Scoop May 2025
It is so great to see all the leaves on the trees and flowers appearing in the gardens in the community. Thank you to everyone who puts a great effort into making our community look so beautiful. Here is an update to what is happening with South Shuswap Health Services and Copper Island Health and Wellness Centre. Just as a note to clear up any confusion, South Shuswap Health Services Society is the nonprofit organization that coordinates many health and wellness related services in our community. Part of the work they do includes operating Copper Island Health and Wellness Centre. This is the brick and mortar building that we use to house many of our programs and services. It is a facility that organizations who provide services can use a location to serve you. It is the Centre that facilitates us being able to provide truly local service.
Tax Preparation
Our Senior’s tax program was a great success once again this year. We would like to thank Janet for all her work in processing the returns. The feedback from clients is that this really assists them and makes life easier for them. We will continue this program again next tax season.
Senior’s Lunch Program
We held 2 Senior’s Lunch Programs during the month of April. The first lunch started with a session on Technology Basics. We had 88 people attend the session and the response was outstanding. We followed it up with a pizza lunch from Rancher’s Pizzeria. Thank you so much to Ranchers and Shuswap Lake Estates for supporting our lunch program. The technology session was an excellent way to introduce our new program One on One Computer Lessons for Seniors, more about this program is included in this article. Our second lunch was an Activity Based Lunch. We started with a session on stretching and how to warm-up your body before participating in physical activities. Joyce Sloan a certified instructor led the activity and we all enjoyed a lunch of chicken fingers and salad after the activity. Thank you so much to White Lake Hall and Village Grocer for supporting the program. If you would like to be added to our mailing list, please email us at: sshssprograms@gmail.com Our Senior’s Lunch are held monthly one focused on activity and the other on a topic that most seniors would find helpful and informative.
One On One Computer Training
South Shuswap Health Services Society is once again able to offer One-on-One Computer Lessons. Through our New Horizons Grant, we are able to fund these lessons designed to assist beginner and novice users of technology. This can involve assisting with using Smart Phones, iPads or tablets and computers. Skills like email use, surfing the web, completing online documents, security concerns, file management, setting up a home network and similar skills can all be a focus. This service is provided free of charge and takes place locally. Please email sshssprograms@gmail.com to find out more or register and Eric will be in contact with you. Include in your email what you would like assistance with and your phone number.
Helping the People in the South Shuswap
Copper Island Health and Wellness Centre recently held a strategic planning session on how we can best support healthcare and wellness for people in the South Shuswap. We reviewed our current programs and services and discussed the current needs of community members. It is important to note that many of our services are for all members of the community and we also cater to seniors with some of our programming.The convenience of having services locally like the mobile lab, counselling and immunizations is a real benefit for many families. Please visit our website to see our programs and if you wish to help support keeping these services local buy a membership or make a donation (all available through our websites). If you wish to be added to our mailing list, please email sshssprograms@gmail.com. We are currently exploring new programs we can bring to our community.
The Scoop – January 2025
by Paul Dorin
Happy New Year to everyone from the South Shuswap Health Services Society. We hope 2025 will bring wellness and happiness to all. It is our goal to help support you in ensuring personal wellness. South Shuswap Health Services Society and the Copper Island Health and Wellness Centre offer a number of services to assist with a wide variety of services in our community. These services include: access to a mobile blood lab, immunizations, grief support, mental health support, Farmer’s Market Coupon Program, senior’s lunches with an educational component, income tax preparation for seniors, foot care, yoga and walking programs.
We continue to look for opportunities to bring to our community. Our programs are very popular with community members and often we have waiting lists. With this in mind, we ask if situations change for you and you cannot make an appointment, please let us know with as much lead time as possible. Then we can see if we can offer the opportunity to others. It is very disappointing when we have “no shows”, to appointments or events.
Copper Island Wellness Centre is becoming a real hub for our community. Agencies that are currently using the Centre include: a Pregnancy Outreach Worker, a Community Integration Specialist, a Mental Health and Substance Use Clinician, a Community Integrated Care Coordinator, Form + Function Kinesiology Services, Shuswap Economic Development Society, and an LPN providing foot care. It is great to see the Copper Island Health and Wellness Centre being able to host these services.
Through a generous grant from the United Way, we have been providing “Senior’s Lunches” to residents of the South Shuswap. Please email sshssprograms@gmail.com if you would like to be added to our email list. These sessions are extremely popular, have limited space and are offered on a first-come first -served basis. Our January lunch will be held in White Lake and focus on “All You Want to Know About Pharmaceutical Topics”. Our February Lunch will be at the Shuswap Lake Estates Hall in Blind Bay with a focus on fraud and protecting yourself from victim of many of the financial scams we are experiencing. An email with the details and registration instructions will be sent out in early January and early February.
We would like to thank the Village Grocer for supporting us in providing lunch for our November Senior’s Lunch meeting and Jeramie Auchterlonie from the Shuswap Cardiac Society for the informative presentation. The December Lunch was held at the Sorrento Centre. The focus was on social wellness, we played games and had a fantastic Turkey Dinner with all the Fixings. It was a great way to meet people, and the Sorrento Centre did a fantastic job.
SAVE THE DATE- MARCH 8th, 2025. We will be holding a fundraiser to support the operation of the Copper Island Health and Wellness Centre. It will be a night filled with music and fun! More information will be forthcoming but mark your calendars. We sold out last year!
As the year comes to a close, we would like to recognize and thank some of the many groups that help us in providing our various services to people in the South Shuswap.
– Thank you to all our volunteers who work at the Copper Island Health and Wellness Centre and our off-site locations. These volunteers are the people who make all that we do possible. Their donation of their time is key in the betterment of our community.
– Thank you to the South Shuswap Health Services Society Board of Directors for finding and supporting the wide variety of programs they share with our community. We welcome our new Board of Directors and look forward to the work they will be doing in support of the South Shuswap.
– We would like to thank all our members for your strong support and involvement with our community.
-A special thank you to all who donated to support the services provided.
All the best to you and your family in 2025.