LAC LA BICHE - The world had just started opening back up a little more for seniors — and now it’s closing down again. On Nov. 24, Alberta Health Services (AHS) put the province in a state of public health emergency with new restrictions and enhanced public health measures.
Throughout all of Alberta, there are no indoor social gatherings allowed — events which have helped seniors feel less lonely during the pandemic, says the president of the Lac La Biche Heritage Society, Les Diachinsky.
Many of those events - organized by the society, the municipality or family members - help promote a healthy lifestyle.
Restrictions were beginning to loosen in the fall, and some of the society's normal functions were able to slowly emerge, like their regular membership meetings and some coffee and craft get-togethers, he said of the active seniors' centre. Pre-COVID, the Heritage Society would host curling, lunches, seminars, game nights, and more — but now because of the new restrictions they are having to rethink their game plan once again.
Elected as the society president in March this year, Diachinsky says that within a week of becoming the president he was faced with navigating the organization during a pandemic.
“At the Heritage Society, our mandate is to provide activities for seniors and to keep people active. Activities that we have had for many years abruptly came to a stop and we were finding it very difficult,” said Diachinsky.
Virtual age
This made the new president look to other options and seek out government funding so they could hire someone to work on new and virtual ways to reach their members. The Heritage Society was able to get funding through the United Way in Fort McMurray, which is in control of the federal government’s Emergency Community Support Fund, and they hired Mona Federick, as the society's executive director.
Frederick has some plans in place to make sure the communities elderly citizens get support during the second lockdown.
“We’re striking up a volunteer committee and they will go through our membership list and phone some of the members that we think would be most vulnerable, and maybe need assistance and not know where to go for assistance," she said. "We want to establish our contact there so they can call us if they need something."
She added, “Once we get our website going we are thinking of doing virtual paint nights, yoga exercising, chair exercising things along that line, specifically for seniors.”
It’s important for the Heritage Society to evolve and try to reach their members during isolating times, says Diachinsky, as the society was a large part of their week, and a way for them to socialize.
“The Heritage Society was a big part of their life. The programs we had fulfilled a lot of the people, when we managed to get coffee sessions going, we had them once a week and the people that attended were ecstatic that they could get out of the house,” said Diachinsky.
The Heritage Society is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Monday to Thursday. A $10 membership fee is charged to those who get involved with the group.
