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Dr. Joseph Wong: The Father of Yee Hong

Updated: Dec 1, 2018

In 1986, the Toronto Star named Dr. Joseph Wong, a practicing family doctor who has dedicated his life to helping people in his community, as the ‘Man of the Year’ and a few years later, in 1991 and 1992, Toronto Life Magazine declared him as one of Toronto’s most influential people. In 1993, Dr. Wong was also awarded the Order of Canada. Then when Toronto celebrated its 180th birthday in March 2014, Toronto Star released a list of names that consisted of the city’s 180 most influential people in its history. One of those names was Dr. Wong. Despite the recognition for his work, it hasn’t changed Dr. Wong’s outlook on wanting to do his share to better the community around him. With his strong sense of justice and fairness, Dr. Wong won’t hesitate to get involved if he believes that something can be done to change the situation presented before him. His efforts to change the community around him have only snowballed with a rippling effect that has changed many lives for the better.


Ever since Dr. Wong graduated from university and from medical school, he has volunteered for different organizations that promoted the well-being of people who are underprivileged. One example that showcases Dr. Wong’s strong dedication to helping those in need was back when he was a medical resident interning at Toronto Western Hospital. At this point in Dr. Wong’s life, he was trying to promote the well-being and health care delivery in Chinatown to people who couldn’t communicate in English. A great opportunity for Dr. Wong to achieve his goal to break the language barrier found in health care services happened when Mt. Sinai Hospital approached him to open a weekend clinic for Chinese-speaking people (essentially for those who couldn’t get access to doctors who spoke their language). “I didn’t know what kind of things awaited me on the other end so I thought that would be great, that it would be something that I would like to do to help people who were in need.” Dr. Wong said when he spoke of Mt. Sinai Hospital’s proposal. So with the opportunity presented to him, Dr. Wong recruited six other medical residents to help him run the weekend clinic. Unfortunately, three months after the weekend clinic debuted, Dr. Wong found himself to be the only doctor running the clinic. Instead of closing up shop, he pushed forward so that the weekend clinic could stay open. For five years as a medical resident, Dr. Wong never had a weekend off because he was running the weekend clinic while still on-call during the evenings. When asked what he thought about those five years, Dr. Wong said, “I enjoyed every single minute of it. If I enjoyed it, I would not feel tired or overworked.” That right there is a true sign of a dedicatedly generous and compassionate man.


While Dr. Wong trained to become a doctor, that wasn’t the only way he’s contributed to the community. Dr. Wong managed to create a few organizations that helped him rectify injustices and unfairness.


One organization he founded was the Association for Learning and Preserving the History of World War II in Asia in Toronto (Toronto ALPHA) which helps preserve and inform people about Asia’s history during World War II. While studying at Yeshiva University (a Jewish university in New York City), Dr. Wong was deeply moved by the testimonies of the Holocaust survivors that he heard and how the community was spreading the survivors’ experiences around to inform the people and to make sure nothing like the Holocaust happened again. With the Holocaust being a major situation that took place during World War II, Dr. Wong became alerted to the fact that Asia’s involvement during the war was being forgotten. “It appeared to be erased from history,” Dr. Wong commented in regards to the very few people who remembered what Asia went through during World War II. Unsettled by this injustice and unfairness, Toronto ALPHA was created to help promote and preserve what Asia experienced during World War II. By spreading the word of what happened, there is a greater chance that such a tragedy won’t be made again in the future. Toronto ALPHA is focused on promoting peace in its learning in hopes that war can be averted in the future.


Speaking of the community as a whole, Dr. Wong is known as a social activist after an injustice was made by CTV in a W5 “Campus Giveaway” broadcast back in September 1979 that inaccurately portrayed university students of Chinese descent as foreigners who were taking the legitimate places from Canadians (those who were white-faced). In that inaccurate segment, all the so-called foreigners that were portrayed by Chinese students onscreen were actually local Canadians, nationalized citizens or landed immigrants who enjoyed all the privileges of being a Canadian like every other Canadian. This report sparked outraged across Canada and it caused this normally passive and docile community to stand up for the injustice made against them, making this a milestone fight for minorities fighting against discrimination. In April 1980, victory was achieved when CTV made a public apology to the Chinese community. Shortly afterwards, the Canadian Chinese National Council was created to monitor racial discrimination against the Chinese community with Dr. Wong serving as the first president. His involvement in the campaign against W5 brought Dr. Wong the opportunity to meet Pierre Trudeau, the Prime Minister of Canada and someone Dr. Wong admired the most and was most fortunate enough to meet in person.


Aside from Toronto ALPHA and the Canadian Chinese National Council, there’s one organization that Dr. Wong is greatly associated with worldwide and that is the Yee Hong Centre for Geriatric Care.


