BY ADELLE LARMOUR

Shkagamik-Kwe Health Centre promotes and maintains well-rounded health-care services within the City of Greater Sudbury and three First Nation communities.

The culturally based holistic centre recently celebrated its 10th anniversary in June. One of 10 Aboriginal Health Care Access Centres (AHACs) in Ontario, it was closely modelled after Community Health Centres (CHC) offering primary care, illness prevention, health promotion and community development services. Designed to assure equal access to integrated services incorporating the unique values, beliefs and traditions of the Aboriginal culture, Shkagamik-Kwe offers primary health care in combination with traditional healing practices within its catchment area: Henvey Inlet, Wahnapitae and Magnetawan First Nations, as well as the Aboriginal population within the Greater City of Sudbury. During the fiscal year 2007/08, the centre served 8,300 clients.

Within the last two years, Shkagamik-Kwe has been recognized under the Association of Ontario Health Centres, a policy and advocacy organization.

Shelley Baker, executive director of the centre, said the primary care services parallel services at a regular CHC. The added component is the traditional programming.

Currently, the centre has four physicians, one of whom is full-time, and one pediatrician on staff. A part-time nurse practitioner also assists with primary care and other outreach programs. A husband and wife chiropractor team are available three times a week to work with problems related to the spine and nervous system. A psychologist assists with the mental health program, which focuses on counselling and treatment, case management, group sessions and crisis intervention.

The traditional programs that work in conjunction with the primary care services add a level of uniqueness not found in CHCs. Jake Pine, a traditional healer, works alongside the doctors two weeks a month.

“There have been some breakthroughs in this area,” said Baker, who is pleased to see the physicians and a traditional healer working together with patients in the same room.
Pine also travels to the three communities once a month and facilitates the men’s circle as part of the traditional programming. Ella Waukey, an elder from the community of Cape Croker, also visits monthly to talk with clients and facilitate the women’s circle.

“We conduct monthly sweat ceremonies for clients,” Baker said. “We have hand drumming and drum workshops, birthing of the drums, and feasting of medicines in the spring and fall.”

Ojibway culture

A traditional co-ordinator was recently hired to implement some of the Aboriginal workshops and activities that promote traditional teachings of the Ojibway culture. With expertise in art therapy, she will bring a new dimension to the workshops.

The Healthy Choices and Health Education/Promotion programs focus on community health, education and prevention. Healthy Choices provides services for families whose children are affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder and related conditions. This is accomplished through education and training, support to Aboriginal women who are pregnant, parent support circles, children’s drum support circles and drum making workshops, and a six-week parenting course. A nutritional component of the program targets families with children from birth up to six years of age with a weekly community kitchen, monthly nutritional workshops and other seasonal cooking events.

The Health Education/Promotion program helps individuals develop skills and knowledge necessary to promote their own health and the health of the communities in which they live. This is accomplished with a diabetes support group, Lunch ’n Learns, Tai Chi, Reiki and Reflexology, YMCA group fitness sessions, a Women’s Life Change Series, a Men’s Wellness Series, Nutritional Workshop Series, and Sacred Smoke, a program based on the seven grandfather teachings that provide a traditional perspective on the abuse of tobacco.

The centre’s newest initiative is a preschool assessment clinic. Baker is also trying to work more collaboratively with the communities by promoting outreach in the form of mental health workshops and presentations.

“It is about building relationships within the community,” Baker said. “These things take time, but we are constantly striving to build on the foundation of what we have and are looking to funders for new opportunities.”

One of the challenges Shkagamik-Kwe faces is the inequity of funding. Using a flat-funded model, the 10 AHACs’ overall shortfall is approximately $15 million as of 2007.

Funded by the Aboriginal Healing and Wellness Strategy, the Trillium Foundation and various ministries, the centre has difficulty recruiting and retaining people because of the uncertainty of a five-year funding continuum and the fact that it cannot offer salary-paid positions.

Baker is looking toward accreditation in order to loosen the government’s purse strings. This will allow the centre to deliver more programming, hire more staff and provide salaries that are more in line with other CHCs.

www.shkagamik-kwe.org