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A new health study has found the government is underestimating how many Indigenous people live in Thunder Bay by orders of magnitude.
(Thread)
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Well Living House, a health think tank based in St. Michael’s Hospital found that while the 2016 census recorded 10,000 Indigenous adults living among Thunder Bay’s population of 110,000, a more accurate number could be two to four times higher -- between 23,000 and 42,000.
The “Our Health Counts Thunder Bay Survey,” (funded by the Ministry of Health and released in partnership with Anishnawbe Mushkiki on Nov. 2) found extreme inequity in health outcomes and health care access for Indigenous people in Northwestern Ontario’s primary service centre.
Their survey of 600 adults & nearly 230 children who self-identify as Indigenous found 50% to have a primary health practitioner, compared to a provincial regional average of 90%. Half of Indigenous people accessed emergency care in the last year, compared to 19% of Ontarians.
On top of finding inequitable access to primary care pushes Indigenous people into emergency care, two-thirds of Indigenous adults reported having experienced racism. One in three reported “having been treated unfairly by health care professionals because they were Indigenous.”
It all adds up to one in every four Indigenous adults in Thunder Bay having unmet health needs in the past year, compared to an Ontario average of one in 10. The top reason respondents gave was, “Lack of trust in the health care provider.”
Again, with the systems providing inequitable access and unfair treatment to Indigenous people. Again, with lost faith in the system making it worse.
http://www.stmichaelshospital.com/media/detail.php?source=hospital_news/2020/1102
#ReturnToThunderBay
http://www.stmichaelshospital.com/media/detail.php?source=hospital_news/2020/1102
#ReturnToThunderBay
In making #ReturnToThunderBay, @RMComedy & I made a telephone call to the communications office at the Thunder Bay hospital regarding the steps the hospital is taking to address systemic racism as a partner in the local Anti-Racism & Inclusion Accord. No one returned that call.
Ryan McMahon. Jon Thompson.
#ReturnToThunderBay
Episode II drops on Monday, here or wherever you get your podcasts. https://www.canadaland.com/shows/thunder-bay/
#ReturnToThunderBay
Episode II drops on Monday, here or wherever you get your podcasts. https://www.canadaland.com/shows/thunder-bay/
