On Oct. 21, the local user committee for the regional health care network met at the CLSC in Shawville for its second annual general meeting since forming in 2023. The group serves as a liaison between the regional health authority CISSSO and the general population.
Jennifer Larose, user’s committee president said the group helps citizens know their rights when receiving health care and advocates on their behalf to authorities. They have various sub-committees that focus on the long-term care facilities in the region, as well as other subjects.
“There’s a broad range of things going on in our society and we’re here to help anyone that needs the help,” she said.
Treasurer Bruno St-Cyr gave an update on the group’s financials, which were in healthy shape with around $18,000 in the bank. He said that the majority of their expenses were to purchase advertising in local media to make citizens aware of the committee.
The guest speaker for the evening was CISSSO’s Pontiac territory director Nicole Boucher-Larivière, who gave some updates about the local healthcare network. She emphasized the importance of the user committee in a territory as vast as Pontiac.
“I can’t be everywhere so you guys are my eyes and my ears to let me know what I might be missing, what’s happening and sometimes just share how things work and share good news,” she said.
She said the Pontiac has higher levels of risky behaviour health-wise, as well as lower levels of education in the population than the provincial average.
“We know we’re one of the areas where there’s a high level of drinking, higher level of cigarette [smoking] and vaping, low level of physical activity and a really high level of cardiac disease and pulmonary disease, so our life expectancy is a couple years lower [compared to the province],” she said. “So how as a community can we work to do better.”
She added that the numbers were particularly troubling for young people, with elevated rates of vaping (45 per cent compared to 30 per cent across the province) and low educational achievement (23.4 per cent without a high school diploma compared to 15 per cent province-wide).
“That tells us what we have to work on if we want to improve the health of these [youth],” she said. “They’re our future coming up.”
Boucher-Larivière also spoke about several new services that would be starting at the local hospital soon, adding that they had a new general surgeon start on Sept. 2 (see page five of our Oct. 8 edition).
“So we have started again doing cataract surgery at the Shawville hospital, so we’re quite happy, and we have a second surgeon that is going to be starting doing cataract surgeries with us,” she said. “We also have a gynecological surgeon who comes to Shawville, which is a new service we’re offering.”
In addition, two new family doctors, a couple from Europe, will be starting in the area closer to the end of the year. Boucher-Larivière said they were looking to practice in the Upper Pontiac and Fort-Coulonge area.
Another new initiative comes through the Fondation Santé Outaouais and their Dame du Coeur lottery, which benefits health care facilities in the region. Boucher-Larivière explained that when people purchase their tickets they can type in the code 1009 to have the profits directed towards Pontiac.
