One in four seniors in Vancouver live alone. Most are women. Many, like 78-year-old Lenna, have lived full lives and worked in helping professions as nurses and teachers. The former social worker, social planner and teacher leads an active retirement volunteering with the Vancouver Art Gallery and as a Book Buddy reading to inner city school children among other activities. “I’m now doing all the things I wanted to do while I was working and couldn’t,” Lenna says. Years ago, Lenna made a living will and it listed someone overseas as her proxy. But she learned/heard that this is not a legal document in British Columbia. She turned to United Way Celebration of Community Award recipient agency, Nidus Personal Planning Resource Centre for help. “A representation agreement is a legally enforceable document and the only way in BC that you can appoint someone to make health and personal care decisions on your behalf if you become incapable,” says Joanne Taylor, Nidus Executive Director. United Way funds the Supporting Seniors’ Independence Through Personal Planning Program, which helps people like Lenna with personal planning. The program works with seniors who are single, visible minorities, and limited by mobility or chronic illness to use personal planning tools to maintain and enhance their independence and give them peace of mind. Today, Lenna’s daughter who lives in the Lower Mainland is her representative. “My children were happy that I did this,” Lenna says. “Your representative makes decision in accordance with your wishes, not their own. So that takes the burden off them and maintains your independence,” says Joanne. Nidus has been able to target their outreach to areas of Metro Vancouver that have concentrations of vulnerable seniors by using research published in United Way’s Seniors Vulnerability Report and follow-up report, Seniors in the Lower Mainland, A Snapshot of Facts & Trends. Nidus, a non-profit organization, is the only community-based resource in Canada devoted to personal planning.
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