Funding an important step in Indigenous health and awareness
The Guelph Community Health Centre announced on Nov. 23 that it will be establishing an Indigenous Health and Wellness Program.
The funding of a $150,000 annual grant has been guaranteed by the Waterloo-Wellington Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) to offer traditional healing to local First Nations, Métis, and Inuit community members. A similar program has been established in Kitchener to serve the same purpose for some time.
“We did see, by piloting the program in Kitchener area, that there was an unmet need within Guelph and Wellington,” Kate Vsetula, the community health manager at the Guelph CHC, told the Guelph Mercury-Tribune, noting that the initiative is long overdue.
Vsetula said that Waterloo-Wellington LHIN is one of the only networks in the province without a reserve or an Aboriginal health access in the coverage area. She points out that the necessity is due to many residents needing to travel outside the region, at times beyond Kitchener, to receive traditional healing that meets their needs. The recent funding ensures that residents needs can now be met locally.
“I feel in some ways, we’re catching up to this program,” she said.
The grant money will be used to fund and hire an Indigenous health promoter and to fund a variety of health programs specifically geared towards Guelph-Wellington’s Indigenous citizens.
According to the Guelph CHC, the program will ensure more inclusive and Indigenous-specific health services, while simultaneously improving access to culturally appropriate services and raising awareness of Indigenous peoples.
The programs will blend Western cultural practices with traditional healing to give a holistic approach to Native peoples. It will also make health resources more accessible and acceptable to the Indigenous population.
Vsetula told GuelphToday that the program is more than just offering health and wellness services. It will also encompass issues of cultural competency and training for health service providers in our community.
Toni Lemon, chief strategy officer with the LHIN, told the Mercury-Tribune that until now, the needs of Guelph and Wellington Indigenous community had been served by an Indigenous health promoter located in Kitchener.
Lemon said there are estimated 10,000 Indigenous community members in the Waterloo-Wellington area, and in Guelph and Puslinch, there are close to 2,000.
“There are some specific diseases that the Indigenous community tends to have or experience more often than the general community,” she said.
7.5 per cent of Indigenous residents have diabetes, contrasted with 3.9 per cent of the total population. 25 per cent suffer from arthritis, compared to 15.7 per cent of the total population. 18 per cent of Indigenous residents have asthma, contrasted with 7.9 per cent of the total population.
The Indigenous community is a very diverse community, Lemon added.
“Having someone closer to the geography and making sure that they understand that local diversity in the community is really important.”
John Small, a member of the local Indigenous community, told the Mercury-Tribune that this new funding is a step in the right direction in improving accessible and traditional health care services of the local Indigenous population, while also improving general wellness and awareness of local Indigenous peoples.
“Indigenous populations maintain a healthy balance by incorporating the teaching of the medicine wheel,” he said to the Mercury-Tribune in an email interview. “The medicine wheel is comprised of four elements which include physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. Having this cultural understanding will increase the way health providers administer health programming.”
Photo by Dana Bellamy.