FRIDAY OCT 20, 2017 VOL. 43, NO. 39
$1
including GST
Watch for more online at: WWW.BOWENISLANDUNDERCURRENT.COM
Simple questions
To tackle parenting angst
A good sport
Young islander travels to play rugby, and build bridges
Icebreaker
The C3 ship has seen three coasts, and will appear in Howe Sound this weekend
Community paramedics to start work January 2018 MERIBETH DEEN EDITOR
Matthew Honing (left) with his friends Stella and Jack hanging out in the basketball courts at BICS. Meribeth Deen, photo
BICS rolls-out playground accessibility improvements MERIBETH DEEN EDITOR
It is probably a happy accident, says Jana Honing, that the playground space at Bowen Children’s Centre (BCC) allowed her son Matthew to spend his pre-school days playing happily and independently with his peers. The playground has an as asphalt loop around it where the kids can ride tricycles, and where Matthew could move around easily in his wheelchair. Now in kindergarten at Bowen Island Community School (BICS), Matthew is facing the challenges of a very different play
space, and school administrators are working hard to make that space more accessible for him and anyone else who might have a hard time getting around and want to enjoy the space. “The teachers and staff have been absolutely amazing in terms of doing everything they can to make it work for Matthew and the whole class, and the inside of the school is really quite accessible,” says Honing. “What I’ve realized is that accessibility is the key to inclusion - you can’t play tag with your friends if you can’t get to the place where the other kids are playing. The outdoor space at BICS is the big challenge in terms of accessibility.” continued P9
It was more than three years ago now that the Caring Circle’s director, Colleen O’Neil first heard of the BC Community Paramedicine Pilot Program. “I saw this as a critical opportunity for Bowen Island,” says O’Neil. “I got on the phone right away to try and talk to the person heading up the program. After repeated calls, I finally got someone who wondered why I thought our community needed a service like this. She was surprised to hear that we only had one full time equivalent with regard to a primary care doctor. And she agreed that along with our low physician coverage, our community was vulnerable given that we are a ferry-ride and 20 minute drive from the nearest hospital, have so many seniors, young families, and no medical clinic offering extended hours and regular on-call primary care services.” The BC Emergency Health Services Community Paramedic program was conceived out of union negotiations roughly four years ago. Many rural communities have a hard time staffing paramedics because of low-call volumes, which make it hard to justify hiring people to work the job full time. The Paramedicine Program aims to stabilize the staffing of paramedics and also fill-in the healthcare gaps in rural communities. The idea is, that with some extra training, paramedics can provide basic primary care service to members of the community that complement and assist whatever medical services already exist there. “About one-third of the community paramedics job would be working one-on-one with patients, and that includes things such as risk assessments, taking people’s vitals and helping to navigate the healthcare system,” says Anna Chayba, Training Officer, Community Paramedicine Program. “They would also spend time on wellness programs and healthcare education in the communities. They would only be used for emergency response in specific instances.” The program began rolling out across Northern and rural communities in British Columbia in April 2016. In January, the program will launch, officially, on Bowen Island. “Janis Treleaven and Keith Tyler will be completing their training for this program in early December,” says Chayba. continued P3