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Summit praises healthy leadership
Dene national chief says more progress needed

John McFadden
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, February 4, 2015

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Aboriginal people in the NWT are getting more say in their own health care than they have at any time since the NWT took over the delivery of health care in 1988 from the federal government.

That was one of the stronger themes coming from a Denendeh Health Symposium presentation delivered last week by Sabrina Broadhead, director of the territorial government's aboriginal health and community wellness division, at the symposium attended by dozens of aboriginal leaders from across the territory. Plans to create the division were announced June 2013 and it was up and running approximately four months later.

"It's making a difference by letting people know they have a place to voice their opinions and concerns," said Broadhead. "Staff are travelling out into communities and interacting with aboriginal people who now feel a connection to a place where they can talk about their health and wellness challenges and dreams."

Broadhead said aboriginal people want to be active and healthy and they want to be with their families on the land.

"One of our key challenges is to empower local people to work with their own challenges and not look to others for help," Broadhead said.

"The choice is theirs. They can look at the resources they have and programs they can access and build programs that work for them.

"In the past, programs were designed with a certain structure where the accountability was with someone else. Now accountability is with the communities."

Broadhead said the division is very proud of its "let's talk about cancer" campaign.

"We're opening dialogues around cancer and sharing information and resources with people who may not have had access to that information before," she said.

The pre-natal programs are also high on Broadhead's list of achievements during the relatively short time the division has been in operation.

"There have been some wonderful, positive comments about the opportunities mothers have while they stay at boarding homes in Ndilo and Inuvik, sometimes for extended stays while they are accessing medical facilities and having their babies is a great opportunity for us.

"As that develops I think we will see more and more successes.

In regard to the GNWT's cancer awareness campaign, Dr. Andre Corriveau, the territory's chief public health officer, said the goal is to get aboriginal people to become more aware of cancer screening programs that are available to them.

"For instance, colorectal cancer is more common among Dene people but the screening rates are for them lower," said Corriveau.

Getting screened is critical because the earlier cancer is detected, the better chance it can be cured, he added.

Dene National Chief Bill Erasmus said despite the creation of a government division specifically aimed at improving the health of aboriginal people, more has to be done to improve the delivery of health-care services and programs for them.

"The GNWT took over health care from the federal government in 1988.

"At that time the idea was for our communities to take over control in health. But negotiations with the territorial government were never completed and they never did really go into our communities," Erasmus said.

"After 25 years, we found that it's really not working. Now that there is a proposed single board to take over health care in the NWT, we're holding this symposium to get some of our questions answered on how that would work for us."

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