Evanna Brennan and Susan Giles were named to the Order of B.C. because they were the first people to use “action-based care” in Downtown Eastside
On Monday, the Order of B.C. was given to two outreach nurses who have worked in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside for 40 years.
Evanna Brennan and Susan Giles were named as two ofthe 14 recipientsOn Monday, he was given the province’s highest honor, joining actors Ryan Reynolds and George Reifel, a conservationist, and Dr. Penny Ballem, a public health officer.
Brennan, who is 76, and Giles, who is 70, have worked together in Vancouver’s poorest neighborhood since the 1980s. They saw it become the center of the HIV/AIDS epidemic before crack cocaine became popular in the 1990s and AIDS started to spread.the ongoing toxic drug crisis.
Giles says that the honor is for her, and Brennan says again that the people who live in the Downtown Eastside (DTES) are not just “throwaway” people.
“Difficult, very hard to love,” added Brennan. “But your love and support are all they need.”
Brennan said she started crying when the government called to tell her about the honor. Giles said she thought the call was a scam at first.
The two outreach nurses were recognized for what the province calls their “innovative” approach to outreach work, which Brennan and Giles call “action-based care.”
“It’s not hard to understand. “All you have to do is be there where they are and do what they want,” Brennan told CBC News.
“You think about it as if it happened to someone in your own family, which has happened to a lot of people, and then you go from there.”
The province says that the two nurses were among the first to use cellphones to connect with patients and set up temporary clinics at homeless shelters.
“Brennan and Giles have saved a lot of lives by giving people who would have fallen through the cracks in the health care system life-saving medications like anti-retrovirals and wound care,” the government said in a statement on Monday.
This fall, the ceremony for the 2023 Order of B.C. winners will take place in Victoria.
‘Empathetic way of being
Brennan and Giles retired from Vancouver Coastal Health in 2012, after working in the DTES for decades and giving many talks about their approach to frontline work.
Soon after, they joined the Lookout Housing and Health Society to work in its single-room occupancy buildings. They also started to teach other nurses in the city how to do their jobs better.
“Anything clinical can be learned from a book,” Giles said. “But if you learn to be this kind of empathetic, it will help you.
“Even if you think it won’t work there, you’ll run into people like this everywhere you work.”
The two were also shown in a film calledAngels on CallTelling about their career and why they decided to keep working after they retired.
WATCH: This is the Brennan and Giles documentary:
Giles said that many people who work with vulnerable people thought their jobs would be “doom and gloom,” but she has learned that many drug users are strong even though there are many systemic barriers in their way.
Brennan added, “We never call the police because our relationship is so different.” “We will always do everything we can to keep it safe.
“We’re different and want to stay that way.”