Health (18-24)

18. 18. 18. We call upon the federal, provincial, territorial, and Aboriginal governments to acknowledge that the current state of Aboriginal health in Canada is a direct result of previous Canadian government policies, including residential schools, and to recognize and implement the health-care rights of Aboriginal people as identified in international law, constitutional law, and under the Treaties.
        19. We call upon the federal government, in consultation with Aboriginal peoples, to establish measurable goals to identify and close the gaps in health outcomes between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities, and to publish annual progress reports and assess long-term trends. Such efforts would focus on indicators such as: infant mortality, maternal health, suicide, mental health, addictions, life expectancy, birth rates, infant and child health issues, chronic diseases, illness and injury incidence, and the availability of appropriate health services.
        20. In order to address the jurisdictional disputes concerning Aboriginal people who do not reside on reserves, we call upon the federal government to recognize, respect, and address the distinct health needs of the Métis, Inuit, and off-reserve Aboriginal peoples.
        21. We call upon the federal government to provide sustainable funding for existing and new Aboriginal healing centres to address the physial, mental, emotional, and spiritual harms caused by residential schools, and to ensure that the funding of healing centres in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories is a priority.
        22. We call upon those who can effect change within the Canadian health-care system to recognize the value of Aboriginal healing practices and use them in the treatment of Aboriginal patients in collaboration with Aboriginal healers and Elders where requested by Aboriginal patients.
        23. We call upon all levels of government to:
            • Increase the number of Aboriginal professionals working in the health-care field.
            • Ensure the retention of Aboriginal health-care providers in Aboriginal communities.
            • Provide cultural competency training for all health-care professionals.
        24. We call upon medical and nursing schools in Canada to require all students to take a course dealing with Aboriginal health issues, including the history and legacy of residential schools, the United Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Treaties and Aboriginal rights, and Indigenous teachings and practices. This will require skills-based training in intercultural competency, conflict resolution, human rights and anti-racism.

The History, Part 1 – Origins to 1939

Health and medical care: absence, 385-393, 442-443; budget cutbacks, 427-428; cost statistics, 422; diseases and epidemics, 398-400, 409-410, 430-432, 443, 448; drug treatments, 448; federal government funding, 381-383, 385-388, 421-423, 427-428, 433-436, 443-444; health units, 430-432; infirmary, 557-559; medical officers, 401-412, 450-451; nursing training failure, 401; parent complaints, 391-393, 444-445; pre-enrolment physical examinations, 398-400, 418-420, 424, 425; provincial pressure, 433; religious control by nuns, 445; smallpox, 443; staff concerns, 393-394; staff health, 708-709; tonsil infections, 427; tuberculosis epidemic, 398-400, 409-410, 430-433.

The History, Part 2 – 1939 to 2000

Health and medical care: Aboriginal health legacy, 579; accidents (see accidents, death and injury); classroom conditions, 522-523; controlled-cost funding system, 53; ear disease, 210-212; emotional care, 216-220 (see also loneliness and lack of love); experimentation and research, 192, 227-231, 252-299; eyeglasses, 209-210; federal health policy, 19; hospitalization as a result of discipline, 387; inadequacy of, 190, 192; lack of heating, 207; medical examinations, 197-199, 203, 204-205, 209-210; overcrowding, 186; parental consent, 220-227; quality of care, 209-210; staff workload and, 503-504; standards and funding, 95, 100.
Loneliness and lack of love: runaways and, 349, 456; schools as child-welfare institutions, 148; schools ill-equipped, 217; staff descriptions of, 537-538

The Inuit and Northern Experience

Disease, epidemics, and illness (North): communication with family of, 115-116; history of, 10; influenza and pneumonia, 29-30, 60, 115-116, 159, 181; measles, mumps, and chicken pox, 30, 60, 113-114, 115; medical examinations/services, 28-29; overview of schools/hostels, 18, 159-160; tuberculosis, tubercular meningitis, 29, 37, 43, 47, 60, 66, 74, 115, 159-160; various specific illnesses, 28-30, 63, 68, 115; whooping cough, 29-30.
Food and diet: general, 14, 27-28, 27-31, 182, 185; eggs, 28, 40, 42, 59, 61; in large hostels, 112-114; northern/southern, 27, 40, 42, 61-62, 113-114, 151, 156, 183; raw meat, 113-114; rotten fish experience, 33; school diet insufficient, 59; in small hostels, 151, 156, 160; supplies/shortages, 14, 17, 27-28, 37-38, 59, 60-62, 160; trapping/fishing by students, 38, 40-41, 44.
Health and medical care: general, 14, 27-31; alcohol, 136; alcohol and drugs, 124, 125, 126, 133-137, 139; in education curriculum, 52; in large hostels, 114-116, 128; medical examinations, 28-29, 60, 66, 103, 115, 151; in northern Labrador, 182; small hostels and, 159-160; smoking (cigarettes), 109, 124, 126; travelling nurse propositions, 52; vaccination clinic, iii. See also disease, epidemics, and illness (North); food and diet; nurses and nursing; water and sanitation.
Nurses and nursing: medical examinations/screening, 66, 103; recruitment of, 62; as residence staff, 102, 114; training for Inuit, 48; travelling, 52, 115; vaccination clinic, 150-151.
Water and sanitation, 32, 116, 153, 155.

The Métis Experience

n/a

Missing Children and Unmarked Burials

Health, 10-11, 27-29, 35-36, 46-74.

The Legacy

Health, 139-184.

Reconciliation

Health, 126, 146, 198, 201, 204, 208.