Health Watch - June, 2015

Organs can be harvested from children who die in Alberta care

Treaty 8 Grand Chief Steve Courtoreille says organ donations from children who die in government care will be one of the priority issues raised when chiefs meet with Alberta’s new premier, Rachel Notley. Notley and the NDP swept into power in the May 5 election. Courtoreille said he was “disgusted” to learn that a policy implemented in 2006 allowed the government to harvest organs from children who died in care. In 2014, the policy was amended to include children who died while under temporary guardianship order. “We needed to know about the policy. We would have asked them to take it out,” said Courtoreille. The majority of children in care in Alberta are Aboriginal. “It’s bad enough that our children are taken from our homes, but now this?” said Courtoreille. The government said it consulted with 18 First Nations agencies and 12 CEOs of Child and Family agencies. “Who are these agencies?” asked Courtoreille. “There are 44 First Nations in Alberta and somehow everyone was missed.”

Report indicates Indigenous mothers, babies suffer greatest risks

Save the Children’s 16th annual State of the World’s Mothers report found a clear correlation in Canada between race, income inequality and poor health outcomes. Areas with a large Indigenous population consistently represented the highest maternal and infant mortality rates, such as Winnipeg’s Port Douglas or downtown core, which has an infant mortality rate at 7.3 to 7.4 deaths per 1,000 live births. In Saskatchewan, mothers living in impoverished neighbourhoods, with significant Indigenous populations, experience the loss of a child at 1.5 times the rate of mothers in more affluent neighbourhoods. A 15-year analysis of infant mortality rates in highest-and-lowest-income neighbourhoods in urban British Columbia found infant mortality rates were two-thirds higher in the poorer neighbourhoods and that the gaps did not narrow over this time period. “For the first time in history, more than half of the world’s population lives in urban areas. People are often drawn to cities by the prospect of a better life for their children, but many cities around the world are unable to keep up with dramatic growth, leaving hundreds of millions of mothers and children in cities without access to essential health services and the clean water they need to survive and stay healthy,” said Patricia Erb, president and CEO, Save the Children Canada. Canada is ranked 20th out of 179 surveyed countries.

Aboriginal healing centres slated for Vancouver

The city of Vancouver and community organizers are considering the construction of several Aboriginal healing and wellness centres throughout the city. For the past year, an advisory group has been discussing the project, which is mandated under the City of Reconciliation declaration, the task force for mental health and addiction, and the Downtown Eastside local area plan. So far, the city has partnered with the Urban Native Youth Association and Lu’ma Native Housing to secure the construction of two healing centres. The UNYA location will focus on Aboriginal youth and is slated to open this summer, while construction has yet to begin on the new facilities at Lu’ma. Still in the works is a healing centre for Downtown Eastside. Its proponents want it to be entirely devoted to the use of traditional healing practices to treat addiction and this is causing delays with the city. “The challenge is that our partners don’t have an off-the-shelf model that they can point to. This would be a new thing that would be done, and it takes more time to figure out how you can develop something from scratch that hasn’t been done before,” said Vancouver deputy mayor Andrea Reimer. In the next few weeks, city officials will be mapping areas in the Downtown Eastside where people are already using traditional healing practices so as not to duplicate services or divert resources.

Judge clarifies mother’s Aboriginal rights to limit girl’s treatment

Last month Justice Gethin Edward clarified that the best interests of a child must come first in deciding if Aboriginal parents can abandon life-saving western treatment. In November, Edward upheld the mother’s Aboriginal right to use traditional medicine in the treatment of her 11-year-old daughter (who could not be named), who had acute lymphoblastic leukemia. “It has now been clarified that the law remains the same, i.e., that a child’s best interests are always paramount,” said Hamilton Health Sciences’ lawyer Daphne Jarvis. There had been calls for the Ontario attorney general to pursue litigation in the case. However, the attorney general instead opened lines of communication between all those involved. “(It) ultimately led to an approach that spoke more to what joins us as opposed to what separates us … such an approach bodes well for the future,” said Edward. The deadline to file an appeal had been extended a number of times while the province worked with the girl’s family to find “the most respectful and effective” ways to provide health care for the child. The girl is now being treated by both doctors and Haudenosaunee health-care providers. Her leukemia had gone into remission but is now back. A joint statement by the family, Six Nations and the province says they hope this case will enable “important conversations” about how to “bring together different healing traditions.”