Health centre for kidney wellness officially opens at ANHH
- EFN Staff | September 22, 2017
Members of Treaty 4 celebrated a week-long of activities in Fort Qu’Appelle from September 11 to 15, including the grand opening of the Pasikow Muskwa Healing Centre at the All Nations Healing Hospital. One of the centre’s focuses is providing enhanced chronic kidney wellness services to Indigenous and non-Indigenous community members.
Gail Boehme, the Executive Director of All Nations Healing Hospital, said the leadership had a vision of creating a place to provide the proper care for their clients.
“For several years, kidney disease has been one of the primary illnesses affecting First Nations and non-First Nations populations throughout Canada,” Boehme said. “The disease is three to five times higher in the First Nation population than it is in the non-First Nation population.”
Boehme added that the new centre will be operated under a primary health care model with a first phase being a nurse practitioner-led chronic kidney disease clinic, which will enhance early screening and will work with their clients on health literacy to teach about chronic disease management.
“Our plan is also to work with our clients to support a home-based renal therapy program,” she said. “Phase two of that expansion is just around the corner. We’re targeting that [in less] than 18 months.”
The centre’s construction started in April 2016 and wrapped up a year later where they officially opened up their services at the start of August.
“The purpose of the grand opening was to build the awareness of the program and to share with the stakeholders of the work they helped us pull together,” Boehme said.
The grand opening of the Pasikow Muskwa Healing Centre was gathered with community members, dignitaries of the provincial and health ministries, File Hills Qu’Appelle Tribal Council (FHQTC) Chief Edmund Bellegarde and FSIN Chief Bobby Cameron. The grand opening only took place weeks later to coincide with the Treaty 4 weeklong of celebrations.
FHQTC also celebrated Treaty 4 week of events by hosting their 1st Annual Great Plains Culture and Language Gathering which brought together language and knowledge keepers, elders and linguistic groups. The gathering gave participants the opportunity to strengthen and assess the states of Indigenous languages. The tribal council also hosted a career fair, a parade and ended the celebrations with a round dance and a pow-wow over the weekend.
Treaty 4 was signed in September 15, 1874 at Fort Qu’Appelle. The FHQTC consists of 11 First Nation communities.