Small successes add up to health - CHB

BY SARA KEDDY

Kings County Register

All the “little fingers” of various community health-fostering agencies make it work, said one man congratulating the volunteers on the Western Kings Community Health Board.

Charles Fraser, chairman of the Western Kings Memorial Health Society, said the partnerships between his own group, the CHB and others “reach out and make health happen.”

The CHB held its annual meeting June 11 in Berwick, at the WKM Health Centre.

Guest Steve Hemmingway, a volunteer on the Annapolis Valley Health district health board, also commended the CHB for its work. “It’s a pleasure to work with our five CHBs - but we’re required by law to do it,” Hemmingway said. “The work done by the CHBs makes it easy for our staff to meet critical health needs of our community in our business plan - that all rolls out into a $100 million budget, a year’s worth of work.”

The biggest project in the last year, and continuing this year, is a shared community health planning project. WKCHB chairman Bob Connell says it has “been a huge project, and we think it will set a standard for Nova Scotia, even Atlantic Canada.”

The project started last year, with the five CHBs and AVH setting out plans to update health priorities for 2010. They reviewed survey procedures and questions, which was actually done by telephone through April. The first results are back, and numbers and feedback will be reviewed over the next few months to set the Valley’s overall health priorities for the next few years. “There isn’t really anything we can’t do to create health in our community when we’re all here together,” said Janet Knox, AVH’s chief executive officer.

The WKCHB invited two of its own health-promoting partners, recipients of seed funding for local projects, to come in as guest speakers and describe their programs.

Carson Herrick from the Cornwallis River Pathways Society said the WKCHB’s $750 is going into $48,600 worth of trail upgrades planned this year along the six-kilometre active transportation trail on the old railbed from Cambridge to the Kentville town line. That includes trail resurfacing, signage, rest areas, access barriers and information kiosks.

Jennifer Longely runs the VON’s bereavement support groups in Kentville, Berwick and Bridgetown. The CHB provided funds to the Berwick program, based out out of the WKM the first and third Tuesdays of the month at 10 a.m. She said grief is a journey, and family, friends and professional resources - a family doctor or mental health programs - are busy, often scattered and ready to move on with life perhaps before individuals are ready to be left alone. The funding has provided some DVD and book resources.

Connell said hearing about just these two programs of the handful the WKCHB is able to fund each year is satisfying. “Our annual meeting is an opportunity each year for us to do our business, but also celebrate our accomplishments as a community health board. “We are volunteers, but we take it very seriously.”

Connell was acclaimed as CHB chairman, with Roy Quartermain as vice-chairman and Tina Lonergan as secretary/ treasurer also acclaimed.