A cross-section of community members discussed health-care-related concerns during three area meetings this month.Alberta Health Services is in the process of hosting community and rural engagement sessions in 85 communities across the province. So far, AHS has conducted 20 of these meetings, including stops in Didsbury, Olds and Sundre.ìThis goes back to a core value for us,î said Daniel Marchand, AHS director of community and rural urgent care.ìWe need to engage community members in planning for communities. Before, that seemed to be a centralized process. We do know now that we have to involve community members in planning.îMarchand said organizers use an informal template for the invitation list, bringing in people from all walks of life.ìWe wanted the young single mom there, we wanted some senior representation, we wanted a youth representation of some sort,î he said, adding that AHS also asks for input from the community's health advisory committee on potential participants.Those attending the sessions were broken up into three subgroups, where they discussed community-specific questions related to health issues, challenges or barriers, opportunities to improve health services, and a vision for what their community would look like if it were the healthiest place to live.In terms of concerns Marchand has heard during meetings in Didsbury, Olds, and Sundre, he said they are unique to each community.However, there were a few common threads.ìPhysician recruitment, nursing recruitment seemed to be a major theme,î Marchand said.ìAnother would be, how we can provide health-care services more innovatively. That's what we really seem to be tapping into, that rural innovation.îDuring the subgroup discussions, an AHS staff member took notes on each topic on large sheets of paper. Once the discussion ended, each participant was asked to place checkmarks next to the topics that they felt were priorities. They were allowed a maximum of three checkmarks each.From there, session organizers will be tallying the issues that were the most frequent and included the most number of checkmarks.Mountain View County director of corporate services Greg Wiens attended the Didsbury session last Wednesday.ìIt was an interesting presentation,î Wiens said. ìIt looks like (AHS) is interested in changing the way services are provided within the region and I think that's a very positive step.îOne of the issues that surfaced during the subgroup discussions was the interest in having the municipalities within Mountain View County belong to the same health region. Presently Carstairs and Didsbury belong to the Calgary Health Region, while Olds and Sundre fall within the David Thompson Health Region jurisdiction.ìIt would make a lot of sense for Mountain View County residents,î Wiens said.ìThey aren't necessarily directly tied to Olds, Didsbury or Sundre, so having the services somewhere in the region is important.îSessions also included AHS staff members presenting statistics related to the local hospital.This includes data collected with respect to the top three causes for hospitalizations; acuity of emergency room visits; the ratio of local patients compared to those travelling from another location; the most common reasons for use of the hospital, among others.Going forward, AHS zone leads will be forming working groups customized to each community. These groups will work towards accomplishing priorities raised during the engagement sessions.ìIt really depends on what the needs are,î Marchand said.ìIf there is a need for transportation, then we would like to engage the group of volunteers that provides transportation.ìBut we do want, as we go through the process of identifying the issues and priorities, therefore some actionable strategies, that there is community involvement through that entire process.îMarchand said keeping locals in the loop is important for making sure AHS is on the right path.ìAt the end of the day, if we're bringing a new service to a community or we're realigning services, we have to make sure that there's an appetite for that at the community level,î Marchand added.The working groups in Didsbury, Olds and Sundre will be formed between now and June.
