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From the Smoky Lake Signal, April 3, 2002. Lakeland asked to provide more health care in French Lakeland Regional Health Authority, March 27, was asked by St. Paul Region Comite Sante de Lakeland to increase the amount of French language used in social and medical services in the Lakeland region. There are 6,000 Francophones, 15% of the Alberta population, in St. Paul, Lac La Biche, Plamondon, Cold Lake and Bonnyville areas. The Association of Canadian Francophones of Alberta set up a program to promote health care and social services in French, two years ago. They applied for a $90,000 Health Canada grant to do research and hire a co-ordinator, Mrs. Genevieve Daigle, who grew up in Quebec, to coordinate the project. While the health care system throughout Alberta now is mainly Anglophone, it wasn't always that way. The Oblate Fathers, under the leadership of Father Larose, established the first hospital, St. Therese-de-l'Enfant Jesus Hospital in St. Paul in 1926. Because the local work force was lacking at the time, Father Larose asked for help from the Grey Nuns of Montreal, who provided services in French for the next 45 years. But by 1971, there was a lack of religious personnel willing to work in hospitals, so the Grey Nuns transferred the administration to the St. Paul General Hospital District. The number of bi-lingual health professionals has decreased dramatically. The committee, Sante de Lakeland, wants to reverse that trend. Whenever there is a post vacant in the region, as one of the requirements for the job, they want the candidate to be bilingual. Lakeland RHA CEO Pearl Babiuk had difficulty with it. It's hard to find any trained staff, must less bilingual ones. Bilingualism may be an asset, but is not a prerequisite for every job posting. "We're not a bilingual area, we're a multi-lingual area. We're serving a variety of nationalities, and each with similar concerns over their elderly." The committee, Sante de Lakeland, says there is a high geriatrics population in the region and, having spent their lives speaking French, many of the seniors are faced with difficulties when receiving services in a second language (English), particularly as their competence in the second language decreases as a result of the aging process. In March of 2000, thirty bilingual workers in education, health and social services in the Lakeland region attended a health symposium and decided to hire Insight Research and Consulting Corporation to gather data on the Francophone community. With 34 people taking part in a focus group and another 152 families answering a questionnaire, Insight Research found that access to health and social services in the French language is not easily attainable for 75% of the French people who answered the questionnaire. The committee has also purchased a number of bilingual dictionaries to give to facilities to help bilingual professionals work. Most of the practitioners in the area have received their education in English and they need to translate medical terms into French. To continue funding the coordinator and project, the Francophones want the Lakeland Regional Health Authority to apply to Heritage Canada for a $40,000 grant to hire a coordinator for bilingual services, someone who will work to improve the services for the Francophones in the St. Paul, Bonnyville, Glendon region. John Pilipchuk of St. Paul agreed that the older people may have trouble with language, but in his area, they have already worked out their solutions. The French go to the French speaking doctors, while the Ukrainian people line up for the Ukrainian speaking doctor. It's good in St. Paul, but not everywhere, agreed Francophone manager, Genevieve Daigle. They have access to doctors, but what if they want Francophone home care service providers, and Bonnyville no longer has a French doctor, she retired. And there is dentistry and psychologists. All kinds of other services are not provided in French. The Peace River Health District has a Francophone coordinator and they have accessed grants. Lakeland will be contacting them to find out how it works. In the matching grant system, Lakeland's contribution would be to allocate ten percent of the salaries of French speaking workers already working for Lakeland towards the project. No money is needed, it's matching in kind. New federal grants are always welcome. Pat Palechuk, board member from Smoky Lake, said she has a problem with matching grants and programs that end after three years. There is then an expectation that Lakeland will have to keep it going with their own funds. Margaret Wade, the representative from Fort Saskatchewan, is against programs that start and die when the funding dries up. There are always expectations that they should be continued. The dental health program that was available for the last 20 years in Fort Saskatchewan ended last week. We find ourselves in a horrible position of starting things we can't finish. Because of a March 31 deadline for applying for the Heritage Canada grants, the board felt they couldn't delay a decision. They will have management look into the proposal, see how the bilingual hiring would affect collective agreements, see if staff that volunteered on a list of bilingual workers should be rewarded for translating duties. With Lakeland having trouble finding staff at all, limiting the search to staff that could speak two official languages, could be problematic.
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