Eleni Fakotakis-Kolaitis,

At the workplace and in her personal life, she thinks creatively and is proactive. Born in Montreal, Plateau-Mont-Royal (PMR). Served as a municipal councillor, Mile-End, PMR from 2005-2009. Has over 20 years of experience in management, both public and private. At the Montreal Children’s Hospital (Alexandra Pavilion, 1983-1988) she worked as a Vocational Therapist for people with serious disabilities, her clients were integrated in work and community-living environments and also benefited from the first, therapeutic interior greenhouse programme, in Montreal, that she designed and operated. Participated on the first committee held at CLSC René-Cassin (1993) to implement the Quebec-wide, info-support line to help prevent senior mistreatment. Served on the Board of Director’s of many non-profit organisations. Activist defending women, children & elderly, victims of violence and mistreatment, gender equality and the accessibility/adaptability of health and social services to ethno-cultural groups. Has experience in all aspects of HR (including career planning, EAP, mentoring, CSST, personally hired over 650 employees throughout her career). Assisted in getting the Daycare Ta Pedakia, fully operational. Is one of the three founding members of Shield of Athena. Is one of the founding members and Director of HSSQ from 1990-1998 and again from 2010 to date.

Degrees/Diplomas:

D.I.A. (With 3 administration concentrations: Health, Education and Culture)
B.A. with a major in Psychology
Human Sexuality Certificate from the faculty of Medecin, Université Laval,
(programme designed for health and social services professionals)
D.E.C., Social Studies, John Abbott College
Trained to offer smoking cessation support groups/workshops (American Lung Association);
Trained to animate the programme “Y’a personne de parfait” early childhood development training to parents of pre-school aged children (Agence de la Santé et des services sociaux)

e-mail: [email protected]

Director’s message

Our clients are mostly natural caregivers, seniors, Greek newcomers, or the underprivileged and poor, of diverse origins. They visit us for referral or for obtaining our aid in helping them to receive the care they are entitled to and usually have been waiting for from the public system. Beneficiaries/Clients participate in our activities, support groups, exercise or computer classes. Our clients are also professionals of the public network who need our expertise with Greek speaking clients that they are trying to help and are just not getting the desired results because of cultural and/or linguistic barriers.

Pythagoras of Samos (570-500 BC) said that, No man is free who cannot master himself. It is a pleasure for me to work with an exceptional team of Board of Directors, employees and volunteers, whose professionalism, experience and ambitions help us to continue to accomplish our goals.

Our two special-feature programmes in 2016-2017 are: The caregiver support programme, “Sensitisation and Support To Natural Caregivers Of The Elderly in Laval”, which has been in operation and funded in part by APPUI Laval since January 2014; and our mobile computer clinic for seniors funded in part by the Government of Canada under the New Horizons for Seniors, “Beyond the Living Room in Seconds”.

 As the population ages, the number of natural caregivers increases, they live with enormous stress trying to balance their own personal affairs and those of an elderly family member. We want to be there for them. HSSQ employees are committed to help prevent this stress from becoming unmanageable through outreach and sensitisation activities. We double our natural caregiver dossiers each year. We have managed to present monthly information sessions or workshops to help caregivers to be aware of existing resources and to empower them. Many hundreds attend our conferences and workshops annually! We have facilitated support groups (both in English and Greek) to the satisfaction of our caregiver clients!

With new laptops and tablets, our mobile computer course for seniors is currently in full force. It has a dual purpose, to teach computer basics and to make seniors aware of the different forms of mistreatment. We offer this very popular programme at different locations throughout the greater Montreal area. Through this very popular programme we have taught a significant number of elderly, some useful sites to navigate, how to avoid mistreatment and fraud, how to communicate with friends and how to order and purchase on-line safely.

Going forward, our natural caregiver clients in Montreal, South Shore and Laval have been asking for a respite care service in the form of a fun, Day-Centre for seniors that would operate during the week and offer assistance or activities in the home to seniors with serious mobility problems. We are currently looking into a possible site for a Day Centre, that will be centrally located and easily accessible from all our offices (Laval, Montreal, Parc-Extension and the South Shore). We are presently considering 275 Houde, (second floor), in Saint-Laurent. We are appealing to you, our members and friends, to help make this a reality and to spread the word.

For more information and statistics on our programmes refer to our latest Annual Activity Report ending March 31st.