Addressing anglo health-care concerns
A health forum held in Pincourt drew an estimated 120 people last Thursday to learn about local English-language health-care services offered in Vaudreuil-Soulanges. The Personalizing Your Future forum was the first of its kind to be held in the Off-Island area, and was co-sponsored by St. Patrick of the Island Parish, Parrainage Civique de Vaudreuil-Soulanges and Réseaux Emploi Entrepreneurship through its Network Partnership Initiative (NPI). The forum featured informational presentations in English from health-related community organizations on topics ranging from health education, end of life planning, caregiver respite, palliative care, healthy diets, elder abuse and conditions such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s. The event was organized by parishioners Mary Martin and Natalia Westphal, with assistance from Health Canada program coordinator Fred Agnew. Agnew is the local contact for the Network Partnership Initiative, a national program to improve awareness and access to health and social services in official-language minority communities. Agnew noted the 2016 census revealed there are almost 44,000 native English speakers in VaudreuilSoulanges — an increase of 17 per cent since 2011. Although most anglophones in Vaudreuil-Soulanges are bilingual, he said people generally feel more comfortable expressing important concerns in their native tongue. “The idea is to get the word out that those services do exist and that we have the right to ask for them,” said Agnew. “It’s actually written in the laws of Quebec, as well as federally, that we have this right, and the same is true outside of Quebec for French speakers in English regions.” Martin said she had longed dreamed of organizing an event like this to raise awareness of English services. Because the names of many community health organizations are in French, she said, people often mistakenly assume services are not offered in English. “It’s so much easier to deal with health or social services issues in your mother tongue,” said Martin. “Most people here can speak French. That’s not the issue. But when you’re really sick or under a lot of stress you want to be able to speak in your own language.” Agnew said organizers are now looking at creating a follow-up to the event this fall in a larger hall, as some interested organizations had to be turned away due to a lack of space. For more information, call 450-424-5727.