Indigenous Communities in Ontario: A Public Health Perspective

(Aboriginal Health Access Centres Report, 2015)

     Thinking about the health unit where I work and what is being done with our indigenous communities, I can say that I was pleased to learn that my health unit has a newly created position this year, a Health Equity Coordinator, who is working to establish a better relationship between the health unit and our indigenous communities. My health unit also established a specific role for a Social Determinants of Health nurse in the past 2 years who is working closely with the Health Equity Coordinator to come up with plans and goals for building relationships with these communities in hopes of providing them with better support in order to achieve better health outcomes. One specific project the Health Equity Coordinator is working on is to establish a standard practice for the health unit to include Territory Acknowledgements at the start of our presentations, workshops, and so forth. A Territory Acknowledgement is done to show respect for the traditional custodians of a particular area, and helps to strengthen relationships with the indigenous communities (Carleton University: Centre for Indigenous Initiatives, 2018).

     Looking at Ontario overall, Ontario has the Ontario's First Nations Health Action Plan which includes plans such as investing in primary health care to provide more services to First Nations communities, providing more access to fresh fruits and vegetables to indigenous communities, expanding diabetes prevention and management, and providing more support and services related to mental health including crisis support and trauma response teams (Government of Ontario, 2016).

     Looking to compare with other provinces and what they are doing, an article by Richmond and Cook (2016) talks about the province of British Columbia (BC) and how BC established the First Nations Health Authority (FNHA) in 2011. I would love to see Ontario establish a similar health authority as from my research, I have not been able to identify anything equivalent in Ontario. Although, from researching what types of organizations or health authorities we have available for indigenous people in Ontario, I did come across the Aboriginal Health Access Centres (AHAC). The AHACs are "indigenous informed health care agencies" who provide support and services to First Nations, Metis and Inuit communities (Ontario's Aboriginal Health Access Centre, 2015). The AHACs are valuable and important in that they provide culturally sensitive care for aboriginal communities unlike other health services in Ontario. For example, they provide health services in several different indigenous languages which is often a barrier for accessing health services, and furthermore, over half of the clients who access AHACs are non-insured which shows they are catching those individuals who may otherwise not have any access to health care services (Ontario's Aboriginal Health Access Centre, 2015).

(Aboriginal Health Access Centres Report, 2015)

References

Carleton University: Centre for Indigenous Initiatives. (2018). Territory Acknowledgement. Retrieved from https://carleton.ca/indigenous/resources/territory-acknowledgement/

Government of Ontario. (2016). Newsroom: Ontario Launches $222 Million First Nations Health Action Plan- Province Supporting Indigenous Health Care. Retrieved from https://news.ontario.ca/mohltc/en/2016/05/ontario-launches-222-million-first-nations-health-action-plan.html

Government of Ontario. (2018). Newsroom: Ontario Taking Action on Indigenous Health Care- Partnership Between Province and Indigenous Communities Key to Efforts. Retrieved from https://news.ontario.ca/mohltc/en/2018/02/ontario-taking-action-on-indigenous-health-care.html

Ontario's Aboriginal Health Access Centres. (2015). 2015 Aboriginal Health Access Centres Report. Retrieved from https://soahac.on.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/AHAC_Report_2015-FINAL.pdf

Richmond, C.A.M., & Cook, C. (2016). Creating conditions for Canadian aboriginal health equity: The promise of public health policy. Public Health Reviews, 37. doi: 10.1186/s40985-016-0016-5