The Health Program’s goal is to shift the power for seeking, obtaining, and maintaining health and wellness services to SSHS member communities.
To provide members with a wide range of services from a variety of health practitioners, the Health Program links into Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) and the First Nations Health Authority (FNHA). These relationships allow SSHS members to access doctors, specialized nurses, wound care experts, community health nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists, podiatrists, and occupational therapists.
Health Services
Health services are divided into the two streams the program addresses: Community Health Support Services, and Home and Community Support Services. Currently, services are limited to those offered by our Physiotherapist, Patient Travel Coordinator, and contracted nursing staff, but the Health Program is currently being rebuilt to offer the full menu of services offered under the two streams below.
Community Health Support Services
- Communicable disease reporting
- Health education and awareness campaigns to prevent diabetes
- Health referrals and education
- Health promotion and prevention programs
- Immunizations
- Information on topics such as nutrition, exercise, tobacco use, sexually transmittable infections (STIs) and healthy sexuality
- Nutritional information
- Medication reconciliation
- Support for self-management
- Tuberculosis screening
Home and Community Support Services
- Better At Home (United Way program)
- Community Health Representatives (CHRs) events
- Connecting with the Wellness Coordinators and Discharge Nurses at VCH Hospitals, specialists such as wound clinicians, chronic disease nurses, mental health nurses, and dietitians
- Foot care
- Limited palliative care services
- Linking Elders to Community Health Representatives (CHRs)
- Member advocacy with doctors, hospitals, and health agencies
- Cultural events
- Elder events
- Ongoing health assessments
- Physiotherapy
- Provision of culturally appropriate services
- Regular weekly or monthly visits
- Respite care services
- Review and adjustment of care plans
- Transportation support (Patient Travel, shopping trips and limited Elder transport)
Contact Us
Health Program
Program Lead:
Anita Samuels (Interim)
Registered Physiotherapist