As people age they begin to face a number of challenges in their day-to-day life. But for seniors living in rural areas they can seem overwhelming – and the help sparse. 

This was the concern of some local reverends and members of the United Church, who formed WIFF, the Wellness In Flamborough Forum. Last Sunday, they held a public meeting at the Millgrove Community Centre to showcase the work they have been doing over the last year.
Jan Park, a retired teacher and member of WIFF, described how the group came together.

“There were about three ministers and a couple of other people, and we got together because we were concerned about outreach to seniors,” she explained. “When we finalized our thoughts and talked about possibilities, we had to have a name. So our name was Wellness In Flamborough Forum, WIFF, so we’re the wiffers.”

The focus group has been in place for over a year and the executive, which consists of Rev. Diane Blanchard of Carlisle United Church, Rev. Tiina Cote of Rock Chapel and Rev. Bill Wheeler of Freelton-Strabane, would meet every couple of weeks. Once the group became open to seniors the members would meet regularly, even though getting to the meetings was a challenge for the older members.

“In terms of working with seniors, we found there were a lot of issues around people being able to get to the venues, or scheduling around things like doctors appointments. And they didn’t want to be coming out in the evenings, so it had to be during the day.  You have to have a little mental shift when you’re working with this group of people. They don’t want to travel very far or come out in wintertime and some of them don’t drive a distance, so there are all sorts of issues you have to think about,” Park explained.

One of the projects WIFF decided to take on was joining up with the Community Centre for Media Arts (CCMA) and participating in one of the projects they run as a community initiative through media called Photovoice. Photovoice is a magazine that uses photographs to tell the story of individuals who are facing hardships of many kinds and WIFF developed their own issue called Rural/Urban: Reflections of our communities. Six seniors of WIFF were given cameras to take photos that express the challenges they face due to their geographical placement. The project offered a unique way for them to express their own concerns and to show others what they go through on a daily basis as senior rural residents.

Lloyd Mackenzie, executive director of the independent non-profit organization, attended Sunday’s meeting and presented a video CCMA put together to share the seniors’ stories, through their own photographs and words. WIFF hopes to have the video uploaded on YouTube in the near future as well, which will help raise awareness of the issues faced by rural and urban elderly.

“Originally, Photovoice started with Canadian Mental Health Association in Hamilton and they ran it for three years and than they turned it over to us about three years ago. We take on as many (social issues) as we can, and we also offer sliding  scale,  so  if  they  don’t have a lot of money we can figure out what we can afford to do,” Mackenzie told the Review.  “Or we can come in and do free seminars and say, ‘Here’s what you need, here’s what you can do and here’s how you might want to do that.’”

The Rural/Urban issue of Photovoice displayed the black and white photographs the seniors took, along with quotes that expressed what the pictures were conveying visually. “Leaving your home is hard. Another hard thing about being a senior is having to give up your home. The changes of friends and familiar places. Having to start all over again,” wrote one participant.

The meeting also featured speaker Debbie Christie of the Hamilton Council on Aging, a voluntary, non-profit organization focused on making Hamilton “age-friendly.” The group promotes education, advocacy, value and respect of all elderly populations.

Some of the issues facing the elderly in rural areas include the lack or loss of outdoor green spaces as they are overtaken by new buildings, which often aren’t accessible to the elderly or disabled. Transportation is another key issue facing seniors, whether they are no longer able to drive or find the winter a difficult season to drive in. Lack of efficient snow removal on rural roads and sidewalks also create dangerous situations for elderly and driveways can be long and tough to clear. Lack of public transportation and the cost of a taxi is also a concern.

Christie also highlighted issues such as housing, social participation, respect and social inclusion, civic participation and employment, communication and information and community and health Services.

“We want to be not a voice for seniors, but a voice of seniors,” said Christie. She hopes the council will help educate seniors in Hamilton about services that are available to them. Hamilton is hoping to follow Halton in implementing an information line that people could access to find out what services are available in their local areas, said Christie.

One idea brought up during the WIFF meeting was to create localized and centralized care for seniors, a one-stop shop for many of their specific needs. Another issue raised was the alarming increase in reports of elder abuse, especially financial abuse. Christie encouraged the seniors in attendance to think hard about whom they choose to be their Power of Attorney, and to be aware of financial scams.

Cote sees isolation as the key issue facing seniors in rural areas. “Isolation comes from multiple places; some of the more easily identifiable ones would be accessibility issues…it also comes from people who choose to minimize their previous relationships because they can’t keep their homes up, and their dignity prevents them from socializing the way they did,” she explained, adding that seniors in this situation could then start a cycle of ill health.

Cote also says another unique problem for seniors living in rural areas is the need to travel further to obtain long-term care.

“Moving from a rural area into an urban area creates a whole different dynamic of change that people have to try and cope with, and (they can) become more isolated because they have broken off their relationships,” she explained.

Cote’s interest in the issue was raised when she realized that a large number of Flamborough seniors’ needs weren’t being met.

“I am firmly entrenched in believing that it is the community that helps the community,” she said. “It became about ‘How do we become a vehicle for a community voice?’ And that is when Photovoice came in as an empowerment tool. It seemed to be such a wonderful mesh between figuring out how to give voice to a community to express the needs of itself, and empower people to become that voice.”