Aboriginal Health Care

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Pages: 5

Secondly, accessibility to healthcare is another key principle that many Aboriginals have still not fully obtained. Before Western culture took over First Nation’s ways of healthcare, Aboriginals did their healthcare in a holistic manner that took care of the person as a whole instead of solely working with their illness and symptoms (“Aboriginal Issues”). As result of Aboriginal people’s method of healthcare being stripped from them, “the loss of community-based social and health services disproportionately burden Indigenous peoples. Within this context, the health and wellbeing of Indigenous peoples continues to lag behind that of the over- all Canadian population on virtually every measure” (Browne 2). They do not have access to the kind …show more content…
This inaccessibility to proper healthcare is rooted in the residential schools which deprived the students in their schools any sort of healthcare. In these schools the students were not allowed to have their traditional foods, practices or medicine which created greater sickness: Because of the isolated location of many schools, students were also often denied access to ‘Western’ doctors and nurses. This double denial of health care, based in government policy, continues to this day, due to the relative isolation of many Aboriginal communities, many of which have no road access, and limited access to local health resources. Health care is a right enshrined in international and constitutional law as well as in Treaties. (Final Report …show more content…
Healthcare providers are quick to answer that their care is equal among all of their patients, yet Aboriginal patients often feel discriminated against (109). Although one side stating there is racism does not necessarily mean that racist intentions are taking place, it is important to not minimize what an individual perceives as racism and one must explore the “‘race’/class/gender relations that organize that particular interpretation” (110). While considering these issues Tang states that is is important to as the question of “What can we understand about the processes and discourses that perpetuate inequities in health care” (110)? Lastly, it is significant to note that a lot of mental and physical health issues in the Aboriginal society are traced back to residential schools where students were in unsanitary and cramped living conditions which caused them to catch numerous diseases. However, physical heath is only half of the problem as many Aboriginals had severe mental health problems as a result of these issues which has been passed on to the next several generations (Final Report 158-159). The inequalities that many Aboriginal people are facing has created a barrier between this people group and the healthcare system which goes