Peigan Health Centre nears completion

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The new Peigan Health Centre at Brocket is the culmination of several years of government lobbying, community planning and hard work.

Finishing touches are all that remain to be done on the new facility that replaces several separate buildings used by Peigan Health Services, says Joe Yellowhorn, project coordinator for the new building. Once they're completed, staff will start moving into the new 870 sq. m facility.

"It's wonderful to have achieved this much, but I want everyone to know it's only phase one of the project, as far as I'm concerned," said Faye North-Peigan, Health Service coordinator.

The new building is an innovative design based on medical considerations and the traditional culture of the Peigan people.

North-Peigan feels the health centre has really been a community effort from the start.

"We held four design workshops and invited a broad cross section of the community," she said.

Four separate wings house treatment rooms, administrative offices, mental health and well-being offices, and a wing for the professional staff who will be making regular visits to the facility. The wings are attached to a circular central reception area. Traditional colors, bright lighting and lots of windows give the building an airy and comfortable feeling.

The central reception area echoes the shape of a sweat lodge, the traditional healing facility for the people. The four wings are representative of the four directions, with the main entrance facing east.

Inside, a registration desk and padded benches form a wide circle, with a children's play room set into one small alcove. A second alcove provides a more intimate waiting space for adults, with a television monitor that will show health care videos.

"We wanted a place where people could visit and feel at home while they were waiting, I particularly love the colors in the floor and the trim around the doors. They're our Peigan colors," said North-Peigan.

Peigan culture has also been incorporated in the set up of individual rooms in the facility. A semi-circular counseling room in the mental health wing is specially vented to allow smudge fires, so Elders can use traditional healing practices in conjunction with the modern treatment and educational services offered.

A large multi-purpose room at the end of the wing has its own entrance, washroom and kitchen facilities, so it can operate after hours as a place for small conferences and workshops for the community. The room will comfortably seat 50 people and there are already requests on file for its use.

A smaller conference room and a staff lounge also have facilities for fixing tea and other refreshments. The active treatment wing will be equipped for use as a medical clinic, with doctors available twice a week. Physicians from the Pincher Creek hospital, about 25 km west, will staff the clinic on a rotating basis.

Medical, public health and home care nurses will also be on staff and there are plans for occupational and rehabilitation therapists to work out of the new facility. There is also a special room for dental care and North-Peigan plans to have a dentist on call on a regular basis.

"Eventually, I'd like to have a team of specialists visit the clinic on a regular basis," she said.

"A lot of our people, especially seniors, need that kind of special care and it's very difficult and upsetting for them to get into the cities," explained North-Peigan.

The centre has some special facilities available that include a whirlpool bath and the equipment to handle bio-medical wastes. North-Peigan said they won't be able to offer hemo-dialysis and a number of other needed medical services till they get funding for the necessary equipment.

"I'd like to have a trauma room for emergency services, but we'd need a fetal heart monitor, an ECG facility and other equipment, and there's no money for that. I've tried to get the provincial government to kick in some funds, but they tell us we're a federal responsibility," sh said.

The federal government did come up with the $1.5 million for the building of the health centre, but North-Peigan feels it will be a long while before they're willing to spend any more. In the meanwhile, North-Peigan has her eye on an old, boarded-up building adjacent to the new centre.

"It could readily be fixed up as an assisted living facility, with space for crisis intervention. I guess that would be phase 2," she said.

Getting health information out to the community, and convincing them to take responsibility for their personal well-being is one of the goals of North-Peigan.

"We need to target our young people, and try to prevent them from developing the problems we're seeing now in our older population."

An advocate of education and communications as a means to

preventing illness, North- Peigan herself comes from a background strong in traditional values, and strong in post-secondary education. Her great-grandmother and mother were both mid-wives on the Reserve.

North-Peigan has taken her own special interest in pre-natal health for babies and their mothers and augmented the things she learned from the women in her family with a strong formal education in nursing.

North-Peigan received a Bachelor of Nursing from the University of Lethbridge in 1995, and a master's degree in health teaching and counseling from Gonzaga University in Washington in 1997.

"It's really important to involve the community in health care planning and prevention programs," she says. "And it's vital to work well with your staff. One of the things I'm very pleased with is that the new health centre will be a nice environment for people to work in," said North-Peigan.