Local Committees

	Each of the seven MRCs in the Estrie region has set up a local consultation committee (table de concertation local) with members representing seniors, community organizations, private businesses, and partners in the health care network interested in the situation of seniors within its territory. The committees are involved in organizing awareness-raising activities; preparing protocols and other relevant documents; ensuring certain municipal, regional, and governmental files are followed up; participating in various specialty shows, events, and gatherings to ensure services do not overlap and to fill in gaps; and creating subcommittees to fight elder abuse within their territories. They speak for the elderly. Each committee’s specific characteristics are presented below.

Coaticook MRC

Table de concertation des aînés de la MRC de Coaticook

Mission

• To promote joint projects aimed at improving and maintaining the quality of life and contributing to the fulfillment of our seniors.

Preventing elder abuse

Fighting elder abuse is one of the committee’s priorities. Different awareness-raising/information activities on this topic are held regularly in cooperation with certain local organizations. The committee is a great vehicle for distributing information to seniors in the MRC. From time to time, resource people are invited to join our monthly discussion/joint action meetings; they give presentations on elder abuse, directly informing committee members.

To reach this local committee, contact :

Julie Grenier, Project Manager
819 849-7716
tcacoaticook@hotmail.com
Rachel Bergeron, Chairperson
819 849-0093

Granit MRC

Table de concertation des personnes aînées de la MRC du Granit

Since December 1990, the Table de concertation des personnes aînées (TCPA) in the Du Granit MRC has been working to promote the autonomy of seniors by bringing them together and giving them a voice, and to improve and create optimal living conditions for them. The various local organizations and/or individuals involved work together to establish action plans to meet the primary needs, concerns, and expectations of the elderly.

Mission

• To promote the autonomy of seniors by bringing them together and giving them a voice, and to improve and create optimal living conditions for them.

Preventing elder abuse

In the spring of 2004, the TCPA created a committee called "Intégrité" with the goal of improving the situation of elder abuse and mistreatment within its territory. The Service d’Entretien Domestique du Granit, the Bouée régionale, the CSSS du Granit, and the TCPA’s development officer formed the core group. Regular cooperation with the Sûreté du Québec’s Du Granit MRC sector and involvement of the Caisses populaires in the Du Granit MRC along the way have helped the group’s efforts.

In the coming year, the committee’s priorities are to :

• Hold a themed writing contest for youth ages 8 to 18
• Highlight World Elder Abuse Awareness Day on June 15 by proposing that a text be read within different local organizations
• Raise awareness and educate instructors and students on the concept of ageism and elder abuse
• Provide training on the financial abuse of seniors for employees in the MRC’S Caisses populaires
• Help promote the PARAVAN project initiated by the SQ in the Du Granit MRC
• Promote the implementation of the PAIR program within its area
• Adapt and present an abuse prevention and intervention protocol with the help of local stakeholders.

To reach this local committee, contact :

Janot Gosselin, Community Organizer
Centre de santé et de services sociaux du Granit
3569 Laval Street
Lac-Megantic, Quebec G6B 1A5
819 583-2572 (ext. 434)
jgosselin.granit@ssss.gouv.qc.ca

Haut-Saint-François MRC

Table de concertation des personnes aînées du Haut-Saint-François

Established in 1991, the Table de concertation des personnes aînées du Haut-Saint-François has the distinctive characteristic of reaching out to people and communities within its territory through its information and/or awareness-raising activities by and for seniors, including lunch discussion meetings and conferences. It travels to towns within its area to meet as many seniors as possible.

Mission

• To improve the overall living conditions and services offered to seniors in the Du Haut-Saint-François MRC.
• To encourage seniors to take part in decisions on topics of concern to them.

Preventing elder abuse

An elder abuse committee, the Comité de prévention des mauvais traitements faits aux aînés du Haut-Saint-François, was created three years ago. It is currently made up of two seniors, one representative from the Service d’aide domestique du Haut-Saint-François, the Centre d’action bénévole du Haut-Saint-François, and the Centre de santé et de services sociaux du Haut-Saint-François, one representative from the Sûreté du Québec, the Bank of Montreal in Cookshire, and one volunteer. Its mission is to carry out prevention, information and awareness-raising activities pertaining to elder abuse within the MRC.

Two years ago, with the cooperation of the Table des aînés de Memphrémagog, the committee developed a prevention and intervention protocol on abuse for community and network stakeholders and organizations, establishments, and financial institutions.

These resources are available in your MRC. Click here for more information!

To reach this local committee, contact :

Maryline Martel, Social Worker
700, Craig St. N.
Cookshire QC J0B 1M0
819 875-3373 (poste 1210)
mmartel.hsf@ssss.gouv.qc.ca

Memphremagog MRC

The Table de concertation des aînés de la MRC Memphrémagog was established in 1991 and is actively involved in several files: creating a resource booklet, preventing abuse, supporting family and informal caregivers, organizing the Seniors’ Day forum, and fighting the social exclusion of seniors.

Mission

• To offer its members a place for discussion and consensus building.
• To promote a positive view of ageing, fight ageism, and encourage seniors to assume their full role as citizens.
• To give seniors the opportunity to identify their options and thus express their needs, clarify the issues that concern them, and carry out joint projects aimed at improving their quality of life.

Preventing elder abuse

In 1996, an abuse prevention committee was created with the following goals :

1. Update information on elder abuse prevention, screening, and interventions
2. Undertake local action pertaining to elder abuse prevention, screening, and intervention
3. Improve the complementary nature and efficiency of interventions carried out by the various partners
4. Update the collaboration protocol and develop new prevention, intervention, and screening tools.

