TROY LANDREVILLE
Times Reporter
A Langley resident who has devoted decades of her life to helping children was recently recognized with a prestigious award.
Dr. Aven Poynter is this year’s recipient of the Distinguished Community Paediatrician Award.
The Community Paediatrics Section established the award in 1999 to “recognize a colleague(s) who has demonstrated a significant contribution to the field of community paediatrics.”
“I started my speech saying I am greatly honoured and humbled to receive this award,” Poynter said. “I went to medical school so I could become a paediatrician, because I love working with children and families and helping to improve the lives of children. And I’m still having fun.”
Poynter, 62, accepted the commemorative award during a May 31 dinner held by the Community Paediatrics Society (CPS) in her honour, during the CPS’s 94th annual conference at the Vancouver Convention Centre.
“While Aven knew she would be receiving this award, it was a fantastic surprise for her when her children magically appeared outside the dining room with shouts of ‘congratulations Mom!’” Poynter’s husband Reed said.
Poynter said having her children there to see her receive the award was “wonderful.”
“I was so surprised,” she added. “All the paediatricians at Langley Memorial Hospital contributed to buying tickets for my children to attend, and my medical office assistant and her husband. It shows what wonderful people we have.”
Poynter has practised in the Langley community for 30 years.
“Dr. Poynter cares for kids well beyond the scope of her private consultation practice,” the CPS notes on its website.
In addition to providing general consulting and community paediatric respiratory services with pulmonary function testing, Poynter is a consultant paediatrician with the Ministry of Child and Family Development’s Child and Youth Mental Health team in Surrey, and is a clinical assistant professor with UBC’s Department of Paediatrics.
The society notes that over the years, Poynter has continued to teach a variety of programs such as asthma education and mental health to family physicians, medical students, family practice residents, and members of the public.
Poynter was an active Neonatal Resuscitation Program (NRP) instructor for 25 years, and has mentored and worked with medical students from UBC as their program expanded.
The society notes that she now ‘has a leadership role in this now very successful program at Langley Memorial Hospital.’
“Dr. Poynter has also distinguished herself as the diligent, self-assured president of the BC Pediatric Society, leading educational and economic issues for paediatricians and advocating for children and youth.
In this role, she has become a key leader in the Child and Youth Mental Health and Substance Use (CYMHSU) Collaborative, a program committed to increasing timely access to support and services,” the society said.
In her spare time, Poynter enjoys volunteering in her community, particularly in programs that support people with a variety of disabilities.
About the award
The chosen candidate:
• is a paediatrician who is primarily community-based;
• provides exemplary paediatric care in the community;
• is involved in community paediatrics outside his/her office, perhaps in a community of special needs such as street youth, drug rehabilitation, promoting healthy living within the school environment etc;
• devotes some of his/her time and energy promoting community paediatrics, either through involvement in local or national community paediatric groups;
• is involved in the academic aspects of community paediatrics, either through teaching, research or involvement in a university department of paediatrics; and
• is a role model.