According to survey results released by Vancouver Coastal Health this week, Bowen Islanders eat lots of fruit and vegetables, have high rates of physical activity and a low rate of sedentary activity in front of television or computer screens. However, the numbers in this survey are not all positive, and do not necessarily reflect the real challenges many Bowen Islanders face when trying to access healthcare services.
Caring Circle Executive Director Colleen O’Neil says the result that surprised her most in the Bowen Island Community Health Profile is that 85 percent of Bowen Islanders have a family doctor.
“We have one full-time equivalent doctor for a full-time population of 3,600 people and with a summer population of close to 5,000. So, advocating for more primary care services is a big part of our mandate,” she says. “And after this report came out, I spoke with Dr. Mark Lysyshyn at Vancouver Coastal Health and he said, look, that’s better than any other community! My response is that people may have a family doctor, but that doesn’t mean they’re actually getting to see that doctor.”
O’Neil says that Caring Circle has been working on the creation of a second survey to that will show the real challenges that Bowen Islanders face in terms of access to care.
“Each community was allowed to include five community specific questions for a larger report, that was not released to the public,” says O’Neil. “In response to our Bowen-specific questions, fifty percent of people said they had some degree of difficulty accessing the care they need, and many said that a lack of programs and services on-island is a part of that.”
Other statistics O’Neil says were surprising to her were the high rates of mood or anxiety disorders (17 percent, as compared with 16 percent in the rest of Metro Vancouver), high blood pressure (20 percent as opposed to 18 percent in Metro Vancouver) and multiple chronic illnesses (7 percent, as opposed to 8 percent in Metro Vancouver).
“To have 17 percent of people say they suffer from mood disorders in a place that is so widely considered to be paradise, where we apparently have such a strong sense of community belonging, well that seems quite high,” says O’Neil. “In my experience, families where one parent has to commute every day suffer from a high level of stress because all of the family responsibilities fall on the shoulder of the partner who stays at home. Meanwhile, the commuting partner has very long days and is equally frustrated. Then you have older people, who become physically isolated... that happens easily when you have limited public transportation and no taxi. Isolation and stress, that may play in to these numbers.”
Bowen Islanders also reported a low level of satisfaction with the maintenance of sidewalks in neighbourhoods and amenities within walking distance. Eight percent of Bowen Islanders walk or cycle for errands as opposed to 20 percent in Metro Vancouver.
O’Neil says that having such numbers should help in advocating for improvements in these areas on a municipal level.
“That’s why this survey was conducted on a community by community level,” she says, adding that Bowen Islanders can expect to be asked further questions in a follow-up survey that will be released in July.
