1
$
Thursday, April 10, 2014 Freddy & Linda Marks
The Agassiz Y Harrison
Your local
REAL ESTATE AGENTS for
&
Harrison rris rrrison ris i on Hot H t Spri S Spr Springs! pri
Sutton S tt West W t Coast C t Realty Realt
NOTARIES PUBLIC
TheBestDealsinBC.com
604.796.2925
Real Estate Transfers
604-491-1060
office: 604.796.4300
ahobserver.com
|
classifieds: 604.796.4300
|
newsline: 604.796.4302
Golden moment
GREEN ENERGY Vancouver clean tech Ärm testing product in Fraser River
3
JESSICA PETERS / OBSERVER
Blues musician Ken Whiteley (right) invited Andy Hillhouse (centre) on stage at the Harrison Memorial Hall Saturday night, to play the final song, Golden. The concert also featured enthusiastic bassist Dinah D. Hillhouse is the Harrison Festival Society’s new artistic director, and an accomplished musician himself.
PAINTING WITH PATIENCE
Community consulted on health
Two artists featured at Monday Painters annual art show
10
A quarter of local residents visit Chilliwack doctors, survey finds Jessica Peters
Hope, Seabird and Boston Bar. More than 400 people from Agassiz and Harrison filled out a recent survey regarding their health care, and those results were released at the Tuesday night forum. They found that 7% of respondents are "unattached" to a family doctor in Agassiz and Harrison, which is about the average for the entire region. Of those who reported having a family doctor here, however, 25% of them report that their doctor is in Chilliwack. Several even make regular trips to Vancouver area family doctors. Only 17% of those who answered the survey report having no chronic
THE OBSERVER
INSIDE opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 mailbag . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 business . . . . . . . . . . . 9 entertainment. . . . . . . 10 community . . . . . . . . 13 classiÄeds . . . . . . . . . 17
The conversation around improving access to local health care continued in Agassiz Tuesday night at Cheam Village, with a community forum between health care providers and the public. Over the last several months, a program called A GP For Me has been communicating with doctors, nurse practitioners, medical office assistants and patients to pinpoint what's working — and what's not — in local health care. The Chilliwack Division of Family Practice is a big participant in the program, which covers Chilliwack, Agassiz, Harrison,
now open!
NEW ROOTS ORGANIC OREGANO OIL 15ml
$
99
LOWEST PRICE 15. GUARANTEED! $ 29 5.
TRIPLE JIMS ORGANIC C BLACKBERRY APPLE JUICE
This Week’s Specials:
946ml
April 10th to April 16th
Black Sea Health Food & Produce
conditions, and 11% reported themselves to be in excellent health. The top three chronic illnesses in Agassiz and Harrison, according to the survey, are high blood pressure (122), chronic pain (88), and depression or anxiety (62). One of the major dissatisfactions with local patients is that some doctors are only in Agassiz for a two year term. A GP For Me is aimed at providing consistency of care to patients, and a major part of that is ensuring that patients are linked up with a family doctor and doctors within his or her clinic. This can help reduce duplicate tests, misdiagnoses, and medication
NEUREXAN HEEL EL EL 50 Tablets
SEWANTI TRIPHALA A 90 Capsules
$
$
49
13.
ALFA ORGANIC UR COCONUT FLOUR 500g
$
8.89
26.99
G GREEN GIANT NT CARROTS C 22lb bag
$ 29
1.
/eaa
errors. Robert Stam, a community resource nurse and co-chair of the Agassiz-Harrison Healthy Communities Committee, spoke at the forum about this area's major concerns, and highlighted what has been done to improve the community's health. The suicide rate here is 9.7% locally, more than double the provincial average of 4%. The new Help Project is designed to link youth to online resources, through their mobile phones or computers. Alcohol consumption is also well above average here. This community Continued on 2
SISU CAL MAG CITRATES TES TES ASSORTED FLAVOURS 450ml
$
24.89 $ 00 2. KIWI FRUIT 5 for
7078 Pioneer Ave. | 604-491-3106 Mon. - Sat. 9am - 6pm; Sundays 1pm-5pm