PAC End of Year Message
Dear BC Brain Wellness Program participants,
The mission of the Participant Advisory Committee (PAC) is “to provide a participant perspective towards a comprehensive and integrated approach to brain wellness by guiding future BC Brain Wellness Program (BWP) program delivery, research and education”.
Established in 2021 by Team Leads Yundi Wang and Chelsea Smith, now spearheaded by Brianna Bristow and Regan Campbell, the PAC consists of 12 program participants passionate about making a meaningful difference in brain health: Co-Chairs Shirley Kepper and Sharon Roman; Callie Wong, Jackson Mooney, Teresa Trainer, Wayne Reeves, Howard Sussman, Vivian Fitzpatrick, Catherine McCreary, Kamal Parmar, Elle Darling, & Kristina Sachs-Barrable.
The PAC continues to advise on inclusivity, accessibility, and operations of exercise programs as well as creative and care partner classes. Feedback from the PAC helped us identify and resolve technical difficulties with the adoption of a new booking system. Testimonials from PAC members describing their positive experience with BWP and the profound improvements in their lives because of program participation continue to be utilized, aiding future grant applications. We continue to look at sponsorship opportunities to help provide participants with free access to BWP programs, expand the program province-wide, as well as reduce barriers to educational seminar outreach and clinician research participation for patients with neurological disorders, care-partners and health-agers.
This past year has seen our program flourish, offering 25 online classes and the number of active participants grow to 700. Sadly, the program lost a sentinel lead, Dr. Matthew Sacheli—we wish him the best in his new role, and Dr. Yundi Wang, who is pursuing her medical degree. We would like to thank Matt and Yundi for their dedication since the inception of the program, Our program shines in no small part because of their efforts. We extend a warm welcome to the new leadership of Alisa Hashimoto, who will be taking over as Program Coordinator, with Regan Campbell providing additional support as Co-Lead. We welcome the New Year with new and familiar faces and look forward to engagement from everyone to help our program continue to grow, helping British Columbians achieve better health outcomes.
If you are a present or past participant and have suggestions/testimonials that you would like to share or if you are interested in joining the PAC for the 2023-2024 year, please contact us at brain.wellness@ubc.ca.
On behalf of the BC Brain Wellness Program, the PAC wishes to congratulate all participants on taking an invested interest in their health by attending program classes, educational seminars as well as reading past blogs and viewing archived Wellness Wednesdays. Thank you to the dedicated BWP executive team, instructors, researchers, and volunteers.
Happy Holidays to all!
Cheers,
Your Participant Advisory Committee
