B.C.’s 1st Seniors Advocate
Isobel Mackenzie has been appointed as British Columbia’s (and Canada’s) first ever Seniors Advocate. She starts work, officially, March 31st, 2014
This new office will monitor senior services, promote awareness and work with seniors, families, policymakers, service providers, etc. to identify systemic issues and make recommendations on ways to improve care for our aging population.
Isobel will be using her couple of decades of experience, directly working with seniors and their situations, to represent the 700,000 strong B.C. senior population. She is looking forward to establishing a set of priorities and establishing a mandate in the upcoming weeks and months. It is expected that addressing the ‘complex needs of our seniors in B.C’ will compliment the existing B.C. system of supports, as well as provide information ‘to shape policy and provide supports to seniors’. The creation of this office is a solid step towards the governments Seniors Action Plan and Bill 10, the Seniors Advocate Act.
Ms Mackenzie helped grow Beacon Community Services from a small organization to B.C.’s largest not for profit community and senior organization with 1200 staff and 400 volunteers serving 7,000 seniors in Victoria. Their services included home support licensed care, assisted living, Meals on Wheels, independent housing assistance and many other volunteer services. Of particular note was the introduction of a new model of dementia care – Licensed Dementia Care – that has become a national best practice and helped Beacon Community Services to achieve the first certificate of recognition, setting a nationally recognized benchmark for worker safety in the delivery of community care. Ms Mackenzie also served as the B.C. Director of for the Canadian Home Care Association from 2007 to 2011 and contributed advocacy efforts leading to the first successful Work Safe BC Safety Audit for Home Care in Canada. Many additional roles on industry, government and union bodies further point to how she brings a well rounded background to the Seniors Advocate role.
We are glad to welcome Ms Mackenzie to this new role and are looking forward to her helping the seniors of Delta.
