Finding help on First Nations
First Nations communities are increasingly taking leadership, making partnerships and getting HIV under control.
“We know that the stats show that if there are 11 (cases), there has got to be at least three or four times as many that haven’t been diagnosed. So in reality, we know that we are dealing with 40 to 50 people, we know that, we’re not hiding our heads in the sand,” said Shirley Bighead, director of health for the Sturgeon Lake First Nation.
They are being proactive in the community and engaging the elders. Despite the fact that the first few discussions were awkward because sexually transmitted infections weren’t things that was historically discussed with them, she said.
But they kept going back, and gradually there was comfort and elders started giving the health department some really good ideas about how to get the message out.