A Castlegar-based advocate for seniors is lobbying for a permanent change in the way seniors' programming in funded in B.C.
Sandi McCreight has been running seniors' programming for almost 20 years now. She has earned a reputation as Castlegar's go-to person for anything related to seniors and does everything from creating fun events to working to prevent elder abuse.
During that time, she has gained a lot of insight into the challenges of providing programming to seniors.
McCreight says the biggest challenge facing almost every seniors program isn't fresh ideas, volunteers, attendance, or transportation – it is securing consistent funding.
"We are doing this vital, important, essential preventative work by bringing people to these programs that keep our seniors at home and healthy and connected, but there are no supports for us to do that other than writing grant, after grant, after grant, and guessing if you are going to get it or not," explains McCreight.
All that grant writing takes a lot of time - time that McCreight says could be better spent providing services. And to further complicate the matter, grants often only allow small amounts on money to be spent on administrative expenses such as paperwork, bookkeeping, and the reports that grant funders require.
Locally, McCreight has been operating the extremely popular IRIS (Increasing Recreation Involving Seniors) program since 2017, but says, "There is still not one dime of funding for the program that I know for sure that I am going to get."
Funding instability recently forced McCreight to make a hard choice at IRIS. The program has provided a monthly lunch gathering for many years that was usually attended at capacity. But the activity was their most expensive regular event. So in order to keep the rest of IRIS's programming running, the lunch events have now been changed to less expensive coffee gatherings.
Better At Home, a local program that helps seniors stay in their home by offering non-medical supports like housekeeping help, never knows whether their funding will be available the following year or not.
McCreight also says some programs are a victim of their own success as some funders only support new programs, making successful programs difficult to maintain.
"The funding needs to be addressed somehow," stresses McCreight, who wold like to see funding coming from health authorities and various levels of government.
It's a topic she recently brought up in her role as a member of the Office of the Seniors Advocate Council of Advisors (COA).
The group is tasked with providing insight into seniors’ issues in B.C. The COA serves as both a sounding board for the seniors advocate as well as a conduit for information and concerns from all regions of the province.
It is made up of 20 members covering all of the province's health authorities and includes people from a wide range of educational, professional, and socio-economic backgrounds. The COA carries a lot of weight with the Office of the Seniors Advocate.
McCreight is one of just a few representatives from small towns and she says it is an honour to participate.
At their most recent gathering in January, which included B.C.'s new minister of health Josie Osbourne, McCreight had the opportunity to emphasize the need for more stable funding during a Q&A session.
If the funding problem isn't solved soon, McCreight fears seniors' programs and services across the province will fail to meet the needs of this vulnerable population.
But McCreight says there are some bright spots in the senior services sector.
While funding dwindles, she says community collaboration is growing.
A meeting delving deep into the issues facing Kootenay seniors was recently held in Castlegar. It included representatives from the non-profit sector, Interior Health, the City of Castlegar, the Regional District of Central Kootenay, Nav-CARE, and several other local programs.
McCreight says that meeting was one of the highlights of her entire career.
"It was amazing, the conversations we had were really great. We talked about a lot of the challenges," said McCreight. "This was the best ... us all being in the room to connect and discuss and address those challenges."
McCreight says that type of collaborative approach – where everything from food security and housing to recreation and elder abuse is looked at by a spectrum of service providers who are willing to work together and support each other's work – is the road to successfully supporting the region's seniors.
