Clearwater and Barriere residents, 65 years and over and living independently, are eligible for services offered through the Better at Home program operated by Yellowhead Community Services.
The program provides assistance to qualified individuals through visiting, prescription pick-up and drop-off, grocery shopping and delivery, food support, transportation to medical appointments, light housekeeping and maintenance, light yard work or snow removal and additional senior resources information and referrals.
"We started the program in Clearwater in 2019 and slowly after that we started to include the Barriere area," said April Christensen, one of the program's two coordinators. "We just recently added a new coordinator and we have eight staff members so the whole team is 10 people." Currently for the whole North Thompson Valley the program is serving about 80 people.
Christensen, who lives in Clearwater, goes to Barriere once a week with the program. "For years and years there was quite a wait list and we were not able to accommodate the clients in Barriere," she said. "It's actually been this year that the funding came in for more services and we have been able to increase our capacity."
If there is a referral that comes in the team has been able to tackle it quickly, she added. "Right away they get their home visit," she said. In the past they had had to refuse some clients because Better at Home did not have the capacity to help them, so she has been trying to contact those clients who may have been turned away before for intake and registration.
Christensen said they are struggling with the snow removal and yard maintenance aspects of the program in Barriere and currently do not have contractor for those services.
"That's our current problem. If we take on a contractor, they have to be insured, they have to have their own proper business. We cannot just hire somebody without any credentials. So unfortunately, in Barriere I could not find anybody."
In Clearwater they do offer the snow removal and yard maintenance.
They have, however, increased transportation to social activities to benefit seniors by keeping them engaged and not isolated.
"We encourage them to be doing social groups and if they are not able to do that because of transportation we definitely could help. Currently we are servicing seniors going to adult day programs in Barriere, which is Mondays and Wednesdays."
The seniors are picked up from home and brought to the Barriere and Area Seniors Drop-in Centre and then given a ride home.
In Clearwater there are no seniors that have requested the transportation services, she said.
"The services are getting better in the North Thompson Better at Home Program thanks to people advocating for it," Christensen said. "United Way put some more money towards it and we're glad we can take in more senior clients. I'm actually really happy about that. For years it was difficult. We'd look at the wait list and it was so long and finally things have changed this year."
