Lambton Public Health (LPH) has launched a survey geared toward older adults in order to gain a better understanding of how services can be more accessible and effective.
The Older Adult Care Pathway survey launched on Tuesday and will run until the end of September. The survey will be done as part of the Inclusive Communities Grant Fund after LPH recently received a $60,000 grant from the Ministry for Seniors and Accessibility.
LPH Health Promoter Julie Harries said the survey targets adults 55 years of age and older.
She said they're hoping to have strong community engagement by reaching out through different avenues and not just online.
"We're definitely trying to reach out in some ways that get the message out to people who won't necessarily see it online, so we have the flyers at our vaccine clinics, we have flyers going out through pharmacies, we're contacting some retirement complexes as well," she said. "We also have a lot of community partners that provide services to older adults in the community and they're going to be sharing the message."
Survey results will be evaluated and included in an action plan that will be implemented in 2022.
"Hopefully we'll have everything analyzed by mid-November and from there, we're going to engage in training for community partners and service providers and that's set to launch around February 1, 2022," said Harries. "The next step after that will be to look at our care coordination models and trying to inform that and streamline it so that it's more accessible."
Harries said the survey addresses three of the eight age-friendly pillars developed by the World Health Organization for age-friendly cities. The three pillars addressed include respect and social inclusion, communication and information, and community and health services.
"We're hoping to get the word out there of what we have available and identify things that maybe we don't have right now -- unmet services and needs in the community, and then helping people access them in an easier way," she said.
The survey can be accessed online at shareyourvoice.ca. It can also be done over the phone by calling 1-519-542-7751 ext. 3022.