Current Problems: Health (18-24)
Exploring Theme: "Ongoing Health Crisis"
Updates on this page: 33
(Filtered by Indigenous Group "Inuit")
March 27, 2024
Top health officials acknowledge need to ‘refocus efforts’ on TB elimination
Nunavut Tunngavik skeptical current funding will be enough to reach elimination goals CBC Indigenous: Top federal health officials want to get tuberculosis elimination efforts “back on track” in Canada post-pandemic, as newly published data show already high rates among Inuit ticked up between 2021 and 2022. The Trudeau government and national organization Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK)...
March 18, 2024
Inuit leaders, MPs urge action on TB elimination as federal budget nears
TB rate among Inuit 676 times higher than among non-Indigenous, Canadian-born people CBC Indigenous: With the federal budget approaching, Inuit leaders and New Democrat MPs are urging the Trudeau government to tackle tuberculosis in Indigenous communities. Inuit in particular face a “staggering and unacceptable reality” of tuberculosis rates more than 300 times higher than Canadian-born non-Indigenous people,...
February 27, 2024
First Nations people in B.C. continue to be hit harder by toxic drug crisis, statistics show
‘They’re not just numbers, they’re people,’ says FNHA chief medical officer CBC Indigenous: First Nations people continued to die from toxic drugs at a higher rate than non-First Nations people in British Columbia in the first six months of 2023, according to the First Nations Health Authority (FNHA). First Nations people died at six times the rate of non-First...
January 17, 2024
Former Cree grand chief spends 4 days in an ER hallway after travelling to Montreal for health care
‘There was nowhere that we could go,’ says granddaughter who accompanied Matthew Mukash CBC News: When Jade Mukash accompanied her grandfather to Montreal on Jan. 7, she never imagined they’d be sitting in the ER hallway for four days. Positioned next to a glass partition next to the ER door, Matthew Mukash, the former grand...
December 13, 2023
Indigenous people in remote communities may not see much benefit from national dental care plan
If there are no services in your community, more money doesn’t matter, says pediatric dentist CBC Indigenous: The co-founder of the Indigenous Dental Association of Canada says along with expanding coverage, the federal government needs to be improving access to dental care for those who live in remote communities to keep oral health gaps from widening. “Unless we’re dealing with the issues...
October 30, 2023
‘Nunavut is scary’: Nurses speak out about toxic work environment
Current, former staff allege harassment, abuse, blacklisting make it harder for Nunavummiut to access health care Jessica Garner is a former Nunavut nurse who is speaking out about what she describes as a toxic work environment in the territory’s health centres. She says she is concerned the situation creates a barrier to health care. Garner...
September 15, 2023
How the legacy of Canada’s tuberculosis sanatoriums haunts public health efforts in Pangnirtung
Officials battling the disease must contend with trauma caused by their predecessors and new challenges too CBC Indigenous: Sixty-five years ago, tuberculosis left Nancy Anilniliak with an invisible scar. In 1958, when she was five, Anilniliak was taken from her family in Pangnirtung and transported all by herself to a sanatorium in Hamilton, Ont., aboard...
September 14, 2023
Tuberculosis screening clinic to open in Pangnirtung, Nunavut
Clinic will operate until Dec. 1 in community dealing with TB outbreak since 2021 CBC Indigenous: Nearly two years after the government of Nunavut declared a tuberculosis outbreak in Pangnirtung, a community-wide screening clinic will open in the community of 1,500. Jointly funded to an amount of up to $4 million by the federal and territorial governments...
July 25, 2023
Association of Yukon Communities decries rural health centre staffing woes
‘What we continue to hear from our members is that this is a big deal,’ said association president CBC News: The Association of Yukon Communities (AYC) says the territory has to think creatively to solve an ongoing shortage of health care workers. “This is an issue we continue to hear from all of our members...
July 22, 2023
Inuit elders making historic healing journey from Nunavut to Hamilton’s former sanatorium
1,200 Inuit were forced to stay at Sanatorium on the Mountain for tuberculosis treatment CBC News: Over a dozen Inuit elders are making a historic healing journey to Hamilton this weekend to revisit the former sanatorium site where they were held in isolation and endured psychological abuse in the 1950s and ’60s. Naomi Tatty helped organize...
July 6, 2023
Tuberculosis numbers increasing in Nunavik communities
5 communities have outbreaks; 58 cases in total this year CBC News: An annual music festival was postponed due to a tuberculosis outbreak in northern Quebec, as the Nunavik region grapples with a series of outbreaks in several communities. Salluit’s festival was supposed to start June 29, but will now happen in the fall. Salluit resident Ida...
