Health Watch - February 2015

Leukemia victim dies at home

Makayla Sault, 11, the New Credit First Nation girl who was supported by her family in her wish to discontinue chemotherapy in favour of traditional healing, passed away on Jan. 19 at her home. She suffered a stroke. “Surrounded by the love and support of her family, her community and her nation Ö Makayla completed her course. She is now safely in the arms of Jesus,” her family said in a statement published by the Two Row Times. Makayla’s case made national headlines and ignited a debate about the validity of Indigenous medicine and the rights of children to choose their own treatment. Makayla was given a 75 per cent chance of survival when she was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in March. She underwent 11 weeks of chemotherapy at McMaster Children’s Hospital in Hamilton. She left treatment while in remission to pursue alternative and traditional Indigenous medicine. In July, Makayla went to the Hippocrates Health Institute in Florida and took its three-week “life transformation program.” The Office of the Chief Coroner said it has begun investigating Sault’s death. While the results of the probe will remain secret, the coroner will determine whether a public inquest is necessary. Top oncologists say it’s highly unlikely the chemotherapy caused the stroke.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington, D.C. has released its report on murdered and missing Indigenous women in British Columbia. IACHR, an arm of the Organization of American States, examined the role that such factors as poverty and discrimination, going back to colonialization and the residential school system, play in the violence, and called for “the creation of a national-level action plan or a nation-wide inquiry into the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, in order to better understand and address the problem through integral approaches.” The report is based largely on information gleaned from interviews with government officials, opposition politicians, non-governmental organizations and the relatives of victims during a 2013 working visit to Ottawa, Vancouver and Prince George, B.C. The investigation was requested by the Native Women’s Association of Canada and the Feminist Alliance for International Action. “This report is ground-breaking,” said NWAC Vice-President Dawn Harvard. “It is the first in-depth examination by an expert human rights body of the murders and disappearances of Indigenous women in Canada.” The Assembly of First Nations, the First Nations Summit, and the NDP all lauded the report and reiterated their calls for a national inquiry.

An editorial in the most recent edition of The Canadian Medical Association Journal says caregivers require better cultural understanding of the needs of Aboriginal patients to keep medical decisions from being made in a courtroom. Authors Lisa Richardson, an internal medicine specialist who is a leader of the University of Toronto’s office of Indigenous medical education, and Matthew Stanbrook, a respirologist and deputy editor of the CMAJ, write that Indigenous Canadians continue to feel unwelcome or unsafe in medical institutions. “To make medical treatment acceptable to our Aboriginal patients, the health care system must earn their trust by delivering respect,” they write. Medical professionals “must ensure that our Aboriginal patients, their families and communities feel welcome, are comfortable self-identifying as Aboriginal, and do not fear judgment based on stereotypes.” Richardson said she was compelled to write the editorial because the bigger picture of why so many Aboriginal patients have poor experiences in the health-care system was being lost in all of the media coverage around the case of J.J., who has acute lymphoblastic leukemia and whose mother pulled her out of chemotherapy last fall saying they would instead rely on a traditional healer. McMaster Children’s Hospital in Hamilton asked a court to have the girl taken away from her family, but a judge refused, saying the Constitution protects the Native mother’s right to treat her child with traditional Aboriginal medicine. The good news, said Richardson, is there are places in the country, especially British Columbia, where Indigenous input is having a positive effect and medical schools are taking the Indigenous reality into consideration. “I think we have a real willingness at the level of leadership of faculties of medical education to make change.”

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Public Health Agency of Canada have approved funding to address the inequities in health and health service access experienced by Indigenous people in Canada. Dr. Janet Smylie, who has received an Applied Public Health Research Chair to take on the task, will focus on improving access to effective treatments for illnesses disproportionately affecting Indigenous peoples, such as diabetes, obesity, tuberculosis, suicide and dental disease. Smylie, who is Métis, said her research will consider local Indigenous cultures and contexts and prioritize community partnerships. “We’ll integrate Indigenous approaches to health and well-being in our research to find the most effective ways to develop, implement and evaluate evidence-based interventions with Indigenous populations,” she said. “Our research will support the respectful sharing local best practices between Indigenous communities in Canada and globally—an approach which wouldn’t be possible without our Indigenous community and organizational research partners.”

Dr. Vasiliki Douglas, a nursing instructor at the College of New Caledonia, has published an award-winning textbook on Aboriginal health care in Canada. Douglas wrote Introduction to Aboriginal Health and Health Care in Canada, the first entry-level textbook of its kind. Douglas, who has taught Aboriginal health to nursing students for more than six years, noticed a gap in dedicated learning material for the topic. The textbook was named a 2013 PROSE Award Winner in Nursing and Allied Health Sciences. The content is presented in two parts, using relevant case studies and concrete examples to introduce students to health concerns facing Canada’s Aboriginal population. Part one, Aboriginal Culture and Health, is an introductory section which discusses the diversity of Aboriginal culture, history of Aboriginal health and the importance of cultural safety in health care. Part two, Aboriginal Health and the Canadian Health Care System, contains chapters on the determinants of Aboriginal health, diet and nutrition, diseases, mental health, women’s and children’s health and the future of Aboriginal health care. The text emphasizes the necessity of cultural safety in Aboriginal health care. “I strongly believe that increased knowledge of cultural safety will improve levels of care,” said Douglas.

Health Canada is providing funding for Healthy Weights Connection: Working Together to Promote the Health of First Nations and MÈtis Children in our Communities, which is one of 11 Innovation Strategy projects aimed at helping families and communities achieve healthier weights. This Ontario-based project, led by the University of Western Ontario in partnership with the MÈtis Nation of Ontario, N’Amerind Friendship Centre (London) and the PROPEL Centre for Population Health Impact, promotes healthier weights among First Nations and MÈtis children and youth by improving opportunities for local health and wellness providers to work together. By supporting collaborative action, the project helps local organizations provide culturally-appropriate and effective programming and services that promote healthy diets, physical activity, and overall well-being. The project facilitates integration of Aboriginal perspectives into the activities of local organizations, increases awareness of Aboriginal communities and cultures, and helps increase the use of existing local programming and resources aimed at achieving healthier weights. It will also connect organizations to knowledge and resources that can help them in their efforts to improve the health of First Nations and Métis children and youth.

Compiled by Shari Narine