In 2009-2010, the following partners took part in the committee’s work :

• AEIFA (Lucie-Caroline Bergeron)
• AQDR – Memphremagog (Jacqueline Breault)
• Bureau d’aide juridique de Magog (Pierre Thibaudeau)
• Caisse Desjardins du Lac Memphrémagog (Carole Frappier)
• Missisquoi North Volunteer Centre (Angelle Laplume)
• Centre d’aide aux victimes d’actes criminels de l’Estrie (Luce Bourque)
• Centre de santé et de services sociaux de Memphrémagog (Lise Saint-Laurent, Jean Ouellet, Paul Martel)
• PersonnAide (Solange Goulet)
• Régie de police Memphrémagog (Paul Tear)
• Sûreté du Québec – Memphremagog Station (Patrice Grégoire)

The committee boasts a number of achievements, including the development of a prevention and intervention protocol on elder abuse. This protocol was implemented and involves close to 230 stakeholders working in public, community, and financial organizations, as well as senior organizations and Catholic and Protestant parishes. In addition, the committee has been very active in the prevention of financial and psychological abuse through the publication of several documents. You’ll find them in the Tools – Links – Resources section of this Web site.

To reach this local committee, contact :

Josée Fortin, Community Organizer
Centre de santé et de services sociaux de Memphrémagog
819 843-2292 (ext. 2513)
jfortin.mm@ssss.gouv.qc.ca

Sherbrooke MRC

Table de concertation des organismes communautaires
Secteur personnes aînées de Sherbrooke

Created in 1997, the Table de concertation des organismes communautaires, secteur personnes aînées de Sherbrooke, includes more than 17 community organizations working with seniors and contributes to the coordination and development of innovative services, activities, and resources while taking into consideration the responsibilities of community organizations, health care establishments, social services and other local partners.

Mission

• To promote the consolidation of local strengths and the development of partnerships among organizations with the goal of improving the well-being and living conditions of seniors, people with loss of autonomy, and family and informal caregivers in Sherbrooke.

Preventing elder abuse

A committee was specially created to fight elder abuse within the Sherbrooke MRC. Members are: AQDR de Sherbrooke (Isabelle Guérard), AEIFA (Lucie-Caroline Bergeron), Secours-Amitié Estrie (Stéphanie Lord), Service de police de la région sherbrookoise – sécurité des milieux (Nicole Lévêque), CSSS-IUGS and FADOQ – Estrie Region (Martine Grégoire).

In the coming year, the committee’s goals are to :

• Hold a themed writing contest for youth ages 8 to 18
• Publish information on resources in the committee’s calendar
• Design an abuse prevention and intervention protocol in cooperation with various local stakeholders.

To reach this local committee, contact :

Sylvie Gilbert Fowlis, Chairperson
aidecomm@abacom.com

Des Sources MRC

The idea to bring together partners on a local consultation committee to deal with issues concerning seniors and to better coordinate services offered to them came from a decision made in November 1990, following the Forum Consultaction 2000 on social development held by the CRSSS de l’Estrie, today known as the Agence de santé et des services sociaux de l’Estrie.

Initially, the committee was made up of four partners: the CLSC d’Asbestos, the Maison de l’action bénévole (Mabob), the Comité des aînés, and the Association gérontologiques de la région de l’Or Blanc (AGROB).

The Table de concertation services aux aînés des Sources, as it exists today, was created in 1998 as part of a mechanism to implement and coordinate the orientations regarding services to seniors recommended by the regional health board. This mechanism recommended two levels of responsibility: local and regional, the local level being our concern.

Mission

• - To bring together the main stakeholders and actors working with seniors to identify priority issues, and to determine and articulate the services to be improved or supported and the cooperation mechanisms to focus on involving the CSSS des Sources and local partners and organizations.

Preventing elder abuse

Be it via the annual Salon des aînés held in Asbestos, the Info-Jeu carried out in three senior residences in the region in the fall of 2009, the presentation of the theatre-forum "Une réalité à changer" in 2008, the annual publishing of a calendar with relevant resources in the MRC, or the Café des Âges project currently being prepared, elder abuse prevention is the focus of several activities organized by the committee. Prevention through discussion: our theme at the Table de concertation "services aux aînés" des Sources!

To reach this local committee, contact :

Yolande Brousseau
819 828-2367
yolander@abacom.com

Val-Saint-François MRC

Established in 1998 as part of the orientations in the Plan régional d’organisation des services aux personnes aînées (PROSPA) of the Agence de la santé et des services sociaux de l’Estrie (ASSSE), the Table de concertation pour les aînés du Val-Saint-François is a volunteer group of individuals and organizations in the Val-Saint-François MRC whose common goal is to work together for the well-being of seniors and people with loss of autonomy in this MRC.

Mission

• To foster greater collaboration among the different partners of the Val-Saint-François MRC in organizing services for seniors and people with loss of autonomy.
• To promote a positive view of ageing.

Preventing elder abuse

One of the committee’s objectives is to contribute to the prevention and promotion of health among seniors in the MRC. It is from this perspective that the issue of elder abuse is being addressed and a special subcommittee of Table members has been formed. The preventive measures implemented by the subcommittee include the creation of a multimedia presentation on financial abuse of seniors and its presentation to financial institution employees in the MRC. The committee also cooperates with regional organizations, such as the AEIFA, the Table régionale de concertation des aînés de l’Estrie and the Table de concertation contre les mauvais traitements faits envers les personnes aînées de l’Estrie (TCMT) in carrying out various prevention projects focusing on seniors in the Val-Saint-François.

To reach this local committee, contact :

Louise Massé
lmasse@cooptel.qc.ca