SUNDRE – Sometimes, a senior who perhaps has become isolated as a result of mental or physical health issues simply needs a little help to break out of their shell so they can once again shine.
That’s where what are known as Link workers can play a crucial role.
Courtesy of a society in Sundre called Seniors Protected and Respected Under Community Engagement (S.P.R.U.C.E.), a seniors’ fair was hosted on Thursday, June 6 at the Sundre Community Centre in conjunction with Seniors’ Week, which was observed June 3-9. The event featured some live entertainment and door prizes along with numerous exhibitors from senior service organizations as well as three presentations.
The final presentation of the day was about social prescribing, with Rebecca Aspden, a coordinator with Healthy Aging Alberta, outlining what that is all about. More than half a dozen people sat in to learn more about the subject.
“We’re hoping to learn what the community would like social prescribing to look like, and what gaps and services they hope it would fill,” Aspden told the Albertan.
She also hoped to impart the understanding that social prescribing is about much more than providing an official link between health-care providers and community services.
“The Link worker is that bridge between the two worlds so that a person can be wrapped around holistically,” she said, adding that includes traditional forms of assistance such as accompanying a client to get certain forms filled out.
Yet it goes much beyond that, she added.
“Rather than just saying, ‘You need to go do this or you need to go do that,’ (Link workers) walk beside (clients) through their journey.”
Citing Innisfail as one example, Aspden said the local Link worker there will when required accompany a client to something like an aquasize class until that person is comfortable going all by themselves.
“Because often that’s the barrier; is they (the client) are uncomfortable going the first time. So (the link worker) goes with them two or three times” to break the ice, she said.
Recommended activities that come as a result of a referral from a health-care provider – whether a physician, pharmacist or even a nurse practitioner – don’t necessarily always have to be physical in nature either, she said.
One client from Sylvan Lake who was struggling with depression and isolation had a previous background in arts. So the Link worker invited that client to offer a one-on-one painting lesson, which from there slowly but surely snowballed into something greater.
“Now, she’s teaching large groups because she says she’s never felt so good about herself,” said Aspden, adding the artist rediscovered a purpose along with a way of giving back to her community.
“It’s really about taking people’s skills and strengths and gifts and using it as a link point back into the community,” she said. “Because often, older adults sort of when they retire, they lose their sense of purpose and connection.”
That social connection, she later added, is key.
“We know now that over 80 per cent of a person’s health depends on social determinants of health, rather than access to health-care, quality of care, or even genetics,” heard the group that attended her presentation.
Factors such as housing, income, relationships with other people and the general richness of a person’s life play a huge role in their overall well-being, she said.
In England, which years ago embraced social prescribing, patients with Link workers are feeling better mentally and by extension physically, with a reported 57 per cent increase in improved health outcomes, she said.
“Doctors are seeing patients 41 per cent less,” she said, adding physicians are also reporting higher job satisfaction, which can also serve as a carrot for doctor recruitment efforts.
Asked by the Albertan if a Link worker was being sought for Sundre, she said that would be more of a next step. For now, she said the question is, “How can the community free up resources to employ a link worker?”
The full-time paid positions don’t necessarily require people with experience in social work, she said.
“Link workers aren’t social workers, typically. They have a really specific skillset, and that’s people and connections and community,” she said, adding they ideally have high inter-personal and communicating skills and are intimately familiar with their community and its available assets.
Sometimes, a client doesn’t follow through with a health-care provider’s instructions to for example get more exercise or eat more healthy.
“And so that Link worker is the person who will find out why they’re not and then walk through it with them,” she said, adding it might simply be that the client is reluctant to venture out alone.
“Our link workers in Innisfail and Sylvan Lake go to aquasize with their clients just to build up their comfort level and to introduce them to people,” she said.
“So, they’ll go three or four times until that person’s comfortable and then they’ll step back, which is commitment because I’ve never wanted to be in a bathing suit during my job!” she said, eliciting a round of laughter from the group.
But Link workers are not about responding to any kind of emergency.
“They’re not crisis intervention,” she emphasized. “These are hopefully more preventative (measures) for people who are ready for change themselves and can self-motivate with the support.”
Healthy Aging Alberta helps fund communities, but each one is different and must individually decide how best to implement the program at the local level, she said, adding guides, toolkits and templates that can be tailored are available.
“We really understand that communities are all different, so everybody has different needs. So, we want them to be able to adapt to those needs,” she said, adding that implementation teams struck by a community that wants to secure a Link worker should be as diverse as possible to include a variety of voices.
“Every community is different and has different needs and different strengths and a different vibe. So, you need to be able to respond to that,” she said.
The initiative in Alberta is much newer than in England, where social prescribing is available to all ages, and was largely spearheaded in Calgary, Edmonton and Lethbridge before slowly but surely branching out more into rural areas, she said.
“Our social prescribing is an anonymous trust, so not funded by the government. But the rest of our work is funded by the government of Alberta,” she said. “Our backbone is the United Way of Calgary.”
The other two presentations were about healthy aging as well as confidence-building, with exercise breaks in between the sessions.