June 27, 2023
Better dental care means dealing with historical issues, says Indigenous dentist
CBC News: Dr. Sheri McKinstry says Indigenous communities struggling to access dental care is common across the country. “It’s kind of not surprising that we’re having issues with dental providers coming into the clinics when we’re isolated,” she told The Trailbreaker. McKinstry is a dentist, member of Sagkeeng First Nation in Manitoba, and one of the...
June 27, 2023
Doctors sign open letter to decry AHS decision to revoke Hinshaw job offer
130 Alberta doctors had signed the letter by late Monday afternoon CBC News · Posted: Jun 26, 2023, Last Updated: June 27 More than 100 Alberta physicians have signed an open letter condemning the move by Alberta Health Services to revoke a job offer to Dr. Deena Hinshaw, who was set to start working on a key...
June 23, 2023
The hiring and unhiring of Dr. Deena Hinshaw warrants answers that we aren’t getting
Consequences have spread beyond the former public health official’s employment status CBC News: We know who hired Dr. Deena Hinshaw to a new role supporting public and preventive health in Alberta. We don’t know who un-hired her. But we’re starting to learn about the consequences of that somebody’s decision to rescind the appointment of Alberta’s...
May 12, 2023
More than 6 years later, Moses Beaver’s means of death ‘undetermined’, inquest jury finds
Jury delivers 63 recommendations focused on improving mental health care for Indigenous people WARNING: This story discusses mental distress and suicide. CBC News: The jury overseeing the inquest into the death of Moses Beaver has deemed the means of his death to be undetermined — which is the finding his family was hoping for. The...
April 17, 2023
COVID-19 pandemic stalled progress on eliminating tuberculosis among Inuit: officials
CTV News: Nunavut’s health minister says the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted efforts to eliminate tuberculosis in Inuit communities, and questions remain over whether targets to stamp out the disease can be met. “COVID has had a huge impact on every area of health care, and that includes TB,” said John Main. “While we were putting so much effort...
April 13, 2023
Six community health centres on reduced or emergency service in Nunavut
Health centres in 1 Baffin community, 3 Kivalliq communities and 2 Kitikmeot communities affected Nunatsiaq News: Six of Nunavut’s community health centres are currently offering reduced or emergency services only. Staff shortages in the territory’s health-care sector are creating a “heavy workload and greater likelihood of burnout,” according to Health Department spokesperson Chris Puglia. “When...
April 3, 2023
Budget erred by suggesting Ottawa backing away from Inuit TB eradication, minister says
ITK president worried about meeting 2030 goal to eliminate TB in Inuit Nunangat CBC News: The Indigenous services minister says the Liberal government made a mistake in the federal budget by appearing to back away from its promise to eradicate tuberculosis in Inuit communities. In the document released last week, the government announced $16.2 million...
March 17, 2023
Nunavut declares tuberculosis outbreak in hamlet of Pond Inlet
The Globe and Mail: Another tuberculosis outbreak has been declared in Nunavut, this time in a community near the top of Baffin Island. Nunavut’s Department of Health announced Friday that five active and 22 latent cases of TB have been identified in Pond Inlet, a hamlet of 1,500 people, since last month. The territorial government had...
March 5, 2023
Family, community mourn 2 teens found dead in northern Manitoba
Girls found outside and St. Theresa Point Chief believes drugs a factor in their deaths CBC News · Posted: Mar 05, 2023 9:17 AM EST | Last Updated: March 5 The family of one of the 14-year-old girls found dead outside after a frigid night on a northern Manitoba First Nation says she was struggling to cope with...
February 13, 2023
Indigenous advocates call for more culturally informed addictions treatment in B.C.
First Nations people die from illicit drug toxicity at 5 times the rate of B.C.’s general population CBC News: As of last week Avis O’Brien (N’alaga) marked 16 years in recovery from addiction. “I was on the Downtown Eastside [of Vancouver] as an Indigenous youth,” said O’Brien, who is Haida and Kwakwaka’wakw. “I was homeless; I was...
February 11, 2023
Behind the push to expand mandatory treatment for mental health and addictions in B.C.
The Globe and Mail: In his past career as a civil-rights lawyer, David Eby would have been first in line to argue against involuntary treatment for mental health and addictions issues. But as British Columbia Premier, he is now pushing to expand the province’s capacity to compel it because the alternative, he argues, is worse....
