Yesterday afternoon saw the Northern Brain Injury Association hold a grand opening for it’s brand new office in the City of Prince Rupert.
The NBIA’s President of the Board of Directors, Cindy Heslop and then their Executive Director, Ryan Challen, spoke on just how impactful it is to have this office up and running;
“For us to have an actual bricks and mortar facility here to create this much of an outreach is absolutely amazing, because the people of Prince Rupert have never been able to access this kind of service before.”
“And not just Prince Rupert, but the outlying communities as well. A lot of the First Nations Communities, Haida Gwaii for example, within the service area are now being serviced by this office, which is phenomenal.”
These amplified supports that the Non-Profit Association has now are thanks to the Provincial Government providing them with enhanced funding.
And the supports that they provide were described by Challen as being pretty interchangeable in order to fit people’s needs, although he clarified that they aren’t licensed doctors;
“There is no limits. One thing with the Northern Brain Injury Association is that we’re very nimble in our supports. There’s no one size fits all approach, we cater our supports to meet your needs. If you need support on a Saturday, Chantel has the ability to do that. After hours? not a problem. We have an ability to really work with people and while we’re not here to fix you, we’re not medical doctors. We’re here to support you with different strategies and help rebuild you after a brain injury.”
CFTK-TV also spoke with one of the case managers for the Association, Chantel Larchse, and she talked about how helpful the new office has been for her work;
“It was just remarkable that actually having a storefront where people could actually come into in order to chat and learn more really opened the doors for people to really open up with their stories, be vulnerable and ask for help. That’s one of the major issues that we find, people don’t necessarily realize that they need help until they start having conversations and realize, I hear what you’re saying because I’m experiencing it. Being able to have this opportunity to have this office in the community is just a blessing. I can see really amazing things happening for the coastal region.”
The Association has other offices in Smithers and Dawson Creek.