Health Watch - August, 2015

Study shows suicide numbers high in cluster of Ontario First Nations

There were 31 suicides by Aboriginal people in Ontario in 2013, more than double the number in 1991, according to research conducted by Gerald McKinley, a postdoctoral fellow at Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. However, McKinley said the deaths are occurring in clusters in seven northern First Nations. His soon to be released study shows that in northern Ontario, most of the suicide deaths are children and teens. The way suicide clusters in some First Nations†means that it should be viewed as a contagion, he said. The fact that northern Ontario is the only place outside of rural China where more women than men commit suicide also needs to be explored.

Organizations join to create Thunderbird Partnership Foundation

The Native Mental Health Association of Canada has joined with the National Native Addictions Partnership Foundation to form the Thunderbird Partnership Foundation. “The new Thunderbird Partnership Foundation reflects the coming together of substance use and wellness issues in a vision for a continuum of care that is grounded in First Nations culture,” said Dr. Brenda Restoule of the mental health association. The new partnership is also the launch of the Native Wellness Assessment, which will provide culturally-based information to guide treatment services. Health for First Nations is broadly envisioned as wellness and is understood to exist where there is physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual harmony. The Thunderbird Partnership Foundation, along with its partners, the University of Saskatchewan, the Assembly of First Nations, and the Centre for Addictions and Mental Health, will continue to advocate for and support the implementation of the First Nations Mental Wellness Continuum and the Honouring our Strengths Renewal Framework. The association also marked the new collaboration by renaming its organization the First Peoples Wellness Circle.

Foster care program boasts high success rate

Community Led Organizations United Together, an Aboriginal-based child welfare program in Winnipeg, has experienced significant success with a 70 per cent reunification rate in the last three years. The CLOUT program began over 10 years ago as part of the community-mandated Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre. Key to its success is the one-on-one approach taken by employees in working with foster parents, birth parents†and Child and Family Services case workers to build individualized case plans for each family and ensure everyone is taking the right steps to reach reunification. Families are brought into CLOUT on a referral basis. According to CLOUT, 40 families were reunited in 2014.

New UBC nursing curriculum teaches respect, history

Retired nurse Jessie Nyberg and Professor Donna Kurtz, at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan School of Nursing, will be teaching students about delivering culturally-respectful treatment to First Nations patients in new curriculum for 2015. Nyberg, a Shuswap Elder, said it is important for people to understand how residential schools, the Sixties Scoop, and the Indian Act affected First Nations, and resulted in intergenerational trauma. Requiring medical and nursing students to learn about Aboriginal health issues, the history and legacy of residential schools, and Indigenous teachings and practices are among the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The TRC also recommended†that medical and nursing students train†in intercultural competency, conflict resolution, human rights, and anti-racism; the new curriculum endeavors to reflect that.

First Nations women at greater risk for stillbirths

First Nations women in Alberta are 70 per cent more likely to have a stillbirth, according to statistics collected by University of Alberta researchers studying diabetes. Pre-existing diabetes is among the factors contributing to the higher rate of stillbirths, along with illicit drug dependence, alcohol use and smoking. Stillbirths were also more common for First Nations women over 35 years of age, those with more than three babies, and those with a history of abortion, previous stillbirth or neo-natal death. Richard Oster and partner Dr. Ellen Toth examined close to 470,000 births between 2000 and 2009. The rate of stillbirths for First Nations women over that 10-year period remained steady. The study was published in the February edition of Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Canada. Presently the U of A is collaborating with an unidentified First Nation community in Alberta in an effort to reduce stillbirths and increase overall healthy pregnancies.

Manitoba RHA to launch LPN pilot program

Thirty seats will be opened for a 29-month Aboriginal Licensed Practical Nurse training program, which will be offered in partnership with the Southern Health Regional Authority, seven First Nations communities in Manitoba, the Manitoba Metis Federation, Assiniboine Community College, and the federal and provincial governments. Currently Aboriginal nurses make up about six per cent of all nursing staff in the region. Six years ago there were only 56 Aboriginal employees that self-identified in the region amongst a staff of 5,600. Today there are more than 220 Aboriginal employees that have self-identified. Assessments, interviews, and some training will be done on all candidates prior to them moving into the course. The two-year pilot program begins in 2016.