Alberta Health Services has announced it's creating a new advisory council that one official hopes will provide "blunt, useful and "thoughtful" advice on seniors and continuing care.

The group is called a provincial advisory council and two others of its kind already exist, providing input on cancer, and addiction and mental health.

Dr. James Silvius is the provincial medical director for seniors health and continuing care for AHS. He said the council is comprised of 15 members of the public from across the province -- clients, families and caregivers.

“The one thing they have in common is they have knowledge of experiencing the system at a local level,” Silvius said.

“We recognized many years ago that if you don’t actually involve the public in designing the system, the system is going to be designed the way you think it should be, and it may or may not have anything to do with what the public actually needs.

The group has a total of 15 members, 3 members from the Central Zone, Teresa Wiligar from Rocky Mountain House, Marylou Henderson from Camrose and John Erkelens from Lloydminster.