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THE GOOD SAMARITANS SOCIETY www.gss.org THE GOOD SAMARITAN SOCIET Y Serving the vulnerable 02 PRODUCTS & SERVICES CB

THE GOOD SAMARITAN SOCIET Y Serving the vulnerable 02 4 PRODUCTS AND SERVICES • The Good Samaritans Society

The Good Samaritan Society, a west Canadian not-for-profit charitable organization, has been providing high-level care to society’s vulnerable for more than 60 years. JULY 2011 • The Canadian Business Journal 5

The Good Samaritan Society, a west Canadian not-for-profit charitable organization, has been providing high-level care to society’s vulnerable for more than 60 years. 6 PRODUCTS AND SERVICES • The Good Samaritans Society

THE GROUP, WHICH operates in and British charity’s mission “is to extend hospitality through Columbia, was set up after an Albertan resident a continuum of care to those in need or at risk”. struck oil on his property and donated money from The organization primarily serves two the resulting windfall to fund the construction of a groups; one of these groups is seniors who are home for local elders, in the process establishing often frail and require around-the-clock care. the Good Samaritan Society. The other group the charity serves is people Today, the organization provides care for with developmental disabilities. thousands of individuals and operates a num- The charity works with government bodies ber of care homes across the two provinces it in targeting care cases and provides relief to a caters. Good Samaritan Society president and health system stretched by geography and an chief executive officer Carla Gregor says that the aging population. JULY 2011 • The Canadian Business Journal 7

“Most of our funding is provided by health its ‘Closer to Home’ campaign, which is helping authorities, mainly from the ministries of health raise funds for the building of the new residen- in Alberta and B.C.,” explains Gregor. “They will tial care centre. “The facility will have 120 beds identify people in need of support and decide on and will provide support to people who have the level of care required by patients. We are one long-term care needs, such as those who are no of the organizations that provide these various longer able to live independently and requiring levels of care and the health authorities will often nursing care,” explains Gregor. refer people to one of our sites.” The Good Samaritan has services spread Philosophical guidance across Alberta and , and in one The members, volunteers and workers of the of those communities, Stony Plain, the charity Good Samaritan Society consider themselves part is currently building a new care centre. To aid of a faith-based organization, says Gregor. “We the construction of the site in the town west of often speak about modelling our services on the Albertan capital , the society launched parable of the good Samaritan and in that respect 8 PRODUCTS AND SERVICES • The Good Samaritans Society

we’re here to extend our own personal services to Alberta and two locations in British Columbia, people at need and at risk,” she states. which include several residential settings. It “We also talk about extending Christian hos- also operates in ambulatory settings, such as pitality and there are Christian values embedded clinics that provide primary care for seniors, into the work we do; the values of the society are as well as running a range of day programs. hospitable environments, healthy relationships Gregor estimates that in total the Christian and servant leadership.” group provides some form of care for more than Gregor says that the organization acts by ex- 6,000 people a year. ample in offering services to others—something “The people we serve vary from those that she describes as originating in its routes as a are very independent to those that have signifi- Lutheran organization. cant health care needs,” she says. “We have everything from clinics for seniors that serve Reaping the rewards people with primary care needs and there’s an The charity runs operations at 34 locations in interdisciplinary team in place that supports JULY 2011 • The Canadian Business Journal 9

with its benefits. “It is rewarding, because we’re doing work that really matters,” says Gregor. “Our job is to improve the quality of people’s care and sustain their quality of life. We know that if our work is done well it makes a difference. “It’s challenging, however, because a lot of our work is publically funded and we’re always challenged in terms of health care spending in Canada—that’s no different in either Alberta or British Columbia.”The organization is overcom- ing the challenges presented by financial and societal circumstances, and is in the process of opening up even more new projects. “We have two other new projects in the communities of Taber and in southern those who continue to live in their own homes. Alberta,” reveals Gregor. “We have also opened “We have various levels of care starting with two new supportive living sites that are provid- what we call ‘’, which covers peo- ing a level of care somewhere between what ple who can live fairly independently and have we would provide to those living independently their own home, but require support of some and what we would give to seniors who require kind in order to live normal lives. “We also have around-the-clock care.” The organization’s ex- what we term ‘long-term care’ or ‘complex care’, panding number of services is reaching out to which covers those individual who have signifi- more and more people across west Canada. In cant health care needs and live in one of our helping improve the lives of thousands of people residential settings,” Gregor adds. who require daily assistance, the Good Samari- The challenge of caring for the vulnerable, tan Society is making the lives of many elderly

elderly and sick, in an area stretching from the and vulnerable Canadians better. CB western coast of Canada to Alberta’s eastern bor- der, is no easy task, but the hard work does come WWW.GSS.ORG 10 PRODUCTS AND SERVICES • The Good Samaritans Society

AS SEEN IN THE JULY 2011 ISSUE OF THE CANADIAN BUSINESS JOURNAL