Newmarket Era, November 24, 2016

Page 1

TheEra.

THURSDAY

NOVEMBER 24 2016

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In Photos

Check out the latest community shots from our photographers www.yorkregion.com/photos Steve Somerville/Metroland

Sherwin Jamisola holds his son Syrus at the entrance of an assesssment room, part of the sub-acute care area of the Southlake emergency department.

Events Calendar

Southlake leads way on wait times CHRIS SIMON csimon@yrmg.com

Many other Ontario hospitals can look toward York Region for inspiration when reducing wait times. Newmarket's Southlake Regional Health Centre is top in Ontario for ER wait times - at about 1.3 hours on average. According to Health Qual-

ity Ontario's recently released Under Pressure: Emergency Department Performance in Ontario, the limit patients waited in Emergency to see a doctor in 2014-2015 was three hours. "We are leaders in the province, specifically our door to doctor time, which far exceeds the provincial average," Emergency department director Kim Storey said. "We've found a num-

ber of operational efficiencies and a philosophy change. We're able to react, in real time, to our patients. We're really proud. Wait times translate into quality of care." Southlake's ER handles about 300 patients per day - they're on pace for 111,000 in total this year. That makes the Southlake ER one of the busiest in the province, she said.

Physician schedules are tailored to meet patient needs every day and the doctors are assisted by 'navigators' tasked with organizing some of the routine elements of their jobs. This allows the doctors to focus on providing care, rather than searching for reports or scheduling their time. Also, the

● See HOSPITALS, page A11

See what’s happening by visiting our online community calendar. www.yorkregion.com/events

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HEALTH

Region ‘ground zero’ for growing dementia cases LISA QUEEN lqueen@yrmg.com

Although Teresa Durante learned English after moving to Canada from Italy in 1959, dementia is robbing the senior citizen of her ability to speak her second language. Fortunately, her round-the-clock caregiver, Connie Bertucci, discovered a new day program in Vaughan for Italian-speaking seniors who have been diagnosed with early-stage dementia or Alzheimer's. "We moved (to Woodbridge) to be with the Italian community because I came from Oakville where there was a beautiful program but they were all Englishspeaking and English food and it just made it that much harder," Bertucci said at the official opening of the Calabrian Benevolent Association of Ontario (CBAO) Centre at Islington Avenue and Hwy. 7 as Durante painted at a nearby table with other seniors. "When I found this program, she felt at home in a way because they speak Italian. The environment, she just fit in

and she felt good. I'm so fortunate to find something like this to give me two days off a week. She loves it here, she loves the people, the people are terrific. It means a lot to her. They should have more of these (centres)." With an aging population and a growing number of patients with dementia, there is an increasing need for services, including those that cater to multicultural residents, Loren Freid, CEO of the Alzheimer Society of York Region, said. "The needs are not being met. The dementia population is substantially larger than the services that are here for them," he said. Because short-term memory is the first stage of memory to go with Alzheimer's and dementia, the diseases' victims born overseas often lose the ability to speak the English they learned after moving to Canada and revert to their mother tongues, Freid said. "All of this is a unique challenge here in York Region for a couple of reasons. One is York Region has perhaps the fastest-growing population of seniors across the country," he said.

"While dementia is not a normal part of the aging process, age is its most significant risk factor. So, York Region is essentially ground zero for seeing an increase in people with dementia." There are about 15,000 people in the region with some form of dementia, which is expected to double by 2031. There are about 80 languages spoken in the Greater Toronto Area, according to the Greater Toronto Marketing Alliance. "York Region as part of the GTA forms the largest, most diverse ethnocultural community in Canada so it is extremely important to have dementia programs in the native languages of the people who live here," Freid said. Not only do programs help people with the disease communicate more easily, but they also encourage family members to work with organizations such as the Alzheimer's Society to get their loved one the care they need, he said. The society, a leader in providing programs, including staff able to provide services in different languages, helps about

● See NUMBER, page A11

Mike Barrett/Metroland

CBAO Centre in Vaughan program assistant manager Viviana Lionti (right) works with client Rosa Mancuso, as recreational aide Faustina Gyebi looks on.

COUNCIL

Several councillors oppose new clock tower proposal CHRIS SIMON csimon@yrmg.com Some Newmarket councillors are showing their hand on the Main Street clock tower, days before a crucial public meeting for the development proposal. In a post on his website Nov. 21, Newmarket Regional Council-

lor John Taylor laid out a number of reasons why he's opposing the latest proposal for the site, located at 178, 180, 184, 188, 190 and 194 Main St. S. Last week, town planners released a lengthy report on the project, which included a compromised draft solution that calls for five storeys along Main and seven on Park Avenue.

Bob Kwapis, the councillor for the ward, told The Era Tuesday that he will not support the proposal. The plan calls for four storeys along Main with a "fully glazed" top floor. Six storeys with another "fully glazed" top floor would be built along Park. Taylor will ask council to for-

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mally support a maximum of four storeys throughout the heritage district, "subject to certain conditions". Under Taylor's plan, four storeys would be allowed as long as the development is not directly fronting Main. "I can support four storeys at this location and perhaps at other locations in the Heritage District

as long as the design and supporting studies are reasonable," he said in the post. "I also believe that we need to allow some development flexibility to assist redevelopment on Main. In the end, as always, I must trust my instincts of what is right and what is

● See I WANT, page A2

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