201807.17
0

HSSQ General Assembly: Interview with Director Eleni Fakotakis

The HSSQ General Assembly was held on Tuesday, June 19th 2018, where last year’s financial statements and the budget for the next fiscal year were presented. On this occasion, we interviewed HSSQ Director Eleni Fakotakis herself:

  • Ms. Fakotakis, what was the outcome of this year’s HSSQ General Assembly?

Our annual general assembly  for 2017-2018, was held in Montreal this year, as we alternate between the regions we serve; last year, it was held in Laval, therefore next year, we will hold our AGA in the South-Shore.  It was successful, we had quorum, almost all the employees and SSHQ Board members were present and a good majority of others who were present, represented the clients of our service.

We presented by overhead projection our Annual Activity report and our financial statements ending March 31st 2018.  The participants were pleased with the activities and the results.  An important highlight was presenting the summary of our Natural Caregiver program in the South-Shore, which completed its first year of existence and helped to increase the number of clients helped in comparison with last year’s results.

Another interesting feature of this AGA was the presentation given by our kinesiologist.  Who explained to participants how to test their fitness level and to be aware of when they have reached a point that they must do certain basic exercises on a regular basis, in order to keep as healthy as possible and to achieve a safe measure of body balance and to prevent falls.

  • How satisfied are you from the progress of your department’s targets during the last fiscal year?

I am very satisfied with the results, we met and in some cases even surpassed our initial targets, we presented 7  conferences and  info-sessions, 12 cafés-rencontres and one inter-generational table-games activity between elementary school children and the elderly .  All our intervention counselors dealt with a total of 1,788 different cases from the four regions (Laval, Parc-Extension, Côte-Des-Neiges and South-Shore).

Going forward,  we need a lot more resources to keep up with the demands and to decrease the waiting time that it takes to obtain help.  Between our two caregiver programs, we provided information about caregiver resources to 709 people through our info mobile or kiosque activities!  Total hours of caregiver consultation offered from Laval and South-Shore offices was  approximately 940 hours.

  • Are there any new partnerships?

There are at least 8 new partnerships or organizations that we collaborate with that have been made, mostly in the South-Shore as we are a lot more present there than ever before.

  • What are your goals for 2018-2019?

Our goals are to concentrate on services to the:

elderly,

to mistreated elderly,

to natural family caregivers of the elderly,

and to the vulnerable and disadvantaged.

We want to continue to help these clients take better care of themselves, to encourage them to participate in our social, recreational, training and support activities and to make them aware of other resources that they can also obtain, that we do not offer.

We want our clients and potential clients to know that when they come to their appointment with one of our counselors, they will be listened to and given an attentive, quality intervention, each time that they reach out to us.

We would also like to have feedback from our clients regarding our services so that we can continue to improve our service.

  • A big part of the services you offer is based on volunteer work. What is your message to them?

A great big THANK YOU!  Our volunteers helped us a lot with our food-bank, recreational and office activities, for example 65 volunteers offered a total of 5,648 hours of service! Without them we would not accomplish so much, they are an important part of our team!