Inclusivity a target for Seniors’ Health and Wellness
In its second year, the Seniors’ Health and Wellness Forum continues to evolve to help serve the needs of Edmonton’s seniors and their families and caregivers.
One such evolution is through welcoming the Multicultural Health Brokers Co-operative (MHBC) to the fold.
The MHBC provides help with social issues and family support for immigrant and refugee families who are trying to get settled in Edmonton, explained Nuel Han with Age of Wisdom Collective Project.
Currently, the MHBC works with more than 25 ethnic communities around Edmonton.
“Thankfully this number is growing because Edmonton is becoming one of the largest cities in Canada and it’s attracting a lot of international demographics,” Han said.
The brokers themselves are the lifeblood of the co-operative, she said, as they are the cultural and language liaisons between Edmonton’s ethnocultural communities and the “mainstream.”
It’s an indispensible service the brokers provide, Han said.
“They really are integrated and embedded in their community,” she said. “A lot of the families they support see our brokers as part of their families and part of the community.”
The collaboration between the MHBC and the Seniors’ Health and Wellness Forum is all in the name of making the forum more inclusive, more accessible and more culturally respective.
It’s important to note this goes beyond simple translation into the myriad languages Edmonton’s ethnic communities speak—it’s about interpretation and ensuring the message is delivered in a way that is culturally relevant and appropriate, Han explained.
At the forum itself on Nov. 4, the brokers will be in attendance to get an opportunity to see how the forum works and then bring feedback to the planning committee to come up with ways to make the forum more inclusive going forward, said Carlina MacInnis, communications and project co-ordinator with Sage Seniors Association, which runs the forum.
Having the MHBC and the Seniors’ Health and Wellness Forum working together speaks to the desire to make Edmonton as welcoming a community as possible, Han said. In addition, having brokers visible at the forum will be an outward sign of that desire.
“What I hope seniors would take away from the forum is that Edmonton is an age-friendly city and that means seniors of all kinds of cultural and religious backgrounds are welcome and there are supports available for them,” Han said.