By Ruby Pratka
Local Journalism Initiative
The Bedford Pole Community Health Committee (CCSPB) is organizing the first edition of Parlons Santé/Let’s Talk Health, a health fair to be held on Saturday, Aug. 23 from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., in front of the entrance to the Bedford CLSC/CHSLD. The event is organized in partnership with the CIUSSS de L’Estrie-CHUS. Participants will have the chance to discover services offered by several nonprofits working with seniors and other vulnerable populations, and by the CLSC itself. Health professionals and CIUSSS personnel will be onsite to answer people’s questions and give guided tours of the CLSC. A dozen community organizations will have kiosks onsite, and tours in English will be available if there is demand. The event is open to all.
“This project has the potential not only to promote the longevity of the Bedford CLSC, but also to strengthen the links between the population and our region’s healthcare resources,” said CCSPB president Pierrette Messier-Peet. She said she hoped the event would make people more familiar with services available onsite in Bedford.
In light of service cuts at the CLSCs in Knowlton and Sutton, the CCPSB wanted to make sure that the services offered by the CLSC in Bedford are known and used. “We thought, if people use these services, they’re less likely to close,” Messier-Peet said. “There are a lot of services available that the population is not aware of, and the CIUSSS has not done a lot of promotion in the past. We have a walk-in clinic and an X-ray service in Bedford, but people don’t know that, so when something happens, they go to the ER in Cowansville and wait 12 hours and come out frustrated. We want to show people, ‘This is what you have within reach in Bedford.’ The guided tours will not only describe the services but explain how to access them.”
Messier-Peet said the idea came from her experience opening schools in rural francophone communities in Alberta. “We filled the schools when we held open houses and parents could see what kinds of resources were available.” The CCSPB approached the local GMF with the project and doctors and managers there were eager to get involved. The CIUSSS also got on board with what is believed to be a first-of-its-kind collaboration between a community organization and public health.
The CCSPB, which recently became a nonprofit, is focused on maintaining and developing health services for residents of the eight municipalities of the Bedford pole. It was founded in response to the abandonment of the CHSLD expansion project, and it continues to mobilize community stakeholders to improve access to care.