Aboriginal wellness centre's future unknown
Stanton Territorial Health Authority Elders' Advisory Council disbanded
Kassina Ryder
Northern News Services
Monday, September 26, 2016
NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
The former chair of the Stanton Territorial Health Authority Elders' Advisory Council says he's worried the health department is abandoning plans for an aboriginal wellness centre.
Francois Paulette, former chair of the Stanton Territorial Health Authority Elders' Advisory Council, is concerned the aboriginal wellness centre the council has been pushing for is not going to be built. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo |
Francois Paulette was the council's chairman for nine years. He said he received a letter this spring thanking him for his service and informing him the council was being dissolved.
"I know that they are restructuring the whole health department and I don't think they really knew what they wanted to do with the elders' council," Paulette said. "I don't think they had a plan for where the elders would fit into all this restructuring."
The council had been pushing for an aboriginal wellness centre as part of renovations taking place at Stanton Territorial Hospital in Yellowknife.
The centre would be modelled on other indigenous wellness centres, such as the Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre in Ontario and the First Nations Health Program connected to the Whitehorse General Hospital in Yukon.
The goal is to link modern medicine with tradition, giving patients access to traditional medicines and food, as well as providing space for traditional ceremonies.
In February 2015, a representative from the Department of Health and Social Services told News/North plans for the centre were being considered for incorporation into the Stanton Territorial Hospital redevelopment project.
Later that year, the project expanded to building an entirely new hospital and there were discussions about putting the wellness centre beside the new building.
But Debbie DeLancey, deputy minister of health and social services, said no funding has been set aside for the centre.
"We hope there will be an aboriginal wellness centre at some point, yes," she said. "There is no funding identified for it at this point."
The department commissioned a needs-assessment study to look at current aboriginal wellness practices at the hospital, which will be made public in a few weeks, DeLancey said.
"I think it's really important not to just focus on a building," she said. "This is part of a much broader initiative that our department is taking very seriously to look at how we can improve indigenous health outcomes."
The department is also establishing an Indigenous Advisory Council, which will advise staff.
Members of the Stanton Territorial Health Authority Elders' Advisory Council will not be on the new council, DeLancey said.
"The elders' council term really ended when the Stanton territorial Hospital Authority ceased to exist," she said. In August, six of the territory's regional health and social services authorities joined to form the Territorial Health and Social Services Authority.
The new advisory council will be made up of members delegated by aboriginal governments and could include elders and youth.
"We're now in the process of trying to finalize that group," DeLancey said.
But Paulette wonders why the Stanton Territorial Health Authority Elders' Advisory Council was completely disbanded instead of incorporated into the new group.
"They should have asked the elders council, 'What is your role?' Because we are a big part of the North and we're not going to go away, that's for sure," he said.
"We have more experience than many people that the super board are trying to set up, by far."
