BY MARC LALONDE

marc.lalonde@transcontinental.ca

The new West Island seniors' index is a compendium of all the information an autonomous West Island senior citizen might need - and West Island Community Resource Centre coordinator Ann Davidson is working on getting it to you.

The index, which is one of the West Island CRC's biggest annual projects, has been printed and is available if seniors can make the trip down to the Centre offices in Pointe Claire's Valois Village.

If you can't, though, you're going to have to wait. There are no other drop-off points.

"We are still awaiting word from a sponsor for some of the distribution costs," Davidson said. "We're not organized enough right now. We're actually in the midst of trying to titillate a sponsor into coming up with the last $3,300 we need (in order to get the guide distributed) to those seniors for whom a bus trip down to Pointe Claire is simply out of the question," she said.

The West Island Seniors Index, in its seventh printing, is the 'flagship product' for the Centre. In it are phone numbers and contact information for medical problems, tax questions, food banks, public transportation and other services autonomous seniors need to live day to day.

Davidson said at least, for now, seniors who can get around by car or can get someone to pick up a copy for them can take advantage of the index.

"It's super important for them," Davidson said. "It's a big part of our mission to extend help to seniors who choose to live autonomously," she said.

Without the guide and the resources contained within, some seniors would be forced into residences before they are ready, Davidson said. "These people have a right to live in the community. We want to show them where they can get the support they need," she said.

For more information, call 514-694-6404.