by Mary P. Brooke     |         December 8, 2009

"You keep coming back in spite of getting your head knocked into the sidewalk every day," said MLA John Horgan of what he sees as the unwavering commitment of medical doctors in Sooke, at a lunch hour meeting hosted on December 7 at the District of Sooke council chambers by the Pacific Centre Family Services organization.

Invited attendees were health and social services professionals plus District staff, the Mayor, local educators and service agencies, and local government representatives. The meeting drew 22 participants (including five local medical doctors), seemingly expectant to determine the reasons for "cracks in the system" as one participant put it.

The meeting around one large table was a think-tank to help indentify where medical, health and social providers or systems are not able to deliver the services that are apparently required by local individuals and families. For starters, "we are the largest rural community in BC that does not have a medical health care centre," said Dr. Robin Saunders, MD. Later, Dave Devana (director of finance, District of Sooke), said that the District has requested of Mariner's Village developer to include a medical clinic office space on the main floor of one of their new buildings near the Sooke waterfront (availability date approximately mid-2011), at a lease rate equivalent to what the doctors in Sooke are paying now. The pending Mariner's Village clinic will have room for 12 doctors; Sooke presently has six medical doctors in active practice.

Access to available social support services is spotty at best, according to Dr. Ellen Anderson, as apparently the local offerings and delivery systems change frequently, and no central list is maintained to a current status. Marlene Barry, of the Sooke Region Community Health Initiative (CHI) revealed that the online database for local health services information is under development; a consumer-oriented print document was released earlier this year that is not always readily found by those in need  and becomes outdated quickly.

A regular meeting of family and health services professionals could help organize local services and address particular problems in service delivery, said Mitzi Dean, executive director, Pacific Centre Family Services Association. Dean chaired the meeting and was able to draw some consensus about the need for such regular meetings. Those in attendance would attend, they said, if particular issues were addressed, that otherwise practitioners are too busy to attend frequent think-tanks.

Some discussion centered around the availability of practitioners in the Sooke area, as part of whether service recipients have difficulty getting to Victoria where most counsellors and specialized physicians are located. While the drive on Sooke Road is technically 25 minutes to Langford, and probably 30 to the Victoria General Hospital at Helmcken Road, that relies on vehicle availability, driver availability, and good weather for the challenging drive that is Hwy 14. Other practitioners are located further into Victoria proper, implying a 45 to 55 minute drive depending on traffic. All told, attending medical or social support services in Victoria ties up an entire day for many people, especially if they must travel by bus.

One of the suggestions was for professionals to be lured to Sooke with incentives from the District. On a budget level this might override the budget provisions and responsibility of the BC Ministry of Health (and the Vancouver Island Health Authority as the delivery provider), but doesn't preclude the efforts that the District might make to make Sooke more attractive to part-time and semi-retired professionals in a wide range of health care delivery areas, it was suggested by Mary Brooke, B.Sc.

Some concerns were raised by John Horgan, MLA, that the education system is carrying a shifted burden from the health care system. "How do we protect education from becoming the front line health care provider?," he proposed to the group. Jim MacSporran, Wrap Around Coordinator with School District 62 (SD62) said that "more health care is needed", also elaborating: "We need to get a more even playing field in a the (serviced) family until the necessary health services are available. They're not going to go to Victoria." It was explained that some professionals will not come to Sooke due to a track record of 'no shows' for local counselling or other support service appointments. Sometimes "a talk with parents over the kitchen table" is far more effective. "A lot of these parents are school-phobic," the SD62 rep said.

Horgan also identified "continuity of care" as a problem with the social and health delivery system. Dr. Anderson agreed, adding that services are delivered to children and youth as one group and to adults as another target audience through separate divisions of the health care system, but that a family approach might be more appropriate and effective. Horgan furthered identified curious health budget decisions, such as recently dropping the medical doctor from Belmont Highschool, where one $50,000 salary probably made a significant difference in the lives of many students and families.

A budget decision to drop the Navigator program in Sooke has left a lot of social service needs hanging, according to MacSporran. The Navigator program apparently assisted with keeping teens from dropping out of school, from missing school on a chronic basis, and assisting with issues related to mental health in the teens or their families.

Speaking to the difficult availability of medical services in Sooke, it was Dr. Anderson (one of Sooke's most high profile physicians) who said: "Many Sooke residents don't have a local family physician unless they have a doctor in town (Victoria), who then often won't know the local resources available to their Sooke-based patients."

John Harmer of the Sooke Crisis Centre, talked about tight budgets and having to rely on volunteers. Harmer feels they can make a difference, at least, in how some people start their day. Some services include providing a bus pass into town, helping with issues of paying rent and hydro, and providing warm clothing.

Dean of the Pacific Centre Family Services organization itemized that 12 of the 53 sexual abuse cases (23%) handled in the West Shore and Sooke in 2008-2009 were for scenarios in Sooke, and that 65 of the 229 alcohol and drug related cases (28%) were for Sooke residents.

Following the meeting, the chaplain Gordon Kouwenberg from the local Knox Presbyterian Church said that a new chronic care facility is in the works on land associated with their church on Church Road in Sooke. See Sooke News Mirror story Not for profit... for the community. A day care and more than 50 chronic care beds are parts of the proposed campus of care.   MM
    

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