Health Watch - November 2013

Racism leads to poor treatment in major Canadian hospitals

According to the Health Council of Canada, which studied care for Aboriginal people in major Canadian cities, racism is resulting in poor care for urban Aboriginals. Researchers reported that Aboriginal patients were left untreated in emergency rooms, sometimes leading to death; refused painkiller medication when suffering extreme pain, because of the stereotyped concern that they would abuse or were already addicted to the drugs; women felt degraded after being stereotyped as sexually promiscuous by care providers; and, rude comments and racist remarks were made. Whether the racism was direct or subtle, “research shows Aboriginal citizens become reluctant to go to the clinic, because they are not being treated fairly,” said John G. Abbott, CEO of the Health Council of Canada, in an interview with Vancouver’s The Province.

Toolkit to address high number of SIDS

Health officials in British Columbia have launched “Honouring Our Babies: Safe Sleep Cards and Guide,” a new educational initiative aimed at reducing the risk of SIDS and sudden unexplained death in infancy among First Nations communities. Statistics indicate that Aboriginal babies are four-times more likely to die from sudden infant death syndrome than other infants in the province. While the cause of SIDS is unknown, certain aspects, including genetic, metabolic and environmental factors, may help explain the higher rate of sudden infant deaths experienced in First Nation communities. “So things like increased smoking, increased poverty, increased teenage pregnancies and some lower education levels in the Aboriginal populations can contribute to the risk of sudden infant deaths,” said Perinatal Services BC President Kim Williams in an interview with Canadian Press. The new toolkit was developed by a working group involving the federal and provincial governments and the First Nations Health Authority. It includes guidelines about safe sleep practices that health officials report incorporates cultural beliefs, practices and issues specific to Aboriginal communities.

HIV study provides voice for Aboriginal women

The Canadian HIV Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Cohort Study (CHIWOS) is Canada’s largest community-based research study focused on identifying and addressing gaps in women-centred HIV/AIDS health services. The study is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, CIHR Canadian HIV Trials Network and the Ontario HIV Treatment Network. An estimated 16,000 women in Canada are living with HIV. “This study is giving a voice to women who previously had no voice,” said Valerie Nicholson, an HIV-positive Aboriginal woman and CHIWOS peer research associate, in a news release. “My hope is this research will ensure the women in my community, and our children and grandchildren, don’t have to face the same barriers to care I have experienced in my lifetime.” CHIWOS brings together 29 co-investigators and 25 community collaborators to assess health service disparities for women living with HIV across regional and demographic contexts in Canada. CHIWOS is looking to recruit more than 1,250 HIV-positive women aged 16 years and older.

Diversity chair moves McMaster Health Sciences in direction of inclusion

McMaster University’s Faculty of Health Sciences has created a new Chair of Diversity and Engagement for its undergraduate medical program. Psychiatrist Dr. Albina Veltman, who is filling the part-time role, plans to build partnerships both within and outside McMaster, including the Aboriginal Students in Health Sciences office. The lack of understanding from doctors who have little lived-experience or training in the social and cultural realities of their patients is a fear shared across different communities. Dr. Karen Hill, the fourth Indigenous graduate from McMaster (Class of 2003) in the 40-year history of its M.D. program, says Health Sciences sets itself apart in a way that leaves Aboriginal, immigrant and other racialized medical students, to deny whole parts of themselves that are important to both medical learning and health care. Hill runs Juddah’s Place, a co-operative clinical and traditional healing practice at Six Nations. With her help, the medical school created an Aboriginal admissions process in the 2000s. Hill describes the reluctance of McMaster Health Sciences to collaborate equitably with communities as detrimental to Aboriginal students in ways that continue residential school dynamics. “They just revert back to the way that it was before there were any supports in place at all. And that reverting back is you just pretend that you’re not Indigenous and you try to blend in as much as you can, so that you don’t create too many…waves. And yeah, students are getting through the program, but not in a healthy way,” Hill told CBC News.

New online journal focuses on Indigenous health

The International Journal of Indigenous Health was launched online Oct. 1. It is published by the Aboriginal Health Research Networks Secretariat, a national network of researchers and community partners hosted by the University of Victoria’s Centre for Aboriginal Health Research. The journal will provide a source of peer-reviewed and culturally relevant knowledge for improving lives in Canada and other countries. It is the only international Indigenous journal specifically focused on health. “The health issues faced by First Nations, Inuit and Métis people in Canada are relevant to those faced by Indigenous people around the world. We have similar colonial histories that have shaped our health,” said Dr. Charlotte Reading, CAHR director and the journal’s editor, in a news release.