When Dr. Wong was a child back in Hong Kong, he was under the care of his grandmothers while his parents worked very hard to care for them. Because of his grandmothers, Dr. Wong has an infinite amount of empathy towards the elderly. So when Dr. Wong realized just how much the Chinese elderly suffered in nursing homes that didn’t understand the Chinese language or culture, he had a very strong desire to do something about that. And that was the start of the Yee Hong Centre for Geriatric Care. It’s a community that provides high quality and culturally appropriate services that allows its seniors to live their lives to the fullest and in the healthiest ways while maintaining their independence and dignity. Its system has the perfect mix of Western resources with Eastern cultures, values and traditions. According to Dr. Wong, “we’ve retained the best parts of both cultures.” Yee Hong also recognizes the importance of young people, so they have actively recruited them into different parts of the organization. “It is one thing that we are proud of,” Dr. Wong commented on before he explained how young people contribute to the development of Yee Hong in the future. The inclusion of the next generation is also beneficial because they are learning from a younger age just how to treat their seniors appropriately.


Yee Hong has four centres around the Greater Toronto Area that are catered towards a specific language and culture that fits the senior’s roots. There are two centres in Scarborough (McNicoll and Finch), one centre in Markham (focused on South Asian cultures and languages) and one in Mississauga (focused on the Filipino culture and language).


Yee Hong offers a continuum and comprehensive service that caters to the different needs (medical or otherwise) of the seniors. Dr. Wong compared the Yee Hong structure to “one stop shopping services.” Yee Hong offers three different tiers of services to seniors. There are the long term care services in the nursing homes for people who depend on 24-hr care. These services require the most resources. There are assistive services (ie: medical, personal, housekeeping) that are offered to people who are living in the apartments provided by Yee Hong. There is also a community center that provides services to people living around Yee Hong. Services include a medical center, social and recreational services, a daycare center and many more. The most sought after service is the educational services in which Yee Hong provides seminars for caregivers to correctly learn how to take care of their frail senior (ie: diabetes, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, etc.). According to Dr. Wong, “We have many, many different educational series to work together with the caregivers so that they understand the subject matter better and deliver the services to their senior they care for at home.”


It’s a system that has proven successful. The Yee Hong Centre for Geriatric Care received the Accreditation with Exemplary Standing for all four long-term centres for the sixth consecutive time. This is the highest honour and recognition given by Accreditation Canada and it was given because of Yee Hong’s commitment to quality and excellence. With such a success, over the last 25 years, Yee Hong has been in communication with other community groups who have been interested in modifying the Yee Hong way so that it can be applied to their language and culture (ie: Vietnamese, Korean, Portuguese, South Asian). Dr. Wong commented on there being over 1,500 delegations from around the world that have showed interest in the system behind Yee Hong (80% from Asia; 20% from USA, Australia, New Zealand and Europe).


A great thing about the Yee Hong Centre for Geriatric Care is that it’s always evolving. With society changing what is considered the norm in the population, Yee Hong has made steps to accommodate that (ie: younger seniors have new facilities that cater to their technological needs like the Internet or email). And with the Baby Boom generation approaching their retirement, Yee Hong has started making preparations by finding new ways to accommodate all those new seniors. Dr. Wong shared that Yee Hong has plans to create Life-Lease Units which are condos that are designed specifically for seniors to help them live more independently with assistive services provided by Yee Hong. Dr. Wong also mentioned that they were working on another way for Yee Hong to deliver long term care services at home.


With the Yee Hong Centre for Geriatric Care covering the medical care aspects of this organization, the Yee Hong Community Wellness Foundation covers the communications, public relations and fundraising for the operational expenses of the Geriatric Care Centres. In order to maintain the continuum of care that benefits thousands of seniors, Yee Hong would need to raise $2.5 million every year.


One fundraising example is the Dragon Ball. It is the most well-known fundraiser event that is hosted by Yee Hong and it’s a celebration in honour of Chinese New Year (it takes place on the Saturday closest to Chinese New Year). At this year’s Dragon Ball, Dr. Wong reported that it was well-attended with roughly 1,000 guests ringing in the year of the Monkey (which was also the theme of the festivities). This year’s guest of honour was Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who arrived with former Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion. Trudeau, McCallion and the other guests watched different performances (a new dance series debuted this year to commemorate the Monkey King legend) and they also participated in some Chinese traditions (ie: a traditional eye-dotting ceremony during the lion dance). Dr. Wong has also mentioned that depending on the featured animal, the Dragon Ball has welcomed animal representatives for their specified year. When asked for a few examples, Dr. Wong said, “We have featured small tigers during the Year of the Tiger.” How exciting! Next year’s Dragon Ball event rings in the Year of the Rooster which is set to take place on Saturday January 28th 2017. So mark your calendars and be on the lookout for any news for ticket sales.


While the Dragon Ball may be the most well-known fundraising event, it’s not the only one. Yee Hong puts on a golf tournament every year and it broadcasts a telethon all across Canada to help raise money for the Geriatric Care Centres.


With all of his contributions to the community, Dr. Joseph Wong continues to be passionate and driven in everything that he does. His determination to fight for justice and fairness has only motivated him to do the right thing until he has achieved the desired results. Despite being a recipient of the 2005 Power of Humanity Award and an inductee to the Scarborough Walk of Fame, Dr. Wong continues to do right by the community and he’s setting an example that everyone should follow. He has truly made an impact as one of Toronto’s most influential people in its history. And there’s more to come from this extraordinary man.


“One of the projects that I’m working on is to bring Yee Hong Services to Asia,” Dr. Wong shared with plans on opening the first office in Hong Kong. It looks like he’s bound to make an international difference, one centre at a time.

 

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Publication Note:

This was published for AsianWave Magazine.

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