Alberta Health Services is looking for volunteers to sit on its 12 Health Advisory Councils.

The Chair of the local Prairie Mountain Health Advisory Council, Larry Albrecht says they act as a conduit, getting information, questions and concerns from local communities to Alberta Health Services.

"We also provide communication back from Alberta Health Services, both provincially at the Zone level to communities," he says. "So if a an individual or a group came forward and said that they wanted input or information about a certain topic then that's something that we could broker that information."

He says one example is rural dialysis services.

"We know it's been an issue over the years and so we've taken that forward, we've learned from Alberta Health Services why that is the way it is the way it is and what are the conditions not allowing it to move forward or how can it move forward and we provide that information back to communities," Albrecht says.

The Prairie Mountain Region board covers a wide swath around the city of Calgary from Vulcan in the east to Banff and Canmore in the west and from Nanton in the south to Didsbury in the north.

He says they're looking for people passionate about health care in general who are eager to engage members of their community to determine what health care services are working well and where improvements can be made.

AHS is also looking for volunteer members to its two Provincial Advisory Council, for Cancer and Addiction and Mental Health and its Aboriginal Wisdom Council.

Interested Albertans over the age of 18 are asked to submit an expression of interest form, available online at http://www.ahs.ca/shapehealthcare.

The deadline for submissions is May 18.

Questions, comments, or story ideas? Email us at news@okotoksonline.com