January 30, 2023
RSV is still a threat, especially in Canada’s North. But new treatments and vaccines are on the way
“We’ve known for a long time that Inuit babies have four to eight times the rate of hospital admission due to RSV, compared to the premature babies or the cardiac babies” with RSV, Banerji said. In the Arctic, the peak is usually February/March to June. One doctor is calling for an expedited review of a...
December 20, 2022
A hospital in northern Quebec could cut down on the long journey to Montreal for medical travel
Improved care closer to home would bring multitude of benefits to Nunavik, experts say CBC News: If a patient in Nunavik requires specialized medical care, they have to get on a plane and travel more than 1,400 kilometres to Montreal. But a new regional hospital proposed in Kuujjuaq, Que., could help keep some patients closer to home....
December 15, 2022
When their child’s doctor is 2,800 km away, Inuit families face tough choices
Nunavut mother says some Inuit who leave territory for health care don’t return CBC News: Medical travel between the remote community of Clyde River, Nunavut, and Ottawa has been an essential, but difficult journey for Tina Kuniliusie and her 14-year-old daughter Tijay. The toll has been high and after almost a decade and a half of...
December 2, 2022
Government of Canada announces nearly $10 million to support Indigenous communities address substance-related harms
Improving health outcomes for Indigenous people at risk of substance-related harms and overdose across Canada Health Canada: The ongoing effects of colonialism and institutional racism are closely linked to the disproportionate harms that the overdose crisis and increasingly toxic drug supply have had on Indigenous Peoples. The Government of Canada is committed to addressing these...
November 24, 2022
The Impact of Inaction – New Publication Reveals Not All of Canada is on Track to Meet Global Hepatitis C Elimination Goal
Timing of elimination of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) in Canada’s provinces indicates 70% of provinces could reach the World Health Organization’s (WHO) HCV elimination target of 2030, however three of Canada’sprovinces — two of them the most populous in the country — are off track to achieve this hepatitis C elimination goal.1 Timely elimination would save 170...
September 6, 2022
The beast of addiction in Indigenous communities remains untamed
Globe & Mail: Tanya Talaga – Over the past week, a Thunder Bay hotel’s conference room has become home to a land-based healing and recovery program. There, 17 women from one northern First Nation about two hours down the highway – women who are addicted to opioids, alcohol, crystal methamphetamine (jib) and/or methadone, which is...
July 11, 2022
Canada needs to implement pandemic preparedness in dealing with TB
The goal to eliminate TB by 2030 can happen if lessons learned from COVID are implemented. This includes investing in health and telemedicine. Policy Options: by Elizabeth Rea, Tina Campbell, Petra Heitkamp Because of the pandemic, tuberculosis deaths globally have increased for the first time in over a decade. Concerning considering that before COVID, TB was the leading...
February 17, 2021
Access to Health in Inuit Nunangat
Inuit life expectancy is 10 years shorter than the average Canadian, according to Statistics Canada. Nunavut News – “Tackle lack of basic health care for Indigenous peoples, then worry about racism, Nunavut’s MP says”. Nunavut member of Parliament Mumilaaq Qaqqaq says the lack of medical care available in Nunavut currently is proof that the Government...
October 21, 2020
Food Insecurity
The Narwhal – Human Rights Watch released “My fear is Losing Everything: Climate Crisis and First Nations’ Right to Food” in Canada. The report details how longer and more intense forest fire seasons, permafrost degradation, volatile weather patterns and increased levels of precipitation are all affecting wildlife habitat and, in turn, harvesting efforts. The report...
September 29, 2020
Beyond Hunger – The Hidden Impacts of Food Insecurity in Canada”
Community Food Centres (CFC) – Release of “Beyond Hunger – The Hidden Impacts of Food Insecurity in Canada”. Even before COVID-19, food insecurity affected nearly 4.5 million Canadians. In the first two months of the pandemic, that number grew by 39 per cent. Food insecurity now affects one in seven people, disproportionately impacting low-income and...
October 20, 2019
Denial of medicine for Inuit babies
Globe and Mail – A group of doctors is urging officials in Nunavut to offer an effective but costly drug to all Inuit babies living in remote communities in the territory to protect them against a respiratory virus that disproportionately leads to their hospitalization. But Nunavut’s chief medical officer disagrees, saying there isn’t enough evidence...
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