The first Northumberland Personalized Assessment and Change Education (PACE) talk of 2024 will address the topic of housing and “why eliminating homeless should matter to everyone.”
People can register now to take part in the virtual conversation, which is being held on Thursday (January 25). Called “Why eliminating homelessness should matter to everyone,” the session features guest speakers Jacklyn Pearce, occupational therapist, and family physician Dr. Daniel Pepe, who both hail from London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) in London, Ontario.
The event is being moderated by Dr. Mukesh Bhargava of Northumberland Hills Hospital (NHH). NHH is one of the partner organizations that present the PACE talks.
Bhargava shared his thoughts with kawarthaNOW about the subject of homelessness being the focus of the upcoming talk.
“PACE talks have covered a huge variety of subjects — everything from marijuana to the microbiome,” Bhargava said.
Topics are developed in a variety of ways. Sometimes they’re crowd-sourced at the monthly events during which the moderator will ask for input on future ideas and subjects of interest, Bhargava noted. Ideas also stem from PACE partners and the working committee that reviews the potential ideas and matches them with speakers each year.
“All topics tend to be connected by a tie to health and wellness, and this is a very timely topic for both, not just in Northumberland but across the country,” the doctor said.
Lasting an hour long, each PACE talk consists of a 30-minute talk, a 20-minute question-and-answer period with the guest speakers, and a short moderator summary.
The first speaker, Pearce, is executive director for the office of health system transformation at LHSC. Through her work, she strives to help build everyone’s capacity to solve complex problems “by helping them to walk the path to solutions one step at a time,” a media release about the event stated.
“She is passionate about building inclusive communities, where every person has a place, purpose, and voice.”
The second speaker, Pepe, is the physician lead for the office of health system transformation at LHSC. “Pepe sees the art of the possible in the toughest of challenges and believes that if you do the right thing for each person you see, then success naturally follows.”
Their discussion will explore issues about homelessness, including, “why the path to becoming homeless is a winding road filled with many dead ends” and “what the impacts of homelessness are for you and your community.”
“They will also share their insights into how communities can start building bridges to end homelessness and create a blueprint for shifting hearts and minds,” the release noted.
Questions from the audience will also be addressed during the PACE talk. Questions can be submitted in advance by emailing mbhargava@imcare.ca before January 25, or, if time permits, can be posed live during the event itself.
Advance registration is required, and space is limited to the first 300 registered attendees.
This event is hosted on Zoom, and attendees are asked to login five minutes prior its 5:30 p.m. start time. To register for “Why eliminating homelessness should matter to everyone,” visit www.pacetalks.com.
Northumberland PACE is a collaborative between community health care providers and area residents interested in learning more about, and promoting, health and wellness. PACE began as “a TED Talks-inspired speakers’ series.”
Since 2018, Northumberland PACE partners have been hosting free public education sessions on a broad range of health and wellness topics and have consistently drawn large groups of community members with a variety of questions and perspectives, organizers noted.
NHH, the Northumberland Family Health Team, the Community Health Centres of Northumberland, internal medicine specialists IMCare and local patients and caregivers are all represented at the Northumberland PACE planning table, together with the Ontario Health Team of Northumberland.
