aren't served and our challenge is more in how to, you know, keep growing to meet the need, the needs are always there for us to look at. STEVE: But, nevertheless, I think it's a wonderful thing that you're doing and that's, of course, why we've become involved through my friend Cam Kerr who plays old timer's hockey. I guess that's a seniors' activity 'cos we're both over 60 so we're out there playing hockey trying to keep our elbows close to our sides and not in somebody else's face but, so let us go on then. Now we've, what else have you got there? LINDA: We do a number of other things as well and some of them are ad hoc things. Some things for example, at Christmas time we do a Christmas lights tour and we take a group of seniors our and we show them some of the lights in the area and then we'll take them for hot chocolate in a local cafe to wind up the evening and we may visit, we may go to the theatre with a group of seniors. If we have a group of seniors who we know have enjoyed the arts over the years and they're unable to get out we may on a one time basis, try and put something together there. Every summer we participate in a huge picnic that some other senior service provider's co-host with us. We take a huge number of seniors to, for example, to Kate's Park and we will host a very safe senior's picnic in the afternoon. Or we may take a group on an out trip. We may go further away and we may go and see something of interest. We have taken seniors to Lynn Canyon for example, not just take them through the canyon but to see some of the exhibits that are there in the restaurant. So we have some one off activities.
We have been running a regular golden garden in Lower Lonsdale during the summer months where we take a number of seniors and we have the right aids to allow seniors to garden so if, for example, extensions on a number of the handles that you would use to actually turn the soil in the garden, those kinds of things. And we grow vegetables and flowers in this garden in Lower Lonsdale and we find that we are able to make a donation to the harvest project regularly from the result of our work down there. But the seniors love to garden and they have great expertise about gardening but just very often they either live in a facility or a home that doesn't have space for them to garden or it's no longer safe for them to be gardening. So we've found through the donation of a garden of a senior in our community whose husband passed away and she was no longer able to care for the space, that we can take a group of volunteers and seniors down there and we try and do it twice a week to care for the garden over the summer months. The seniors come to life because they know so much. This is an area of expertise and they're telling our staff, who very often don't have a clue about gardening, what should be done and how it should be done. And then they can see the fruit of their labor over the summer months and then to be able to give back to the harvest project and to staff and to the seniors, I mean you can get some wonderful zucchini's and some wonderful flowers. Amazing project.
Amazing project.
STEVE: A couple of questions here. First of all you keep referring to safe because what the seniors might attempt to do something that they are not able to do and that they would fall down or what are some of the concerns that you have about safety?
LINDA: The primary safety issue is the falling, is to prevent falls and to ensure that they don't slip and they don't fall. That's the primary safety issue. The other issues that very often we have seniors who have the onset of early dementiLinda: So they may be wanderers or they may lose, you know, a piece of information and so safety falls in to knowing who those people are and ensuring that we have enough volunteers and enough staff to support their participation in the event, feeling secure and feeling comfortable. Safety also may include things like being aware of the specific health issues that are facing a senior. Some may have heart conditions; some may be diabetic and being aware of sort of what indicators we need to watch for to ensure that we're not keeping them out of their homes too long. We're ensuring that they're home in time to have their medications. Very often our programs are run around the medication cycle. So those are the kinds of things that we consider with safety.
