Food, pharmaceuticals and paramedicine services are being delivered to some of the more than 400 residents of 性视界传媒鈥檚 .
Options Community Services operates the landmark social housing complex, located on the western edge of Holland Park, on Old Yale Road.
The tallest tower was built in 1972, the extension in 1976.
鈥淏C Housing owned and operated it for many years,鈥� noted Joe Woodworth, senior manager with the non-profit .
鈥淚t鈥檚 a landmark, for sure,鈥� he added. 鈥淭he tower was the first highrise on this side of the Fraser River. I grew up just blocks from here, and because it was such a big deal, a highrise coming to 性视界传媒, we used to come watch it being built.鈥�
Woodworth offered more history about the place.
鈥淭ed Kuhn was a councillor in 性视界传媒 back in the day, an alderman, and he campaigned to get some money to build a seniors facility because there weren鈥檛 that many in 性视界传媒.鈥�
Today, Woodworth welcomes novel things happening at Ted Kuhn Towers, where residents have access to free food through the , can visit a community paramedicine clinic and also get prescriptions filled at a new Healthcare Pharmacy, down the hall from the clinic.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a great need for these programs here,鈥� Woodworth said. 鈥淭here are a lot of seniors here and people who have mobility and medical issues, low income. Sometimes they can鈥檛 get out to get medications or see a doctor, or have difficulty buying food. Bringing these things here, we鈥檝e built a lot of really good partnerships, a lot of hands making it all work.鈥�
The just-opened pharmacy brings prescription medicine and vaccinations to the ground floor of a building where people live, saving them time and effort.
鈥淭his will operate seven days a week, daytime hours to start, from nine to five,鈥� explained Krupen Shah, pharmacy manager. 鈥淚t鈥檚 full-service pharmacy for regular prescriptions, blister packaging, compounding, travel vaccinations, flu vaccines, COVID vaccines, all those things.鈥�
For a couple of years , has helped residents of Ted Kuhn. For a few hours every Wednesday, community paramedics conduct health assessments and give health advice.
鈥淲e deal with a lot of chronic disease management,鈥� explained Chris Michel, community paramedic with BC Emergency Health Services.
鈥淚t鈥檚 kind of like a walk-in medical clinic,鈥� he added, 鈥渁nd what we do is more preventative. We鈥檝e seen a significant reduction in ambulance calls here. There are a lot of vulnerable folks who live here, and this has been a higher-call-volume location for us, responding to calls. We thought, why not try and do some preventative care and see if it makes any impact, and it has.鈥�
Community paramedics work mostly in rural and remote communities of the province, Michel noted.
鈥淭his is the first time we鈥檝e done it in an urban setting in B.C.,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e currently reach around 20 per cent of people of the buildings, around 80 people who visit us. It has been life-changing for a lot of them, and it saves money in the health care system.鈥�
Down the hall from the clinic, residents gather fruit, vegetables, baked goods and other perishables from tables set up for the Food Mesh program, designed to minimize food waste and reduce food insecurity.
鈥淲e run this program every day, Monday to Friday,鈥� said Divender Rai, senior property manager. 鈥淚n a van we pick up around 100 kilograms of food from the Fleetwood Save-On-Foods store.鈥�
The program is great, she says, 鈥渂ecause residents don鈥檛 have to go to the food bank or wait in long lines, they just show up here, have food they can eat right away or stock up for another day.
鈥淲e limit how much each person can take so everyone has an opportunity to get some food,鈥� Rai added. 鈥淲e鈥檝e also noticed that there are some groups of people, neighbours and friends, who鈥檒l come together, get their food, mix and match, and make dinners together. It鈥檚 very communal in that way.鈥�
With rent geared to income of residents, Ted Kuhn is full with a wait list, says Woodworth, who is working on other programs including cooking classes.
鈥淲e鈥檙e building this mobile cooking unit to wheel out in this (recreation) room here,鈥� he said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a camera that comes over the top, and whatever the teacher is doing, we鈥檒l show it on the screen. We鈥檒l teach people knife skills, how to cut vegetables without cutting your fingers, cooking techniques and things like that.
鈥淯ltimately it鈥檚 about teaching people how to eat a little healthier, too, and also be more fiscally efficient with food, to make meals stretch,鈥� Woodworth added. 鈥淲e have a lot of people here that in the last couple of days in the month, they鈥檙e not eating so well because they don鈥檛 have enough money left to stretch the grocery budget. So every little bit we can do helps to get them out of that.鈥�
