6 Tuesday, December 17, 2013 Ladysmith Chemainus Chronicle
Chronicle
Opinion
New option for schools addresses more concerns
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YOUR WORDS
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“It provides the best long-term view for the Ladysmith zone.” Aaron Stone, Page 1
T
he new option for school reconfiguration in Ladysmith, unveiled last week by the Ladysmith Extended Consultation Working Group, seems to be the one that takes into account what Ladysmith parents — or at least, the most vocal parents — have said they want the most. Option C — which, most significantly, proposes to close North Oyster Elementary School instead of École Davis Road and proposes to keep Ladysmith Secondary School (LSS) a Grade 8-12 school instead of Grade 7-12 — won’t make everyone happy if it’s adopted by the School District 68 board of education — no option will — but it does address some of the concerns that Ladysmith parents have voiced most loudly — notably, keeping the French Immersion program in Ladysmith, keeping Grade 7 students out of high school and maintaining a sense of community among Ladysmith’s elementary students. This third option comes after two options were presented at two public meetings in late November. Option A and B both see Davis Road closing in the next few years, French Immersion moving to North Oyster, and Grade 7 students moving to LSS. Although this third option won’t make North Oyster parents, who have been passionately and creatively fighting to keep their school open, happy, it is heartening to see that it is a direct response to the feedback the Working Group received at those two public meetings. The group listened to the community members who came to the meetings and tried its best to address their concerns in a way that makes the most sense for the most people. Now, it’s up to school trustees, who will make a decision this Wednesday (Dec. 18) during a public meeting in Ladysmith at 6 p.m. Hopefully they’ve been listening as closely as the Working Group has. —Lindsay Chung
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Calling for improvements to home-based care Our health system was originally designed to deal with the unexpected — an accident or heart attack. That’s why emergency rooms are one of the bedrocks of the system — they are our strategy to deal with trauma. And they are based on the assumption that patients will be healed. People near the end of their lives don’t fit that model or those assumptions. Too often, people with terminal illnesses are rushed to emergency rooms when they face a crisis because there is no other option available. When they need pain management and counselling, all that most health facilities can provide are protocols that demand every attempt be made to save a patient’s life. Families, doctors and patients all want a better system, one focused not just on physical care but also psychological and spiritual care. New Democrats introduced a motion, M-456, in the House of Commons in November to initiate a national program of palliative care. It read: “That, in the opinion of the House, the government should establish a Pan-Canadian Palliative and End-of-life Care Strategy by working with provinces and territories on a flexible, integrated model of palliative care that: (a) takes into account the geographic, regional,
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Jean Crowder and cultural diversity of urban and rural Canada; (b) respects the cultural, spiritual and familial needs of Canada’s First Nation, Inuit and Métis people; and (c) has the goal of (i) ensuring all Canadians have access to high quality home-based and hospice palliative end-of-life care, (ii) providing more support for caregivers, (iii) improving the quality and consistency of home and hospice palliative end-of-life care in Canada, (iv) encouraging Canadians to discuss and plan for end-of-life care.” M-456 follows the work of the Parliamentary Committee on Palliative and Compassionate Care. In 2011,
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the committee recommended that the federal government re-establish a palliative care secretariat charged with developing and implementing a national palliative and end-of-life care strategy. The Conservatives cut all funding to the secretariat in 2007 and it folded. By 2036, the number of Canadians dying each year will grow to 425,000. Right now, 70 per cent of Canadian deaths occur at hospitals. While we are lucky in our area to have the Palliative Care Unit at the Nanaimo Hospital, people from Ladysmith and surrounding communities must travel to visit or help care for loved ones there, which can create hardship. That’s why the motion calls for improving the consistency of homebased care, particularly in rural areas and small communities. The closer to family that patients can be, the easier it will be for everyone. If you want to support this motion, go to my website at www.jeancrowder.ca where there is a petition you can sign. There is a growing consensus among medical professionals, faith communities and average Canadians that we need more palliative care. This motion provides a way forward.
Editor ................................................ Lindsay Chung editor@ladysmithchronicle.com Reporter ................................................ Ross Armour news@ladysmithchronicle.com
Vol. 105, #20, 2013
Office / Accounts / Circulation .. Colleen Wheeler Production Manager......................... Douglas Kent production@ladysmithchronicle.com