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Girl decides to tackle leukemia through traditional therapy
The decision by Makayla Sault, 10, to discontinue chemotherapy and instead use traditional medicine to treat her leukemia raises a number of legal concerns, including the complexity of Canada’s child welfare laws. There have been questions about whether Makayla received special treatment from the Children’s Aid Society because she is First Nations. Kenn Richard, the executive director of Native Child and Family Services of Toronto, says a Children’s Aid Society is legally required to consider a First Nation child’s background and culture and to involve a child’s band in an investigation. He says that special consideration ensures the troubled history of First Nations children in care is not repeated. In Makayla’s case, her band council was supportive of the family’s decision to discontinue treatment. Also of note is that there is no minimum age of consent in Ontario for medical treatment for a person deemed capable. Makayla is a member of the New Credit First Nation. She was diagnosed with leukemia in January and was travelling from home to Hamilton for treatment.
Conference on women, child mortality raises questions
Canada hosted the Saving Every Woman, Every Child: Within Arm’s Reach Summit in Toronto late in May. During the conference Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Canada’s renewed resolve to galvanize global action toward saving the lives of millions of mothers, newborns and children in some of the world’s poorest countries. Since Canada brought the issue to world attention in 2010, progress has been made with maternal mortality rates declining and millions more children now celebrating their fifth birthday. While Canada committed to the goal by working with other-country partners, experts have raised questions about Canada’s own infant-health issues on First Nations reserves. One in four children on Canada’s First Nations reserves lives in poverty. Dr. Janet Smylie, a family physician and research scientist at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, said First Nations infants’ mortality rate is twice as high as the rest of Canada and four times higher for Inuit infants. “If we can’t take care of our own issues domestically, I don’t know what we can do internationally,” Smylie said in an interview with CTV News.
Report provides inaccurate picture of TB
A provincial report on tuberculosis and its impact on First Nations has been met with criticism by the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs. Grand Chief Derek Nepinak wrote to Health Minister Erin Selby asking her to retract the report, which has since been removed from the provincial website, and to work with the AMC on more accurate statistics and a more complete picture of recent research showing the significant effect poverty and poor housing have on tuberculosis transmission. The report undercounted First Nations people by roughly 50,000, which skewed the data and minimized the disease rate, as well as glossing over research showing the effect of poor housing, lack of modern sanitation, poverty and unemployment on TB rates. Data was collected from 2000 to 2012.
Alcoholism about social conditions, not genetics
Dr. Joel Kettner, an associate professor at the University of Manitoba’s faculty of medicine and the province’s former chief public health officer, says studies show alcoholism in Aboriginal people is about social conditions, such as poverty, not genetics. A Manitoba fishing lodge recently sparked controversy when one of its brochures advised clients against giving First Nations guides alcohol because they have a “basic intolerance for alcohol.” The owner of Laurie River Lodge has apologized and removed the brochure from its website. Kettner says there have been studies examining differences in alcohol tolerance for different ethnic groups, taking into account cultural, geographic and racial factors. But when it comes to possible predisposition for alcoholism, “what those really boil down to, in almost all scientific analysis, is the social circumstances and social conditions — whether experiences with family, community or at a larger level, in society,” he said. Kettner adds that the persistence of the genetic stereotype is evidence that more work has to be done to combat racism, including addressing educational, social and political issues.
Project funding to address violence against women
Five projects in the Yukon are sharing $200,000 through the Prevention of Violence against Aboriginal Women Fund. “Supporting culturally relevant initiatives designed and developed by and for Aboriginal women is a key strategy in working to address disproportionate levels of violence experienced by Aboriginal women in Yukon,” said Elaine Taylor, minister responsible for the Women’s Directorate. Receiving one year of funding of $25,000 each are Whitehorse Aboriginal Women’s Circle and Vuntut Gwitchin Government; and receiving two years of funding at $50,000 are Whitehorse Food Bank Society, Little Salmon/Carmacks First Nation and Northern Cultural Expressions Society.
First Nations people less likely to receive angiography after heart attack
New research published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal indicates that First Nations people are less likely to receive guideline-recommended angiography after a heart attack compared with non-First Nations and have a poorer long-term survivor rate. First Nations people have 2.5-fold higher prevalence of heart disease than their non-First Nations counterparts. The study examined 46,764 people with acute myocardial infarction in Alberta, of which 2.2 per cent were First Nations. First Nations participants were younger, more likely to have diabetes and lived further from laboratories that performed coronary angiography.
Book explores homelessness and health costs
Homelessness & Health in Canada, published by the University of Ottawa Press, is the first book in Canada to explore how social, structural and environmental factors shape the health of the homeless populations. “In our book we argue homelessness is one of Canada’s most urgent health crises and, while increased investment in social housing is desperately needed, there is also a need for targeted health programs,” said Ryan McNeil, a Simon Fraser University postdoctoral researcher and affiliated with the Urban Health Research Initiative at the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS. McNeil said the book is a means to improve health care for Canada’s approximately 200,000 homeless people. As an open source publication, the entire book can be accessed online for free.
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