Steinbach appoints task force to help senior citizens stay in city

Mayor Earl Funk announced a task force will be established to help aging senior citizens, who need long-term medical care and want to stay in Steinbach rather than going to far away communities, during a city council meeting on Oct.6.

Funk said he will be appointing Abe Bergen, Carolyn Peters, Audrey Harder, and Tannis Nickel to the board.

“I think we have picked a real winning team,” Funk said. Each one of them has worked in healthcare or with seniors and has done a great job.”

Coun. Susan Penner, who will be the task force chair, said the task force will understand the duration, the frequency and where the residents are being transferred out of the community, and its impact.

“This issue has become much more personal for me over the past several months because of my own family’s experience with my dad being placed in the Morris Hospital while awaiting placement in Steinbach,” Penner said.

Penner said she and the mayor brought the issue of keeping Steinbach residents in the community while waiting long-term placement in a personal care home with the health minister.

She said the goal of the task force is to provide practical recommendations that can be taken to the province because the decisions fall under provincial health care.

“I’m committed to doing this work regardless of the outcome of the upcoming election,” she said. “Our seniors helped build this community. They raised their families here, worked here, paid taxes here.”