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Finding help on First Nations

Nov 16, 2011 | 5:43 AM

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.

“Like a dog with a bone, we won’t quit,” Bighead said.

“We were just determined to involve as many people as possible.”

They got the community’s leadership on board, who are required to move initiatives forward, she said.

“You have to have community support and can’t go in blindly or demanding and expect people to follow you.”

It is important to bring the people along with you, not only to make sure they are educated, but are interested in the message being sold, Bighead said.

“We’re selling life here, life over death.”

While the community is quickly getting on board, some of the higher-level organizations and funders are slower to respond, she said.

“They’re not seriously funding this area, which is really unfortunate when you think of all the money they (used for) the pandemic.”

Until last year, Sturgeon Lake was getting $1,900 annually for HIV/AIDS funding from the First Nations Inuit Health Branch of Health Canada, but now they are getting $3,800. The year of the H1N1 pandemic scare, the same First Nation received $75,000 for a pilot program.

With the minimal amount of funds, but with technical and medical support from the province, they’ve rolled out successful educational radio programs and engaged the community with awareness walks.

Down the road at the Ahtahkakoop Cree Nation is another story of a community in motion, with programming and patient follow up.

A partnership between the health centre and Cree Nation Treatment Haven has meant methadone can be provided on the First Nation, said Faye Isbister North-Peigan, nurse manager for the Ahtahkakoop Health Centre.

People were hitchhiking to Prince Albert to get methadone and that’s all they were getting, but they needed counselling and support, she said. So with meetings they were able to set something up on reserve.

“That’s been good, at least it is accessible here … the recommendation is that the clients that are on the methadone program, they take part in an outreach program at Cree Nation. To me? That’s good,” she said.

“When you are looking at the whole HIV issue — you cannot talk about the issue without talking about the addictions and some of the social determinants of health.”

They are also running a needle exchange program out of the health centre and a nurse practitioner comes in once a week.

“Like I said to chief and council, I can’t solve the issue of HIV here, we have to talk about these other issues in order to help clients get on a better path,” she said.

Isbister North-Peigan said they’re looking at increasing health services coverage and adding additional nurse practitioner services.

The health clinic has space at the school for education and promoting wellness, she said.

Recently they had a men’s wellness program, where a speaker did a two-hour presentation — it was the first time they had a male based health seminar and there was lots of good feedback.

“We can do more. There is always room for improvement, we’re trying. Funding would be nice, but funding is limited,” she said.

While she has support, she said the current infection rate is sobering.

“It’s just a real progressive community, but we have our issues, like any other First Nations community, we struggle with trying to meet the demands.”

See related: The face of HIV in Saskatchewan

ahill@panow.com

This story is the fifth in a series about the face of HIV in Saskatchewan. Research for this project was made possible by a journalism grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.