Aboriginal Mental Health: A National Perspective
Monica Armanious, Braden O’Neill, Alison Fine, and Amy Pieroway
Summary
We interviewed individuals working on the front lines of Aboriginal mental health and compared this with primary research to determine correlations within current practices across Canada. By combining the experience of those in the field with the latest research we have determined common themes in successful mental health programs for Canadian Aboriginal populations. We also profiled unique local Aboriginal mental health programming from Southern Ontario, Newfoundland, and Alberta.
The Canadian Federation of Medical Students Global Health Advocacy program afforded the four authors a unique opportunity to collaborate from the prairies to the Atlantic, sharing knowledge and experience to provide a truly national perspective on one of the most important issues facing the Canadian Aboriginal population. By presenting at MonWHO we hope to engage dialogue amongst the delegates regarding Aboriginal health in general, as well as promoting innovation in health care delivery. We hope our research into Aboriginal mental health programming will foster delegates to critically examine their own beliefs about the organization of how service is delivered in any scenario, including the ‘pandemic preparedness’ theme of the conference.
Authors
Monica Armanious (McMaster University)
Braden O’Neill (University of Calgary)
Alison Fine (University of Western Ontario)
Amy Pieroway (Memorial University)
TBA
Jennifer Baxter and Robin MacNearney
Summary
Stemming from a fear of transmission of a tuberculosis epidemic from First Nations populations to Canada’s first settlers, the federal government began funding health services for First Nations communities in 1904 with the first General Medical Superintendent, and a mobile nurse visitor programming beginning in 1922. Since that time, federally-funded nursing stations and expansion of health services for First Nations have been seen. Now health facilities (Health Offices, Health Stations, Health Centres, Nursing Stations) are located on-reserve for nearly all Canadian First Nations. Here nurses or Community Health Representatives offer primary health care services, as well as addiction counselling and medical transport. Provincially-funded physicians make regular visits, and patients are transported to higher-level provincial care centres as needed. This combination of federal and provincial health systems leads to significant levels of disconnect that challenge service provision and health status of Canada’s first nations peoples. This poster presentation will investigate the resulting differences in health service provision, health status, and social determinants of health of on-reserve versus off-reserve first nations, living in both urban and rural settings. It will also examine discrepancies in access to health care experienced by those who are registered status Indians as opposed to those who are not status Indians yet still identify themselves as being Aboriginal.
The poster will specifically consider implications in the realm of pandemic planning for Canada’s First Nations peoples, including identifying government departments involved and specific examples from the most recent H1N1 pandemic prepardness initiatives. It thus provides delegates the opportunity to learn more about issues significant to Canada’s First Nations populations and to better appreciate the effect their policy decisions could have on the health of indigenous populations worldwide.
Authors
Jennifer Baxter and Robin MacNearney contributed equally to the research presented in this poster. Both hold positions as Global Health Advocates within the Canadian Federation of Medical Students, Ms. Baxter representing Queen’s University and Ms. MacNearney representing Dalhousie University. Both are very interested in the social determinants of health and how these affect Aboriginal populations in Canada. They believe that political advocacy for marginalized patient populations, such as Canadian Aboriginals, is an important part of their responsibility as future physicians.
Addressing the Disparities in Aboriginal Health: Pandemic Preparedness from an Aboriginal Perspective
Anastasia Blake
Summary
In 2008, the Canadian Federation of Medical Students’ (CFMS) Global Health Advocacy Program (GHAP) was formed as an effort to unite student representatives from each of the 14 member schools in the goal of advocating for the health of Canadians and the global community. For the last two years, the focus of the GHAP has been to promote Aboriginal health and initiatives to increase the enrollment of Aboriginal students in Canadian medical schools. Global Health Advocates (GHAs) collaborate through email and teleconferences to lead local and national initiatives on this theme. As part of this advocacy effort, GHAs attend the Montreal World Health Organization Simulation (MonWHO) each year to raise awareness of how the theme of MonWHO relates to Aboriginal populations and to represent member states and NGOs as delegates in the conference.
This year, GHAs have taken a special interest in researching the impact of pandemics in Aboriginal communities globally. A pandemic is an epidemic that spreads throughout an entire region, continent or the world; however, it is important to note that in pandemic circumstances, various sub-populations may be more severely affected than others. With the outbreak of pandemic H1N1 influenza in 2009, some of the hardest hit communities worldwide were those inhabited by Aboriginal peoples. In Canada, Aboriginal communities have been disproportionately affected by outbreaks of diseases including: water-borne illnesses, sexually transmitted infections and respiratory tract infections. This presentation will serve as an opportunity for MonWHO delegates to become better acquainted with the documented risk factors that increase the vulnerability of Aboriginal populations to infectious diseases. Furthermore, it will focus on highlighting some effective strategies that may be implemented to reduce the risk of pandemic outbreaks in Aboriginal communities.
Authors
As GHA from the University of Ottawa, Anastasia Blake has used her passion for Aboriginal health to develop an Aboriginal Health Interest Group, which hosts a monthly speaker series, an Aboriginal Health Awareness Week, and offers medical students the opportunity to attend cultural activities in the Ottawa community. She has also worked in conjunction with the Aboriginal Stream of the Faculty of Medicine to implement an Aboriginal Mini-Medical School, which provides local Aboriginal students with the chance to participate in a simulation of a typical day in medical school.
TBA
Summary
The main topic of his year’s project is that of obesity and diabetes in a Canadian aboriginal population. Both diabetes and obesity have had a rapid increase in occurrence in recent decades, and the immense associated disease burden has made both issues a public health concern greatly in need of being addressed. Levels of incidence in these particularly vulnerable populations have reached pandemic proportions, tying in well with this years’ theme of ‘pandemic preparedness’, and management of health care as well as prevention calls upon involvement at many levels of both government and community. Solutions to these problems, while not as simple as outright vaccination or antiviral treatment, still require coordination with and education of a large affected population and gamut of health professionals working in these areas.
We hope to bring a better understanding of the prevalence of obesity in aboriginal populations and the historical reasons why this has taken place. We have also examined the meaning and impact of diabetes from a community perspective as well as given a look into the effects of both obesity and diabetes on a paediatric level and how this will impact later generations.
Bringing about an increase in awareness of this very serious and ever-growing problem in oft neglected northern Canadian populations is one of our goals with this poster presentation. In presenting this topic at the NGO fair we hope to examine and compare the various issues surrounding the different pandemics occurring worldwide. One of the aims of this is to see whether there are commonalities in both the problems and issues, as well as with potential solutions to these existing problems. In discussing the increasing obesity and diabetes pandemic we hope to provide other delegates with an understanding of the impacts of these diseases on the health of the community. Another aim in this presentation is to raise awareness about the idea that there needs to be an adjustment in the approach of health professionals in the treatment and management of both obesity and diabetes, in order to better harmonize with the differing social and cultural environments in which these particular patients are immersed.
