7:15 PM

Event: Good Health Care, Long Term Care,  & Royalty Fair Share
·         Event:   Community Meeting
·         Time:    7:15 p.m. – 9:15 p.m.
·         Introductions: Mark Sandilands
·         Where:  Southminster United Church 1011, 4th Avenue S
·         (Entrance on 11th Street)

We did well for fundraising here in Lethbridge, but we’d like to be able to build up our campaign fund so we can mount a much stronger challenge for the next election which may be this spring, this fall or next spring–who knows?

During March and April, the Federal NDP will be matching donations to the Lethbridge NDP at 50 cents to the dollar donated. That means, for example, a donation of $400 will result in $600 going into our campaign. The cost to the donor: $100, after tax refunds.

The 6 to 1 ratio works for all donations up to and including $400 ($100 brings in $150, costs $25).

The first event in our fundraising is a Lasagna Dinner on March 25th.

What: NDP Fundraising Lasagna dinner
Where: Country Kitchens (downstairs at The Keg–former Sven Ericksens)
Cost: Tickets are $40 with a $25 tax receipt. $15 for students or underwaged (self-defined).
Schedule:

• 5 p.m.–cocktails
• 6 p.m. Lasagna dinner and speakers (Mark Sandilands and Trevor Harrison, a political sociologist from the U of L.)
• Feature: Silent Auction

For tickets, please email or call me to make arrangements.
________
Mark Sandilands
403-381-4416

If you’re thinking of attending, tickets can also be purchased or picked up from the NDP Office (#103, 519-7th St. S.) March 16, 18, 20, 22, or 23, 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. We need final numbers by the 23rd.
If you have dietary needs, please let us know.

Also, we have a Facebook page.

Lastly, if you cannot attend, please consider making a donation anyway. The Federal party’s matching means a 6:1 ratio of benefits to Lethbridge NDP : cost to donor. Donations can be mailed to the office:
Lethbridge Federal NDP
c/o #103, 519 – 7th St. South
Lethbridge, AB
T1J 2G8

This year again, Tom Moffatt has kindly offered his house at 636 – 19th Street South.

If you have saleable* items:
Please bring them to the sale venue at the following time: Friday, Sept. 18th, 2:30 – 5:30 p.m.
Please put a suggested (reasonable) price on your item, if possible.

We also need sellers, cashiers, and helpers. If you can come on Friday afternoon to help price items and/or on Saturday to work a 3 hour shift, please call Mark Sandilands at 403-381-4416, or email him at marksan@telusplanet.net.

* Especially dishes and other items for students arriving for the semester, antiques, sports cards, camping articles, tools, coins, old books (not encylopedias), comic books (old and new), aprons, salt and pepper shakers, needlework, jewelry, doll clothing and accessories, toys go over big at any time. See http://www.ifg-inc.com/Consumer_Reports/GarageSale.shtml for advice.

PLEASE, do not bring items that are of poor quality. In previous years we have had to haul unsold items to the landfill.

We invite you to join us at the Rally scheduled as follows:.

Location:

Date: June 25, 2009

Time: 11:45 am to 1pm approx.

*Participating groups:
Friends of Medicare, Lethbridge & District Labour Council, United Nurses of Alberta, Womanspace Resource Centre, Council of Canadians, Lethbridge West and East NDP Constituency Associations, and the Lethbridge Public Interest Research Group.

Next, Diane Poynter:

Michelle Day:

Bev Muendel-Atherstone:

Brian Mason:

Brian Mason (continued):

Virgil Grandfield:

Virgil Grandfield (continued):

Brian Mason was in Lethbridge on Monday speaking about this health care issue (pdf) at the Public Library from 7:00-9:00pm. Video of this event is available here and on Youtube.

Here is Virgil’s story (after the jump):

A few nights ago, I discovered my 75-year-old father trying to eat his soup with a knife.

My father — a minister for over 40 years — has Alzheimer’s dementia. The bible he once knew by heart he now struggles with like a child with his first book. He can no longer write letters of prayer and encouragements. His powers of speech are decimated, yet even so,by tangents, fumbles and gestures, he tells us every day that he wants to minister and live.

