Health Watch - October, 2015

New textbook gives Indigenous perspectives on health

Post-secondary students across Canada will benefit from a ground-breaking new textbook on Indigenous health created in part by two University of Northern British Columbia professors. Doctors Margo Greenwood and Sarah de Leeuw, co-editors, have gathered perspectives and experiences of Indigenous people around the country to provide an in-depth look at the realities of health and healthcare in Aboriginal communities. The new textbook, Determinants of Indigenous Peoples’ Health in Canada: Beyond the Social, published this summer, seeks to move academic discussion beyond established social health determinants, such as income and education, to help explore impacts of other factors, including colonization and colonialism, environment, geography, and culture. “(This textbook) fills a huge gap of information in the Canadian health education landscape, offering students a greatly expanded opportunity to critically think about Indigenous patient care and hopefully apply this knowledge to their future practice,” said Greenwood, a professor of education and First Nations studies at UNBC and vice-president of Aboriginal health at the Northern Health Authority. The book features contributions from First Nations, Inuit, and Métis writers, with chapters ranging from scholarly papers by Aboriginal Health research experts to reflective essays by Indigenous leaders and insights on well-being shared through community members.

Inner city living can result in cardiovascular risks

A paper recently published in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology suggests that inner-city living may affect an individual’s risk of developing or dying from cardiovascular disease. Some residents of inner-city neighbourhoods have adopted sedentary lifestyles and poor diets due to a lack of grocery stores, limited green space and transportation options, fewer recreation centres and high rates of violent crime. These factors can contribute to heart disease, heart failure, stroke and cardiac death. Inner-city neighbourhoods are characterized by an above-average concentration of residents who are unemployed, sick or disabled, living in poor-quality housing, working full-time on low pay, or single parents. “You can try to develop programs that target marginalized individuals, but the challenge is that you also have to also think about the environment and consider the social world that the person lives in that also has an effect on them,” said the paper’s author Dr. Stephen Hwang, director for the Centre for Research on Inner City Health of St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. Mobile clinics, health coaching and case management approaches have demonstrated some success in improving cardiovascular outcomes in individuals, but Hwang said further research into community-wide interventions in disadvantaged neighbourhoods is needed.

Chinese traditional medicine delivered to reserve

Doctors who practise traditional Chinese medicine were in Sumas First Nation in Abbotsford on Sept. 19 to provide community health consultations. Tzu Chi Canada, the local branch of the Buddhist non-profit based in Taiwan, opened the first clinic focusing on the First Nations community about two years ago in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Since then, two more clinics have opened in the Downtown Eastside. Doctors hold eight-hour sessions once a week at the three First Nation clinics, spending about 45 minutes with each patient. Tzu Chi Canada is a donor to the Aboriginal Mother Centre in Vancouver.

Historical sterilization of Indigenous women more widespread than previously believed

A recently released report gleaned from archival research indicates that the coercive sterilization of Indigenous women in Canadian health centres during the 1970s was more widespread than previously believed. Karen Stote, a women’s studies professor at Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario, says impoverished communities in the north were disproportionately targeted. Nearly 1,200 sterilization cases—including more than 550 at federally operated “Indian” hospitals between 1971 and 1974—were undertaken by force or fraud. Stote’s research indicates that coerced sterilizations of Indigenous people in parts of Canada continued until at least 1974, despite claims by the Canadian Museum for Human Rights that most provinces ended the practise in 1972. Stote said Indigenous people were targeted for a number of reasons: eugenics, the idea of racial superiority, the need to reduce certain traits from the population, and the federal government’s desire to reduce their population to lessen the state’s responsibilities under treaties it had signed with Indigenous groups. Stote’s findings have been published in “An Act of Genocide: Colonialism and Sterilization of Aboriginal Women.” Only Alberta has apologized and paid compensation for past sterilization campaigns on people considered mentally challenged and other disadvantaged groups, including Indigenous people. Forced or coercive sterilization has been deemed a form of discrimination, violence against women, and a violation of basic human rights by the United Nations.

NAN launches FASD website

Nishnawbe Aski Nation has launched an FASD website to assist workers in NAN First Nation communities. The interactive website provides information to support women, children, families and caregivers who are affected by FASD or other effects from prenatal substance use. “This website will be an effective resource for our community-based service providers, but it is only one component of a broader approach that needs to be addressed at the provincial level,” said Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler. NAN has advocated for years for a provincial strategy and targeted mandate for FASD prevention, intervention and support. NAN is currently working with the Ministry of Children and Youth Services, which announced a commitment in 2013, to develop a provincial strategy that will improve the experiences and outcomes for individuals affected by FASD. Fiddler said he looked forward to “full engagement” with the province on moving these changes forward.