Seniors in Chinatown need better vaccination structure: advocates
Denied request for shuttle bus program feeds fear many `still being left behind'
A group that has been pressing for a better plan to get COVID vaccinations to hundreds of low-income, vulnerable seniors in Chinatown is disappointed to see its request for a shuttle bus program to the nearest permanent clinic rebuffed, even as one is being rolled out in North Vancouver.
“I just have this growing sense of many seniors still being left behind,” said Michael Tan, co-chair of the Vancouver Chinatown Legacy Stewardship Group, which was appointed by the City of Vancouver in 2019.
This week, Vancouver Coastal Health announced a partnership with TransLink to run a shuttle bus every 15 minutes between Capilano Mall and a vaccination clinic on Lloyd Avenue that is a 10-minute walk away.
“We've been pitching a similar idea to (VCH) for three weeks,” said Tan.
His group would like to see a shuttle running from Chinatown to the Creekside Community Centre in the former Olympic Village, which is a 20-minute walk away. It is the closest full-time vaccination clinic, but it “might as well be on the moon, given many of the seniors' mobility issues,” Tan wrote in a letter to VCH administrators and board members.
“(Another) reason we have been pushing for more local services for accessing the vaccine is because we are seeing this compounding of concern among seniors about anti-Asian racism,” said Christina Lee, a researcher at the non-profit Hua Foundation. “There is definitely an overwhelming feeling of, at least, unease — not for all seniors, but a lot of them.”
In recent weeks, anxieties have grown following a shooting spree in Atlanta that killed six Asian women and the brutal, random punching of a 75-year-old Asian woman in San Francisco who made headlines because she fought back and left her attacker bloodied and hospitalized. One Vancouver woman tweeted about her grandmother being “chased down and attacked in Vancouver Chinatown last week in broad daylight.”
This week, Vancouver Coastal Health set up a one-day pop-up clinic at the Carnegie Community Centre with capacity for 300 vaccinations, specifically for seniors living on their own in Chinatown.
Tan, an accountant at a local tech firm, is also vice-president of the Chau Luen Society, a non-profit society that runs an affordable housing residence for more than 100 seniors on Keefer Street, a few blocks from the Carnegie Community Centre at Main and Hastings.
He spent the past weekend knocking on doors at their building to notify residents of the popup clinic. Some aren't able to walk very well, Tan said, so even with the Carnegie being nearby, he borrowed a few wheelchairs from S.U.C.C.E.S.S., the social services agency.
“We don't have wheelchairs. We're only landlords,” he said.
The estimated 1,900 seniors living on their own in affordable housing in Chinatown and Strathcona cannot afford health care support services such as paid home care that might prioritize their getting vaccinated or flag someone to solve these challenges, said Lee.
Most don't live in a building run by a larger non-profit society with younger, more proactive directors such as Tan.
Wanda Ho of the Vancouver Second Mile Society said the one-day pop-up clinic was planned after VCH explored, but didn't proceed with, community suggestions to run mobile vaccination stations that would go into various low-income and SRO buildings.
“It's good news, but we need more than just one pop-up clinic,” she said.
Ho is less enthused about a shuttle bus to Creekside.
“We'd still have to help so many get through the (phone) booking system. There are few community workers (to help these seniors) and building managers can't really make the calls. Group bookings combined with either pop-up clinics or a shuttle bus would be better.”
Vancouver Coastal Health said in a statement it is in “discussion with community partners to help ensure there are appropriate transportation options for people in the community.”
“While there are nearby vaccination clinics, we understand it can be challenging for this group of vulnerable seniors to access clinics outside their local neighbourhood without support. We've been clear that if anyone faces challenges making it to a clinic, we will help them.”