Nakusp Age Friendly Report - Nakusp and Arrow Lakes

41 Pages·2010·3.57 MB·English

Village of Nakusp
Age Friendly Report

March 22, 2010
Acknowledgments
Funding for this initiative was provided through the Seniors Housing and Community
Planning grant program, administered by the Union of BC Municipalities, and funded by the
BC Ministry of Community Development and the Ministry of Healthy Living and Sport.
A sincere thank you is due to the members of the Nakusp Age Friendly Steering Committee.
Your efforts and commitment to your community are inspirational.
• Bea Anton, life long community volunteer and senior resident
• Don Lindsay, new senior citizen resident to the community
• Linda Golds, Site Manager, Arrow Lakes Hospital/Minto House long term care
facility
• Marilyn Boxwell, BC Seniors Advocacy Network (BC-SAN)
• Ray Blanchette, Senior Citizen’s Counsellor, Nakusp Senior Citizens Society
• Susan Gustafson, Arrow & Slocan Lakes Community Services, Halcyon House
Assisted Living Facility
• Trish Cannon, Manager, Arrowtarian Villa
• Ulli Mueller, Councillor, Village of Nakusp and her alternate, Bob Lafleur, CAO
Elaine Gallagher and Faye White of the BC Age Friendly Implementation team provided
helpful guidance as well as a presentation to the community.
Mayor Karen Hamling, CAO Bob LaFleur and the staff of Nakusp initiated this project and
assisted with administrative support.

Nakusp Age Friendly Report
Table of Contents
Executive Summary............................................................................................................1
Introduction.........................................................................................................................2
Age Friendly Guidelines..........................................................................................2
Background.............................................................................................................2
Previous Planning Initiatives and Literature Review................................................4
Age Friendly Assessment Process and Response...........................................................5
Response from the community................................................................................6
Findings and Suggestions .................................................................................................8
What people most appreciated about Nakusp.........................................................8
What people said was most needed in Nakusp.......................................................8
Buildings and outdoor spaces .................................................................................8
Transportation.......................................................................................................11
Housing.................................................................................................................13
Respect and Inclusion...........................................................................................16
Social participation................................................................................................17
Communication and information............................................................................20
Civic participation and employment.......................................................................22
Community Support and Health Services..............................................................24
Conclusions and Recommendations...............................................................................26
Themes that emerged:..........................................................................................27
A bigger idea.........................................................................................................27
Recommendations to the Village of Nakusp Council.............................................28
Appendix A: Review of the OCP ......................................................................................30
Summary of analysis by Committee members.......................................................30
Suggestions for statements to include in the next revision of the OCP..................32
Appendix B: Population by Age Group and Gender.......................................................33
Appendix C: Survey..........................................................................................................34
Appendix D: Communications to the wider community.................................................35
Appendix E: Age-Friendly Resources .............................................................................37
Appendix F: Terms of Reference for Standing Age Friendly Committee......................38

Nakusp Age Friendly Report
Executive Summary
An assessment of the age-friendliness of the Village of Nakusp, BC was completed from
September 2009 to March 2010. The process focused on what currently exists and what is
needed to ensure adults aged 55+ in Nakusp and area remain vital contributors to the
economic and social capacity of the community. Canada’s Age-Friendly Rural and Remote
Communities Guide provided the framework for the assessment and a local age friendly
committee steered the process. The assessment included a review of existing plans for the
community, discussion groups, and a community survey. This all occurred thanks to funding
through the Union of BC Municipalities.
Community response to the assessment was robust and senior citizens were pleased to be
given a voice. Findings indicate that Nakusp already has many desirable qualities and age
friendly characteristics, but awareness of existing resources and activities is limited. For each
of the eight age-friendly categories developed by the World Health Organization, participants
identified priorities, common barriers, and service gaps. They also offered suggestions for
improvement. Primary requests were for:
• Easily accessible public transportation, particularly to out of town medical facilities
• Safe, well lit, and accessible sidewalks year round
• Wheelchair ramps on all public buildings
• Affordable learning opportunities
• Community home support services
• Affordable housing
Certain themes emerged across all categories. These were the desires for greater mobility,
helping senior citizens remain independent in their homes, balancing the needs of youth and
the aged, linking of existing skills to services people want, and enhancing communication.
Given limited government funding for initiatives that support age friendly communities, a
key suggestion is for local agencies or service groups to organize cooperatives that address
many of the age friendly priorities in an integrated fashion.
Key recommendations are specifically addressed to the Village of Nakusp Council, though it
is recognized that involvement by everyone in the community is needed to promote age
friendliness. The findings in this report will be widely distributed to local agencies and
businesses that provide information, products and services to mature residents.
The rapid demographic shift towards a higher average age of residents in the Arrow Lakes
communities is a call to attention. A standing Age-Friendly committee of Council is
recommended to maintain awareness of the priorities beyond the release of this report.

