Health disparities glaring between Aboriginal, non-Aboriginal

Not only is the knowledge of parents and grandparents misunderstood by the younger generation, but often underminded by official health authorities.

“That is the key oversight in health services for First Nations, Inuit and Métis people here in this country right now. We’re not honouring that (message),” said Dr. Janet Smylie, family physician and public health researcher, out of Toronto.

Smylie said that lack of knowledge has resulted in health policies, programs and services that don’t work in Aboriginal communities. She held that the knowledge of Aboriginal people should be at the centre of providing health to First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples and needed to be imparted to front line workers.

The flow of knowledge has been disrupted by a variety of factors including the loss of ceremonies, taking children to attend residential schools, and the death of Elders.
Stories need to be collected, said Smylie, and that knowledge shared with the younger generation.

Added to the oversight of ignoring Aboriginal knowledge, Smylie said, is the lack of health services available to Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people.

“There’s a masking or hiding of disparities (and) I don’t think anything can get better until we have the truth out on the table,” she said.

Smylie holds that for health services and Indigenous research to rise above those disparities, the knowledge of Aboriginal individuals and communities need to be the focus.

“The goal isn’t only for us to survive, the goal is for us to thrive,” said Smylie, who is Métis with roots originating in both Alberta and Saskatchewan. “We want healthy children and healthy families, which leads to healthy communities and a healthy nation.”

Community-based research should be the focus in providing the answers, said Smylie, and should also be the focus in driving the research carried out.

“Disparities are pretty shocking,” said Smylie.

She noted in some cases, figures are hard to track because studies carried out are specific to communities, regions and groups of people. There are no infant mortality rates available for the Métis, while those for First Nations and Inuit tell a shocking story. Infant mortality for First Nations is 1.7 to two times higher than the national average while the Inuit rate is four times higher.

“These are rates that are up there with many of the developing countries that our prime minster has made some commitment and support to,” said Smylie. “How can we be in Canada and not even be tracking infant mortality rates for a group of people that are one-third of the Aboriginal population?”

The loss of the long form census, she said, will only add to the disparity in the collection of information.

“I have to wonder what the true agenda is and if there really is true commitment of this federal government in really assessing and reforming the disparities in Aboriginal health,” said Smylie, who sits on the National Statistics Council. She said recommendations by the council along with phone calls to federal Health Minister Tony Clement were ignored.

Smylie was in Edmonton recently talking to media and academics as part of a workshop hosted by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.