The former Princeton Fire Hall, on Veterans’ Way, has had many uses over the years. The town is donating part of the building’s space to the Anchorage Program.

ANDREA DEMEERNov. 30, 2017 9:30 a.m.NEWS
Princeton has been without a drop in centre for nearly two years

A clubhouse to serve people with mental illness and addiction will reopen in downtown Princeton after more than two years.
“I am so happy that this is getting going,” said town councillor Rosemary Doughty, who worked on the committee charged with replacing the clubhouse.
“It’s taken a long time and it’s coming together really well. They [clients] can bring their club together again where they have a place of belonging. The Anchorage users have been important parts of our community for years.”

The Anchorage Program – which served about 25 people – lost its drop in center in January 2015 when the building it occupied was sold.
It will be up and running again in March 2018, according to Kevin Fraser, manager of mental health and addiction services for Interior Health.

The Anchorage will have a new location, as well as a new operations model.
The new Anchorage clubhouse will be founded adjacent to the drop in center’s former location, on Veteran’s Way. It is the former Princeton Fire Hall, and has also been used as a teen drop in center and an office for Princeton Family Services.
That building – part of which is also used by the Princeton Gun Club as a shooting range – is being made available at no cost by the town, said Fraser.
“The municipality has been very kind in their offering,” he said.
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From left to right: Marcy Cohen – moderator (health and social policy researcher), Colleen Fuller (health policy analyst,Board of Directors of REACH Community Health Centre in Vancouver), Edward Staples (President of SOHC (Support Our Health Care), member of the BCHC Steering Committee, member of the Princeton Health Care Steeringng Committee, and the South Okanagan Similkameen Community Healthcare Coalition), Dr. Margaret McGregor (Family Physician, Director of the UBC Dep. of Family Practice, Community Geriatrics, a research assciate with the VCHRI’s centre for Clinical Epidemiology & Evaluation and the UBC Centre for Health Services and Policy), Anita Shen (student of nursing and a former youth in government care), Kerrie Watt (Youth Mental Health & Substance Use Prevention Educator with Vancouver Coastal Health)

Questions to Ed Staples, President of SOHC, are in Italic
1. Can you describe the role of the community in advocating for and working with local health professionals to address the gaps/challenges in health services in your and other rural communities, and can you explain why and how primary care reform is seen as key in addressing these problems?

To address the first part, the role of the community, quite simply, is to identify what’s needed and to establish a collaborative and cooperative relationship with all community stakeholders to make change happen.

It is critically important for there to be a “community” voice.  Otherwise, the professionals – the doctors, administrators, and bureaucrats – will view the world as the aggregate of their specific, unique patients, and the formal funding and legal structures surrounding them – mostly government and especially provincial government supported and directed. Continue reading →