Community
Edmonton community members explore using the Emergency Room as an entry point to transitional housing
Is there a better way than simply releasing a person experiencing homelessness from the hospital back onto the street? It creates an endless cycle of emergency room visits and escalating costs, not to mention the challenges the patients face in having a successful recovery.
As we continue to look for solutions to homelessness in our city, a group of community members from different fields and backgrounds met recently to brainstorm and discuss alternatives to the practice of releasing patients into a state of homelessness.
That’s a long way of saying that if someone experiencing homelessness comes to an emergency room with a need for medical aid, the only alternative once treated is to release the patient back onto the street. The chances of recovery are greatly diminished, while the probability of return visits increases. The costs are severe, both to the person experiencing homelessness and to our ever-more expensive health care system.
Spearheading the initiative is Dr. Louis Hugo Francescutti, a veteran emergency room physician at the Royal Alexandra Hospital and a Professor at the School of Public Health at the University of Alberta.
Watch this short video to hear from some of those involved and to better understand the concept and learn why there is a growing groundswell of support for this idea.
There are many ways that people can get involved with this initiative. It’s common sense that housing and health are interconnected. Finding solutions to chronic homelessness and easing pressure on our health care system is something we can all get behind.
Please contact Dr. Louis Hugo Francescutti directly to learn more about the project and how you can help:
Phone 780.932-7187
lfrances@ualberta.ca
According to the Ethics Commissioner, Trudeau broke ethical guidelines on behalf of a big corporate entity, SNC-Lavalin, and as expected, it appears, everyone is calling for his resignation. I am confused, but hasn’t almost every politician of a major political party, for the last few decades, been advocating breaks for big corporations and the top 1%.
Didn’t Alberta elect a Premier who had to pay an ethics violation fine when he was a federal cabinet minister? Does he not lead a party who had issues with electoral fraud, kamikaze candidate and members issued $75,000 in fines by the ethics commissioner, due to actions during their leadership race?
Was it not a conservative government that supposedly just gave a $4.5 billion tax break to businesses? Was it not a conservative government that was supposedly lowering taxes for the top 1%? Was it not a conservative government(s) that was cutting services to everyone else to pay for these tax breaks?
Here in Alberta was there not lots of promises of jobs to rationalize billions in tax breaks for corporations only to find out that Alberta then subsequently lost 14,000 jobs in July alone?
I am not saying that Trudeau’s actions pressuring the Attorney General to give a deal to a big company is okay, but don’t they all do special deals for big corporations? Don’t we as tax payers subsidize the oil industry, cow tail to unions, pay homage to gun manufacturers, serve the auto industry, and placate the wealthy? The average voter just pays for them.
My wallet sure feels those political fingers. My costs keep going up, while my income hasn’t kept pace.
My mind has tuned out the politicians, and their desire to woo the rich and big corporations, and my heart is focused on the future, and my family.
Scientists and engineers have made great discoveries and given me some great things like cars, computers, cell phones and medical break-throughs but these same non-partisan intellectuals have also made huge unsettling discoveries, and given me causes for concern.
Issues like climate change, reminiscent of second hand smoke, are concerns to our health and our lives but are not given the same level of regard as tax breaks for the big corporations.
Second hand smoke was a major health care cost but tax breaks for cigarette companies and tobacco growers were the demands.
There is an election this fall and here in my riding there is no contest, as the conservatives will win, then become a seat warmer no one hears about, till the next election. My concerns will be ignored, my wallet will get thinner to placate the more well to do.
I do think it is about time to move on from focusing on the wallets of the few and focus on the health of the whole community. The person or party that can convince me that their focus is on the whole, for the future and not on big corporations and the wealthiest in a realistic manner, will get my support and vote.
Will my wallet survive the next election? I hope so, but I cannot be certain. I am worried we might get a Trump-like Prime Minister out of protest and the climate crisis will be pushed back and my wallet will be front and centre for political fingers for another few decades.
Is there another option?
From the Red Deer Regional Health Foundation
The world’s first neurologist in space is coming to Red Deer
The Red Deer Hospital fundraiser also features comedians from CBC Radio’s “The Debaters”
Red Deer Regional Health Foundation is pleased to announce a new event, The Lunch Box Experience, featuring three of Canada’s brightest stars, all coming together over lunch to raise funds for critical equipment for Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre.
Dr. Roberta Bondar, Canada’s first female astronaut and first neurologist in space, will be the keynote speaker on Monday, September 23, 2019 at Cambridge Red Deer Hotel & Conference Centre. To motivate and inspire audiences, Dr. Bondar draws on her remarkable depth of expertise as an astronaut, physician, scientific researcher, author, and leader.
This is Dr. Bondar’s first visit to Central Alberta, and may be your only chance to experience this extraordinary woman in person.
Also performing are Erica Sigurdson and Dave Hemstad, comedians both regularly featured on CBC Radio’s smash hit The Debaters. After lunch you’ll enjoy hysterical standup from both Erica and Dave, plus an episode of witty debater-style banter that will have you in stitches!
Tickets are $125 per person or table of 6 for $700; includes a unique lunch and are available now.
The Lunch Box Experience, formally part of the Red Deer Festival of Trees event line-up (Festival Business Lunch) is a fresh, new business networking opportunity.
Proceeds from this event will go towards ceiling-mounted patient lifts at Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre.
For more information, tickets, or sponsorship opportunities, please visit
The Lunch Box Experience: A Red Deer Hospital Fundraiser
WHEN: Monday, September 23, 2019
11:00am – 1:30pm
Cambridge Red Deer Hotel & Conference Centre
august, 2019
“It has been thrilling to watch Erin Boake mature as an artist,” says Lorna Johnson, Executive Director. “She has mastered her drawing and painting skills and she continues to challenge herself with creative new projects. Hot Mess shows that even the most mundane of household tasks can be fuel for a creative mind and a source of beauty. We are very pleased to present Erin’s work at the MAG.”
Erin Boake was born and raised in Red Deer, where she completed her first two years of visual arts at Red Deer College, before transferring to Alberta College of Art & Design. She graduated with a degree in Painting in 2003. Erin spent many years traveling and living in various communities around Canada and abroad. Between 2008 and 2013, Erin had the opportunity to live and work in Iqaluit, Nunavut, teaching drawing and design at the Nunavut Arctic College. Erin has been teaching art for 17 years, and in the last year, has taken over the role of owner and operator of Artribute Art School, alongside her own studio practice. Erin currently lives in Red Deer with her husband and two small girls, and spends her time doing laundry when she’s not painting it.
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