Name: Kim Young (she/her/hers)
Job Title: Licenced Practical Nurse 
Years of Service: 16.5
Worksite: Cottonwoods Care Centre and Brookhaven Care Centre
Community: West Kelowna
Ancestral Territory: Syilx Nation
Favourite Quote / Advice to live by: “Live, laugh, love” and “Be the person people will remember and appreciate”

Interior Health (IH) has added new community-based supports for policing partners to improve the response for people experiencing mental health and substance use-related crises. These supports include four newly hired outreach liaison clinicians in Cranbrook, Nelson, Williams Lake and Trail.    

Body image refers to how a person sees or perceives their appearance, and the feelings associated with that viewpoint. As humans, we often compare ourselves to those around us and this comparison may affect the way we eat, dress, or treat each other.

Seniors in Vernon and the surrounding areas will have more care options as Creekside Landing Community Campus completes an expansion at its long-term care facility in Vernon.

“People in Vernon and around B.C. deserve good health care at every stage of life and that’s why we’re providing high-quality long-term care,” said Premier David Eby. “This expansion adds more beds in a comfortable, home-like setting. Seniors deserve to age with dignity by receiving the care they need in the city they know and love. These beds also help take pressure off hospital beds in the community.”

People in North Okanagan and Shuswap areas will have improved access to care through a newly established primary-care network (PCN), which will add nearly 75 health-care providers to the region.

“I know many people are worried about access to family doctors,” said Premier David Eby. “The work we are doing in Vernon and the broader North Okanagan and Shuswap region to hire dozens of primary health-care providers will mean more people will get better access to the services they need.”

People in Vernon and the North Okanagan will have improved access to expanded mental-health and substance-use services as the Province moves forward with a new, state-of-the-art in-patient psychiatric unit at Vernon Jubilee Hospital.

Name: Julie Bodden (she/her/hers)
Job Title: Community Integration Care Coordinator
Years of Service: 8
Worksite: Vernon Urgent & Primary Care Centre
Community:  Vernon
Ancestral Territory: Syilx

In a series of landmark studies, the Alzheimer Society of Canada estimates that by 2050 more than 1.7 million Canadians are expected to be living with dementia. That’s triple the more than 600,000 people who are living with dementia today in Canada.

The forecasted increase in diagnoses is expected to have a huge impact on Canada’s health-care system, not to mention the more than one million caregivers who will serve as care partners.

According to the first study:

Oliver and area residents are advised of temporary changes to emergency department hours at South Okanagan General Hospital due to limited physician availability. 

Emergency services will be unavailable from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 27. Patients can access care at Penticton Regional Hospital during this time.

All other inpatient services will continue as normal at South Okanagan General Hospital.

Name: Yvea Zaels (she/her/hers)
Job Title: Project Manager, Hospital at Home Program, Kelowna General Hospital (KGH)
Years of Service:  3.5 years
Worksite:  KGH (and home office)
Community:  Kelowna
Ancestral Territory: Syilx First Nations 
Favourite Quote / Advice to live by: "Conquer yourself."