By Tom Mark

New Health Resource Coming For Vernon

Dec 27, 2017 | 6:58 AM

Vernon residents will have a new resource to get health information in 2018.

The John Rudy Health Resource Centre Association expects to launch in March.

Founder Chantelle Fairbrother wants to provide a service to help people access, understand and utilize health information.

“What we’ve found in this community as in so many others there’s lots of great services and lost of great health services but people can’t always find them or if they can, if they’re online they may not be able to read it or understand it, so we want to be able to be that bridge.”

The plan is to provide drop-in free service.

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“There will be one-to-one support. There will be somebody there to actually walk you through itg, so it’s not just a matter of coming in and picking up a brochure but actually somebody there to ask you what you’re looking for and then help yopu find those services and help you make that connection.”

Chantelle is putting together a team of experienced health professionals.

” In this case we want to have a trained staff member or two, whatever we can afford, depending on how funding goes over the next few years so that they really get to know the services in the community and have the people skills to do that really quick questioning and finding out what the person is needing and what suits them best.”

Free workshops will also be held on a variety of health-related topics facilitated by qualified health professionals.

Already, organizations are showing their support.

“And on one day of the week we will be located at a certain time at Okanagan Regional Library, the public library. On another day we’ll be at the Schubert Centre.
We’ve also made partnerships with Nexus BC, the People Place , Friendship Centre, the John Howard Society.”

Fundraising is just getting underway and the Association is applying for grants through different sources.

A major fundraising dinner will be held January 13th at the Eagle Hall, celebrating Ukrainian New Year’s Eve.

Tickets are 15 dollars in advance.

You can get those by calling 250 – 938 – 8092.

The Association is named after Chantelle Fairbrother’s uncle, John Rudy Lozinski, who, while he worked all his life, had very little literacy skills.

When he became sick and was living on his own without support, he struggled.

He didn’t understand what his health issues were and underwent several surgeries thinking he had stomach ulcers. when he actually was battling stomach cancer and eventually died.

Chantelle hopes to be able to help other people avoid going through similar troubling times without proper support and fall through the gaps.

by Tom Mark