living feature
Countless stories have been recounted of
how people’s lives were changed in coming
to the event and how they were connected
with services they hadn’t known existed.
One young gentleman told the Pop-Up team
that his life had been saved that day. “One
of the things we have seen is the majority of
the population coming out to see us at those
pop-ups is getting a need met that wasn’t met
before,” says Cheryl.
Care and service providers have also been
changed by the project in how they view
community needs and work together. “I
think one of the other successes has been
the learning from health care providers. It’s
been eye-opening to see what we are missing
in terms of some of the needs we’re not
addressing,” says Cheryl. “And I think the
ability to be able to support the client to see
more than one of us in a room has been really
good, because if they come to see one service
and some conversations come up and things
happen, usually there’s indication for other
service needs, and that other service is right
there. So we learn from each other a little
bit more about the services that we offer. I
think all of those things will hopefully lead
us to a better place in terms of being more
supportive of people that need us.”
Service and care providers are also excited
about the work they do at this event.
Organizations are now very engaged, reaching
out to the Pop-Up team to see how they can
get involved and offer their services. Shannon
says she has heard many comments from
professionals, such as “This is why I became a
nurse!” and “I feel really useful to these folks!”
“All of these signals [say], this is growing, this
is meeting a need, and that people are excited
to become involved with this. It’s really
become a community-welcome event. It’s a
really neat thing to be a part of!” she exclaims.
After three events, team members are
seeing a difference in how people in the
community are accessing services. “Of the six
sites [in the IMPACT project], Lethbridge is
the rock star. It is truly a community-based
approach. Lethbridge is demonstrating what
cohesive community action can do. Nothing
against the others, we just have a lot going
for us,” says Cathie. “The timing was right
for many of these changes. I think that’s what
makes us excited because we can see things
happening. It’s fun. It’s refreshing. We can use
evidence to support intervention.”
Although successful thus far, the IMPACT
team in Lethbridge has a long way to go
before the project is complete. The team
faces a slew of challenges as they endeavour
to measure the success of the Pop-Ups.
Engagement has been a struggle as they
attempt to reach the population they are
trying to serve. “We weren’t getting to the
right places to engage [the population]. We
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really wanted to understand their needs,
so that was a very big challenge in terms of
deciding what it was we needed to do moving
forward,” explains Cheryl. It is easy to engage
with people who already have a connection
with services, so the team is now working
hard to promote that the event is inclusive
and community oriented.
The group is also working on
sustainability. Once the research project
is over, their goal is to have an established
model of primary health care access that
is completely community sustained and
ongoing. “It’s really about us working
together to fi nd a long-term solution. It’s
been very interesting because we are starting
to see ways that we could work differently
in which we’d be able to sustain this [event]
with resources that we already have,” adds
Cheryl. As Shannon puts it, “We don’t want
to be a fl ash in the pan of somebody’s journey
towards personal health.”
Three Pop-Ups are scheduled for 2017,
and more community engagement sessions
will also be held to review the events and
see if new relationships have been made and
current ones maintained. Later in the year
all six IMPACT teams from Australia and
Canada will compare their data collection
to review commonalities and sustainable
methods.
“[Pop-ups are] better for society as a whole.
We know that if people are able to receive
services they need to remain healthy, in the
long run they’re better able to contribute to
society and support themselves. This is one
of those fundamental pieces to make sure
everyone is able to look after themselves,
and if possible, make contributions to help
others,” says Cathie. The work being done
through this research project is already
building and strengthening connections
in our community. “This isn’t just [about]
health care. It’s all community health services.
It’s about trying to address this need. I think
the benefi ts we’re hoping to see are people
who come to express that it’s a positive
way to engage with services,” she adds. As
these relationships are built, and IMPACT
continues to push the boundaries of how we
access care, perhaps Lethbridge residents can
look forward to a community with just the
right service close at hand.