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Introduction
Age Friendly Guidelines
Age-friendly planning is based on guidelines established by the World Health Organization;
an age-friendly community is a community where policies, services and structures related to
the physical and social environment are designed to support and enable older people to live
in a secure environment, enjoy good health, and continue to participate fully in society .
2
The eight key features of an age-friendly community are:
1. Outdoor spaces and public buildings are pleasant, clean, secure and physically
accessible
2. Public transportation is accessible and affordable.
3. Housing is affordable, appropriately located, well built, well designed and secure.
4. Older people are treated with respect and are included in civic life.
5. Opportunities for social participation in leisure, social, cultural and spiritual activities
with people of all ages and cultures exist.
6. Opportunities for employment and volunteerism that cater to older persons’ interests
and abilities are available.
7. Age-friendly communication and information is readily available.
8. Community support and healthcare is tailored to older persons’ needs.
Background
The Village of Nakusp is home to over 1500 people1, and serves almost 5000 residents in the
Arrow Lakes area in the Kootenays. Like many other small communities in BC, the number
of seniors in is on the rise due to numerous people over 55 moving in, and young people
moving away. Over the last 10 years, the median age of the Arrow Lakes population has
increased from 41.0 to 50.5.2

1 Statistics Canada Census 2006 records a population of 1524 for Nakusp. See additional breakdown
by age and gender in Appendix B.
2 BC Interior Health Authority (IHA) Arrow Lakes Health Profile

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Over the next five years, the Arrow Lakes can expect a decrease in the youth population (<20
years) by 17.9%, while the 85+age group is going to experience a growth rate of 41.9%, as
shown in the chart below.

The benefits and challenges of this aging trend are here to stay too.3 Life expectancy in the
Arrow Lakes Health Area rose to 80.4 in 2006. 4
Although the Arrow Lakes LHA is ranked with a low level of Socio-Economic Stress
according to the BC Stats Index 5, the recent economic downturn is leading to more

3 Kootenay Boundary Health Service Area population 65+ as a percentage of total population will
increase from 23.4% in 2010 to 33.4% in 2020 3
4 The Columbia Basin Trust 2008 ‘State of the Basin Report’ indicates that life expectancy in BC has
risen from below 74 years in 1972/1976 to just over 81 in 2003/2007.

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challenges for seniors in the area. Some are supporting their children and grandchildren, as
well as themselves. This added strain, along with the significant aging trend, makes it
important for Nakusp to become age-friendly in order to thrive as a community.
To assist with the process of becoming more age friendly, The Village of Nakusp obtained an
Age-friendly Community Planning Grant from the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM),
with financial support from the Ministry of Community Development and Ministry of
Healthy Living and Sport. Subsequent to an RFP, Affirming Workplace Solutions was
contracted to manage the project. The grant allowed for an inclusive age-friendly community
process to be guided by the ‘Age-Friendly Rural and Remote Communities Guide’ 6, and
with the following goals:
1. Increase local awareness about what seniors need to maintain active, healthy, and
productive lives within the Nakusp community.
2. Encourage diverse groups of seniors to work together toward common goals, and
integrate these with priorities of other generations within the community.
3. Develop an assessment of age friendliness of Nakusp, based on existing planning
documents and consultations with seniors.
4. Produce a practical guide that the Village Council, service and care providers, and
businesses can use to identify common barriers and actions that support the
development of Nakusp as an age friendly community.
5. Submit a summary to Council of seniors needs to support policy development and
planning for adequate services.
6. Provide the foundation for an ongoing age friendly advisory committee.
7. Create long-term opportunities for dialogue and continued consultation with seniors
in local planning
Previous Planning Initiatives and Literature Review
In recent years, there have been some planning initiatives that include recommendations that
would benefit the aging population.
• November 2009, Arts and Culture Scan
• April 2008, The Village of Nakusp adopted a new Official Community Plan

5 The purpose of the Overall Regional Socio-Economic Index is to summarize the results of the six
composite indices by providing an overall weighted average of Economic Hardship, Crime, Health
Problems, Education Concerns, Children at Risk, and Youth at Risk. The Arrow Lakes LHA ranked
‘Low,’ suggesting a low level of socio- economic stress relative to other BC LHAs
6 Found at the ‘Seniors in Communities’ website www.seniorincommunities.ca This document
represents a collaborative effort between the Canadian federal and provincial governments.

