NEWS

The Edmonton Sun n THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2016

Pilot project helps rural

seniors remain mobile

Mortgage Pre-Approvals

DAVE LAZZARINO

Irene Mailloux recalls the

first thing she saw when she
woke up from a seizurecaused coma more than five
years ago.
Th e d o c t o r wa s l o o king into my eyes and he says,
You realize youve got no
more drivers licence? said
Mailloux, a sparkle in her
75-year-old eyes and a smirk
on her face. I thought, You
could have asked me how I
felt before you told me.
She jokes about it now,
but losing the ability to drive
wasnt easy.
Driving certainly gives you
independence; you go and
you come as you please, she
said. When youve driven
all your life, I found that very
hard.
Fortunately, a group in her
home town of Wainwright
was beginning a pilot project
to start a transportation system specifically for seniors
with the help of researchers at
the University of Alberta.
It was a lot of work, theres
no doubt about that, said
Bernie Buzik, chairperson of
the Wainwright and District
Handivan Society. None of us
had experience with seniors
transportation or handicap
transportation at all. So there
was a steep learning curve.
A decade of research at
the U of A Medically At-Risk
Driver Centre, funded by the
provinces Ministry of Seniors and Housing and steered
by director Dr. Bonnie Dobbs,
was used to streamline the

21

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DAVID LAZZARINO

Irene Mailloux, 75, says the Wainwright District handi-van

has changed her life for the better, allowing her to get around
without depending on her kids. A toolkit to bring more services
like it to rural Alberta communities is now available online.
process of providing a van and
drivers just for seniors.
Within a year of starting the
society, the van was on the
road. They saw 200 passengers in their first four months.
Two years later, that number
climbed to nearly 1,500.
Dobbs hopes a new toolkit
released Wednesday will help
other rural communities do
the same.
Transportation is important to the health and wellbeing of seniors, Dobbs said,
adding though the initial aim
was meant to get seniors to
medical appointments, getting to social events and shopping is just as crucial for their
health.

BY THE NUMBERS

Seniors living in rural communities are particularly disadvantaged when it comes to

alternate forms of transportation, she said.
Dobbs says the toolkit,
which breaks the process of
starting an alternate transportation service into six steps,
and even suggests funding
strategies, can lower healthcare costs and allow people to
age in place.
But for Mailloux, the benefit is more simple.
It changed my life, she
said. What it does for me is
let me have my independence.

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n Number of communities in
Alberta: 608
n Total number of transportation
providers in those communities: 227
n Number of communities with
alternative transportation providers
for seniors: 153
n Percentage of rural communities
with alternate options for seniors:
22%

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