My father cannot minister again, because Alzheimer’s is killing the reasoning powers and memories he needs to live without constant care. He is sometimes delusional or will turn on his caregivers. He escapes and sometimes wanders into traffic, climbs into a stranger’s vehicle, or falls asleep in a snowbank. He can’t bathe, feed or clothe himself without help. Lately, he has struggled to swallow– a frightening portent of the end. It has only been with constant attention, minute-to-minute care by my family that our father has survived thus far.

Recently, I brought my sick father and exhausted mother to live in my Lethbridge home, which is kitty corner from St. Michael’s Health Centre. Three weeks ago, a kind staff member of St. Michael’s gave me a tour of their locked dementia unit. It was perfect: beautiful facilities, friendly, qualified staff, 24-hour nursing care, secured outdoor gardens, a greenhouse, and even a chapel. My guide also showed me an empty bed.

With the right kind of help literally within sight, I immediately called the Chinook ACCESS number to begin the process of eventually getting dad into a long-term care facility, with St. Michael’s as our primary choice. The agent, however, replied that St. Michael’s cannot be our primary choice because for the last month there has been a directive to stop all referrals to St. Michael’s. She said the government is shutting down the long term care facilities at St. Michael’s as part of a transition of senior care to designated assisted living facilities.

I immediately called an administrator of St. Michael’s to ask why they would give me a tour of the locked dementia unit for my father, if there is already a moratorium on new placements to the facility. The administrator said St. Michael’s had not been informed of the moratorium, but she indicated she was not surprised, “with the way things have been going.”

I have since heard many reasons for this “repurposing” of St. Michaels: that assisted living facilities fall outside of the Nursing Act, and therefore, seniors would have to pay for extra nursing services; that the “Super Board” is shifting nurses from senior care to be able to say there is no nursing shortage in Alberta; that St. Michael’s is slated to become new private hospital in Lethbridge. When things are done so secretly, who can know what, why, or where this is going?

In the next few years, the Alberta government means to cut 7,000 long term beds necessary for dementia patients like my father across the province, as part of the “Chinook Model” for senior care, for which Lethbridge is the guinea pig. Meanwhile, I have found many reports warning of a looming epidemic of Alzheimer’s, with the most conservative estimates predicting rates to triple in the population in the next two decades (www.alzheimers.ca “The Rising Tide”). The government is going one direction while the future is going the other.

This week after a disturbing incident, my father was “certified” and admitted to the hospital’s geriatric assessment unit where he will be treated and observed for 30 days while his placement options are considered. The wonderful nurses in the unit have already noted that dad cannot do the simplest things to care for himself; they, too, have seen him trying to eat his soup with a knife.

I will not allow my father – who has given his whole life to others – go some place where he will have no right to the 24-hour nursing care or protection he needs to survive, where he would certainly die before his time. I have 30 days to show Albertans what their government is doing to their parents and grandparents – that like my father’s dying brain, the Alberta Government is myopically choosing a knife where other tools are necessary.

Please help us remove the knife and keep St. Michael’s and the province’s other 7,000 long term care beds open. We have 30 days.

Sincerely,

Virgil Grandfield

A specialized group of Medical Laboratory Technologists (Cytotechnologists), who work with
pathologists to screen and diagnose pap tests, are concerned with these changes proposed by Alberta
Health Services to move toward laboratory centralization. Their concerns are as follows:

• The pathologists will no longer be able to correlate/compare the gynaecological pap test results with the colposcopy tissue samples. This is especially important with abnormal results. Currently the pathologist reviews both tests together and reports to the family physician the best recommendation for treatment/follow-up. If these tests are separated, the family physician could receive two different reports and recommendations which may lead to patients receiving inappropriate treatment/follow-up.
• It would disrupt the quality assurance programs that are in place which ensure a high quality of service.
• Sending slides away to other regions may slow the receipt of patient results and increase the potential to lose the pap tests.
• It may be the beginning of further centralization of laboratory services.
• It will become more difficult to attract/retain health care professionals in Alberta when there are current shortages.

Please send this completed petition, along with any letters to:

Impact of Centralizing Labs (PDF)

Petition Cytology (PDF).