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• April 2009 Nakusp and Area Tourism Plan, Community
Numerous resource documents also informed the project:
• Columbia Basin Trust (CBT) 2008 State of the Basin Report
• Interior Health Authority-Local Area Health Profile
• Interior Health Authority-Population Projections
• Nakusp Community Profile, Statistics Canada 2001 and 2006 Census
• Housing Affordability Overview CBT Boundary Region 7
• OCP Resource for Local Governments DRAFT, prepared by the BC Age Friendly
Implementation Team
• Age-friendly plans from other communities
Findings and recommendations from all of the above documents have been taken into
consideration in the preparation of this report.
Age Friendly Assessment Process and Response
To begin the process, local community agencies serving the interests of senior citizens were
invited to participate on an Age Friendly Advisory Committee. Agency representatives
volunteered to become committee members. In addition, senior citizens from the community
at large were invited to ensure diversity of perspectives. Committee members brought a
broad range of experience in areas of health, housing, recreation, employment initiatives,
volunteerism, policing and safety, municipal administration, ministry, journalism, advocacy,
counselling, and training. The committee had a strategic role - to steer the process, provide a
link to diverse networks of age mature residents, and serve as community ambassadors for
the initiative, stimulating awareness and support.
The committee’s first task was to assess the age friendliness of existing plans for the Village
(Official Community Plan, Tourism Plan) using the ‘Checklist for Age-Friendly
Communities’. Recommendations for Village Council were developed. See Appendix A for a
summary of the OCP review as well as suggested statements to include during the next OCP
revision.
Secondly, the committee identified specific items from the age-friendly checklist that
required attention if Nakusp is to become more age friendly. These items formed the basis of
survey questions, which would test the validity of the committees’ assumptions and allow for
broader community assessment of priorities. The survey was distributed to the Arrow Lakes
residents and conducted over a three-week period, ending in December 2009. See Appendix
C for Survey. Three discussion groups were held in parallel with the survey. These were
with:

7 Developed by George Penfold. See http://selkirk.ca/research/ric/housing-resources/

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1. Members of Burton Seniors Association
2. Members of Nakusp Seniors Association
3. Residents of Halcyon House, Nakusp
In addition, an intergenerational assessment was conducted. Leslie Leitch, a teacher at
Nakusp Elementary School, used the survey for a class project. She informed her Grade six
students about the purpose of the age friendly project, and led group discussion about the
situation and needs of senior citizens in Nakusp. Students provided their responses to the
survey questions, based on their experience interacting with seniors. Subsequently, 12 of the
students personally interviewed senior citizens using the survey.
Using survey and discussion group results, the committee formulated draft conclusions and
recommendations. A public information session was held on March 15, 2010 to present the
results of the assessment process and invite community comments. Faye White of the BC
Age-Friendly Implementation Team also presented at the session to increase community
awareness of the provincial age-friendly initiative.
This report was prepared for presentation to the Village of Nakusp, and subsequent
distribution to local agencies and businesses, elected officials, and the general public.
Communication to the wider community continued throughout the age friendly project. See
Appendix D for a list of communications.
Response from the community
114 people participated in the four discussion groups and 173 surveys were completed. The
173 responses represent 31.6% of the total Nakusp population aged 55+ in 2006 or 8.7% of
the total population aged 55+ in the Arrow Lakes Local Health Region. 8 The response rate
was considered strong, likely due to active promotion of the project by committee members
in the community. Some respondents stated they were glad to be asked for their opinions.
Questions covering the eight age friendly categories received different degrees of response.
This indicates that come categories were considered more urgent in the community. These
differences are identified in the ‘Findings and Suggestions’ section.
When responses were filtered for differences between age groups, there were distinct
differences between those aged 55-59 and those aged 84 and over. Though age group
differences did influence responses, they represented smaller population sizes that would not
change overall findings. The combination of all age groups provided representative results
for the community. When responses were filtered for gender differences, there was no
significant difference between them.

8 P.E.O.P.L.E 33 Population Projections, BC Stats, Ministry of Labour and Citizens Services

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Where respondents live
Response Response
Answer Options
Percent Count
Nakusp 66.7% 106
Glenbank/Brouse 12.6% 20
Bayview 3.1% 5
Burton 4.4% 7
Beaton 0.0% 0
Edgewood 0.0% 0
Fauquier 2.5% 4
Other 10.7% 17
answered question 159
skipped question 14
Included in the 17 who chose ‘other’ were people from Crescent Bay, Summit Lake, Arrow
Park, and Hills
Age of Respondents

Gender of respondents
Response
Answer Options Male Female
Count
I am... 64 87 151
answered question 151
skipped question 22

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