Sophie Kuijper Dickson, LJI Journalist
The users’ committee responsible for advocating for the rights of residents accessing healthcare services in the Pontiac hosted its first annual general meeting (AGM) on Monday evening at the Shawville CLSC to update the public on what it has accomplished since it formed in Nov. 2023.
After six years without one, the new CISSSO users’ committee was established to work with the three residents’ committees in the region to ensure proper living conditions for people living in long-term care and advocate, more generally, for better health services in the region.
Jennifer Larose, president of the Pontiac users’ committee, explained the committee’s responsibilities in her opening comments at the AGM.
She said they are to ensure users of the CISSSO health and social service network are treated with respect for their dignity, to speak when needed for users to the authorities, to have a particular concern for the most vulnerable groups of users, and to help improve patients’ living conditions.
To do this, the users’ committee works with three residents’ committees who represent people living in the Mansfield and Shawville CHSLDs as well as the long-term care home at the Pontiac Hospital.
Larose said the committee members spent the last 10 months learning their responsibilities, familiarizing themselves with their code of ethics, and looking into the first concerns brought to their attention.
“We have paid much attention in the past months to an issue of great importance to all of our residents, namely the food put on their plates,” Larose said.
“Indeed shortly after our inception, we began to hear stories of wasted food, questionable menus, unrecognizable food items, etcetera, so we decided to look into the matter.”
With some exceptions, the food served at the Pontiac Hospital and the three long-term care homes is prepared in the hospital’s cafeteria and then sent out to the homes.
Larose said members of both the users’ and residents’ committees started collecting evidence of their concerns, including taking photos, speaking to residents, and trying the food themselves.
“It’s being wasted. The patients aren’t really eating it, and if they’re not eating it, it’s bad for their health,” Larose said.
Nancy Draper Maxsom is vice-president of the residents’ committee at the CAP long-term care home, where she first began hearing complaints about the food.
“So then I started to go to the hospital and I ate there at lunch every day for two weeks. It was not really good,” she said, describing soggy, overcooked vegetables, meat that was hard to chew, and meals she said would not be familiar for Pontiac residents. “It was not Pontiac food.”
The users’ committee brought its concerns to CISSSO’s Pontiac director, Nicole Boucher-Larivière. She said while the health network has already been working on improving menu options for two years, bringing changes including more fresh fruit, fresh rather than pre-toasted toast, and a new menu of puréed foods that have been shaped to look like solid food, there is more work to be done.
“I understand the users’ committee, they want to bring it even further, but we’ve been working on this for a long time and we plan to keep working on it,” she said.
Boucher-Larivière noted CISSSO has been circulating surveys to better understand residents’ experience and enjoyment of the food they are served, as well as a survey to be filled out by staff who are tracking what kind of food, and how much of it, isn’t getting eaten. She said the results of these surveys, which should be ready in October, will give CISSSO an indication of what further menu changes are needed.
Boucher-Larivière also said residents can always request to be served the second option for a hot meal, if they don’t like the first option they’ve been served.
For her part, Larose said she feels the committee has been heard. “Now I want to see the results and I want to see if there’s going to be some changes,” she said.
The AGM also featured a talk from Calumet Island native Jean Pigeon, spokesperson for healthcare advocacy coalition SOS Outaouais and the director for the Gatineau Health Foundation.
He spoke of the two critical challenges he believes the Outaouais region faces when it comes to healthcare: namely a lack of provincial funding ($200 million short compared to other regions of Quebec, according to a study he cited from an Outaouais development think tank), and the region’s proximity to Ontario.
Finally, the committee’s secretary treasurer Bruno St-Cyr presented its financial report for the period of Apr. 1, 2023 to Mar. 31, 2024.
The committee began with $66,000 in November. Significant expenses included $5,000 spent on professional support, and another $24,038 spent on hiring human resources to get the committee up and running. Money also went to promotional materials, local advertising, office supplies, and travel expenses, leaving the committee with a $25,925 budget surplus.