Building a new health care system from the ground up. That’s the goal of the latest All Nations Health Care System that community partners and government are working on together.
Today Federal Indigenous Services Minister Seamus O’Regan announced a $375,000 grant from the federal government to the Kenora Chiefs Advisory and other community partners to help put the plan, the first of it’s kind, into action. The Kenora All Nations Health Partners created a draft vision of a new health care system that calls for an innovative approach to health care, designed by local people to meet local needs. It will prioritize local people, community well being, and Indigenous healing practices. O’Regan said he does not doubt that this system will deliver better health care for all communities in the Treaty 3 Region, “Today’s announcement builds further on those accomplishments and will help Kenora Chiefs Advisory in delivering tangible and sustainable results.”
The Federal government has invested $71 million over three years in First Nation-lead health transformations across the country. The Minister stressed the importance of building respectful nation-to-nation relationships between the Canadian Government and First Nations as well as interpersonal relationships, “Well, first of all, there’s the respect issue, and our commitment to a nation-to-nation partnership, …but to me, the point is getting people better on a physical and on a mental health level.”
The Minister also said the government is trying to re-invest funds in a more constructive way to help Indigenous people and communities, “Too much of our money right now, it is going towards protective services which is a code for appropriation of children, and 80% of it, that could be going to preventative care, it could be going to prenatal care, so we want to start putting it that way.”
Chief Lorraine Cobiness of Niisaachewan address community partners at the Federal Government’s funding announcement in support of the All Nations Health Care System development.
The All Nations Health Care System is being developed by a team community organizations, including the Kenora Chiefs Advisory. Lorraine Cobiness, Chief of Niisaachewan (also known as Dalles First Nation) spoke on behalf of KCA about establishing the framework of the project, “Our goal, …is that we’re also incorporating and we’re teaching our ways, our culture, our traditions, our beliefs, our healers, our medicine. We want to share that because it has to be incorporated in all the work that we do so we can share and provide those additional supports to all of our people.” Cobiness said people in leadership roles are responsible to the people who live in their communities for ensuring they have access to appropriate and successful health care programs and infrastructure, and that all the partners in this project have committed to fulfilling the needs of the communities they serve with the support of the upper levels of government.
Once implemented, the All Nations Health Care System will incorporate traditional Anishinaabe medicine alongside western medicine, so all patients have access to culturally appropriate, supportive, and effective medical treatment.
