3000 rides cancelled last year for seniors and disabled people due to ‘old’ accessible vans

OneCare Huron Perth is raising money for new accessible vehicles after their old fleet has become unreliable. CTV London's Scott Miller reports.

Wes Reinhardt relies on One Care to get him to important appointments each and every week.

“I have a rare blood clotting disease and sometimes I need rides to London to see specialists. So, this is pretty important for me. If I can’t find a ride to go there I use One Care,” said Reinhardt.

One Care Home and Community Support Services does a little bit of everything: from delivering meals on wheels, to home care and personal support services. A big part of what they do in Huron and Perth County is help seniors and those with mobility issues get from point A to point B.

“We need to help people get where they need to go - especially in our rural communities. And we help people get to their medical rides, vital things like dialysis, and to our adult program which we know combats social isolation as well as provides caregiver respite,” said Huron-Perth One Care Executive Director Stephanie Ellens-Clark.

Last year One Care Huron-Perth provided 49,650 rides using their 16 accessible vehicles, however, more than 3,000 rides had to be cancelled due to older vehicles in need of vital and costly repairs.

“We had two vehicles in the last couple of months that had to have their engines replaced. So this is an ongoing issue that we need to rectify,” said Ellens-Clark at One Care’s Huron County headquarters in Clinton.

One Care says they urgently need to replace three of their accessible vans as soon as possible in order to maintain their current level of service.

Eighty per cent of their $14,950,000 budget comes from the Ministry of Health, but the rest is covered by client fees and fundraising - which One Care is in the midst of trying to do now to help pay for new vehicles, and keep the ones they have on the road.

“So our campaign is ambitious. We’re trying to raise $500,000, so we are appealing to the public. One of the things that we are doing is a 50/50 draw that people can participate in. Our first draw is April 1st - no fooling is what we say,” Ellens-Clark joked. “I think the pot is up to $14,000 at this point.”

Wes Reinhardt says the freedom that One Care is able to provide him with weekly rides for physical therapy and medical appointments is invaluable, and he doesn’t know what he’d do without them.

“I think it’s pretty important because the need for transportation for seniors and people with disabilities is growing in our communities,” he said.

“A lot of our services are life or death,” asserted Ellens-Clark. “I think people really need to understand that about One Care and what we offer. Often times we’re in people’s homes - people that maybe are not able to get out of their house - and we’re offering those health services to help them to live there. But then we also do other things more on the prevention side of the spectrum.”

You can learn more about One Care their services and their accessible van fundraising on their website.