New executive director appointed for NAHO

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Bernice Downey, a registered nurse and founding member of the Aboriginal-controlled National Aboriginal Health Organization (NAHO), has recently been appointed the organization's executive director.

Since 1999, when NAHO was little more than an idea on paper, Downey has worked in many facets of health promotion, most recently as a policy analyst. She has seen the organization grow from six employees to 59, as the work of the organization got underway in earnest in 2000.

"It's a bit of a bonus now, as I'm discovering in my new role that its very helpful to have had the historical involvement."

Formerly Downey, of Manitoba Cree and Irish descent, was executive director of the Aboriginal Nurses Association of Canada. With the formation of NAHO subsequent to community consultations, an implementation committee was established. Aboriginal nurses were asked to participate. That's when Downey got involved, as the association's health representative, for about 18 months. Even though she was a non-voting member, Downey said "Ironically, I was one of the ones that signed the Treasury Board submissions, because by that time I was appointed the AFN (Assembly of First Nations) representative because I was in Ottawa."

Following that, Downey participated on one of the three priority advisory committees that NAHO established-the Health Policy Capacity Building and Public Education Priority Committee. She was in that role about a year.

As the work got picked up by others in the evolving organization, that committee was "put on hold," said Downey, but by the time NAHO's implementation committee process was complete, she had been appointed the first acting chair. "Again, because then I was acting as one of the AFN appointees."

Downey stepped away from her advisory role and became a NAHO employee when she left the Aboriginal Nurses Association. She took up the health careers portfilio for a year prior to being appointed executive director on March 8, at which time most of her duties became administrative rather than project-oriented.

Roberta Stout, already employed by NAHO, has assumed responsibility for the health careers file.

"But I remain quite interested," said Downey, "because I am a nurse, and there is a lot of connecting with other professional organizations and so forth that requires some input from the executive director's office."

NAHO's mandate is to contribute to improving the health of Aboriginal people, which obviously affects all areas of their lives. NAHO fulfills that role "primarily by providing communities, health professionals (and) others with useful health information," said Downey.

"A concrete example of that would be that we held our first national health conference in January of last year, and a second one is coming up in November in Winnipeg.

"Our first conference, called Health: Get With It, attracted 900 participants. It demonstrated a real need for information-sharing and a real interest in the various workshops and the dialogues that we were engaging in. So it was very promising and hopeful as to how people saw NAHO as a way to fill that role of sharing information."

The expanding capabilities of technology is also enabling the spread of health information.

"One of the most exciting areas is the launch of ICAH (Information Centre on Aboriginal Health)" said Downey, referring to a Web-based databased NAHO launched in January. It contains information sought by Metis, Inuit and First Nations people on topics as diverse as traditional foods, midwifery and traditional healing practices. NAHO also disseminates the latest health news and results of studies through bulletins and newsletters online.

" It will be recognized and accessible on an international level," said Downey, who added, "It's going to be a one-stop shopping place for information on Aboriginal health.

At this point, "almost all" of the information stored on ICAH is Canadian she said. But as their internatonal collaboration with other Indigenous groups and research projects increases, the information will expand.

On April 23, Downey said they received a request for the first issue of their Aboriginal Health Journal, "which has been a tremendous success in hard copy and online," from South Africa. "And we've had another request from Australia.

"So . . . in terms of technology we recognize the advantages of working together to create some change in the area of Aboriginal health created by processes like oppression and colonial influences. So there's a real interest internationally as well."

To tour NAHO's virtual library, visit www.icah.ca. For more information about NAHO and to link to any of its services or affiliated organizations, see the organization's home page at www.naho.ca.