Was that sushi – or SWOOS-SHIH – in the park?

By Terrance Hunsley

Huh? Oh, yes, it means the Senior Watch Old Ottawa South (SWOOS) hosted a Windsor Park evening event on August 23 to introduce exciting plans for a Seniors Health Innovations Hub (SHIH).

Leaders of the SWOOS working groups brought a crowd of about 85 interested people up to date on the work of their teams. The work was coordinated at first by SWOOS but now involves people from several neighbouring communities. Present were representatives of community associations in Old Ottawa South, Old Ottawa East, Glebe, Glebe Annex, Heron Park and Alta Vista. When the SHIH is incorporated later this year or early 2024, it will be guided by a board representative of the larger area.

So Where are We Now?

A key component of the SHIH will (we hope) be a nurse-practitioner-led clinic to provide primary care to older adults. As SWOOS co-chairs Anna Cuylits and I explained, at last count the number of central Ottawa seniors “uncertainly attached” to primary care was 7,700 and the number is rising. The SHIH, in partnership with the Centretown Community Health Centre and Perley Health, has submitted a proposal to Ontario Health to establish the clinic with two nurse-practitioners (NPs) and a registered nurse (RN). The clinic could eventually employ up to six NPs.

Why nurse practitioners? Because family doctors are retiring, and younger ones are going into other specialties. Because NPs are licensed to provide pretty much the whole range of primary care and can call on physicians for consultation if needed. Because NPs can be trained up from RNs in about two years – much faster and less costly than doctors. And because NPs can operate in the team approach recommended for seniors’ primary care.

We think it may take some time to convince the province to fund this, but if we get broad community support it can happen. A Community Foundation of Ottawa grant, financially administrated for us by the Southminster United Church, is permitting us to contract with two NPs and an epidemiologist to develop a business case analysis and evaluation framework for the clinic.

Our home care team is just completing, with help from a New Horizons grant being administered by the Ottawa South Community Association (OSCA), a Guide to Healthy Aging in Your Community. It will comprise an expanded and improved online guide hosted on the OSCA website, as well as some 20,000 booklets to be distributed in central communities. Carolyn Inch and Maura Giuliani have been spearheading this effort, with help from volunteers in surrounding communities and from local service organizations.

At the August event, Peter Heyck and Dr. Bruce Wallace described our tech team partnership and a current project involving experts from uOttawa Faculty of Medicine, Bruyère Research Institute, Carleton University schools of engineering, sociology and social work, as well as a private-sector, start-up, technology firm. We are in early stages of developing an app for seniors to manage their health and well-being, and we have a grant from the NRC-IRAP program to help us in this phase.

Angela Davis talked of the community consultations that were carried out by the spin-off housing group, Abbeyfield Riverside Inc. The project has enjoyed strong support from Abbotsford House and aims to develop an Abbeyfield Home to permit some seniors to live communally. Pat Eakins, who has helped to coordinate all the teams, led the discussion period at the end.

Our local councillor Shawn Menard was very encouraging of our work and also announced that the City has recently responded positively to suggestions that they create a Council Liaison for Older Adults.

We were also pleased to have participation of several organizations including the South East Ottawa Community Health Centre, the Ottawa Funeral Cooperative, Carefor, Abbotsford Active Seniors Centre and KDS Village.

The SHIH is at this point still a virtual organization and hopes to find a physical location in the next year.  (All offers gratefully considered.) But our work is advancing, and we are optimistic that we will have a dynamic organization, guided by and serving central Ottawa communities in the near future.

All aboard!

We welcome anyone who would like to help with this work, whether as a board or project team member, as a volunteer taking on a particular role, such as website development and maintenance, research, proposal writing, communications. If your organization can provide some support, we are also grateful for that. Please contact us by email at swoosadmin@oldottawasouth.ca, or at this QR code:

Terrance Hunsley is co-chair of Seniors Watch Old Ottawa South, and an OSCA board member.