Because your voice matters.

Member, YMCA of Northern BC Integrated Youth Services Initiative Family Advisory Team

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Open to Northern Region, Volunteers from Prince George and immediate area

Last updated

Are you family or friend to a youth with mental health or substance use issues (past or present)? Your experiences and insights can help inform and guide our new hub of health and social supports for Northern youth.

Open to: Volunteers from Prince George and immediate area

Lead Organization or Department

YMCA of Northern BC (NBCYMCA).

Aim

By engaging family members in this initiative, NBCYMCA wants to ensure that the Integrated Youth Health and Social Services Hub, being developed in Prince George, is "family smart" and that we see youth in the larger context of their family and community in order to provide meaningful services and improve outcomes.

Level of Engagement

This opportunity is at the level of involve on the spectrum of engagement (www.iap2.org). The promise to you is that the health care partner will work with you to ensure that your ideas and concerns are reflected in recommendations and provide feedback on how your input affected the decision.

Eligibility

  • Volunteers should have lived experience (past or present) supporting youth family members or friends with mental health and/or substance use issues.
  • Ability to speak about their experiences supporting youth without causing further trauma to themselves.
  • Volunteers must be able to work collaboratively with a diverse range of system-level stakeholders, including Mental Health/Substance use clinicians, physicians, families, and other support service providers.
  • Patients should have previously attended a PVN orientation session and signed the Volunteer Agreement. If you have not attended an orientation but are interested please contact Anthony Gagne directly to see if accommodations may be possible.

Logistics

  • Number of vacancies – up to 10
  • Meetings will be held monthly (early evenings) at the Youth Around PG (YAP) building – 1160 7th
  • Meetings will occur in-person, with email/social media being utilized for regular communication between meetings.
  • Commitment is for 6 months, with possibility of renewal beyond this timeframe.

Reimbursement

NBCYMCA will cover transportation costs through bus tickets or gas card (gas card on a case by case basis) as required.  Additionally, they are able to provide an honorarium gift card to acknowledge people's participation. We anticipate a gift card equivalent to $20/hr of meeting time. Gift cards will be provided at the end of meetings.

Background

This opportunity came about through the BC Integrated Youth Services Initiative (BC-IYSI). This is a provincial movement of community agencies, government, donors, young people and families coming together to transform the way young people access health and social services across British Columbia. For more information on the BC-IYSI, please see: http://bciysi.ca/ With this vision, the YMCA of Northern BC successfully applied for funding to lead development of a youth health and social support hub in Prince George in spring 2016. Five sites were selected provincially, one in each health region. Youth and family voices are a key component of the vision for effective and integrated youth hubs and we have committed to seeking and including these voices whenever possible. The goal of the five regional sites (including Prince George) is to establish a branded network of “one-stop shop” youth centres that offer health, counselling, mental health, substance use and social supports, as well as youth and family support and navigation. Sites are anticipated to be operational in spring 2017. Partnering Agencies include:
  • Northern Health
  • Ministry of Children and Family Development
  • Intersect Youth and Family Services
  • Ministry of Social Development and Social Innovation
  • School District 57
  • Prince George and District Elizabeth Fry Society
  • Justice Education Society
  • Prince George Divisions of Family Practice.
  • Services to Adults with Developmental Disabilities
  • Communities Against the Sexual Exploitation of Youth
  • Prince George Native Friendship Centre
  • First Nations Health Authority
  • Youth Forensics

Health Care Partner Contact Information

 

Anthony Gagné
Engagement Leader, Patient and Public Engagement | Northern Interior
250.961.5156
agagne@bcpsqc.ca

 

From Our Community

Christine Wallsworth

Patient Partner, Vancouver

Christine Wallsworth

Patient and family partners should not be a check box on research proposals! They need to be involved right from the start. I know patient and family partners are doing their part by providing their knowledge to researchers from their lived experience.  It’s a win-win for us to work together through PVN to make sure our input drives improvements.

Members of the BCPSQC pose for a team photo at the Quality Forum 2019.

Health Quality BC administers the Patient Voices Network. Using evidence-informed strategies, the Council shifts culture, improves clinical practice and advances person- and family-centred care to support high-quality care for every person in our province.