(October 30, 2008) Saskatoon – Nineteen Aboriginal peer leaders from Saskatoon and Yorkton are helping local First Nations and Métis people better understand and manage factors related to diabetes.
Evelyn Linklater, an Elder in her Saskatoon community, is a peer leader who recently completed training in the Aboriginal Live Well™ with Chronic Conditions (LWCC) program.
“I am a diabetic,” said Linklater. “I am trying to live a healthy lifestyle and teach others to do the same. The LWCC is helping me to do this. I want to see my grandchildren grow up healthy and happy.”
The Live Well™ program provides education and support so that individuals can self-manage their medical conditions and improve their self-care behaviours. Live Well™ for example, helps people with or at risk of developing type 2 diabetes take control of their actions and behaviours, and make choices that will improve their health, like stopping smoking, eating appropriately, reducing stress and exercising regularly. The Aboriginal Live Well™ component is offered in partnership with the Saskatoon Health Region, Sunrise Health Region, Saskatoon Diabetes Outreach Program and Yorkton Tribal Council, and is funded by a grant from the Public Health Agency of Canada.
Suzanne Sheppard, Director and Professional Leader, Physiotherapy, noted that coping with the challenges of any chronic disease requires more than just knowledge and skill. It requires a belief in one’s ability to use those skills in real life, and that the skills used will produce the desired result. “We encourage participants to take small steps – to set incremental goals and make short-term contracts to ensure that they are successful in their efforts to make changes,” she said.
Evaluation of the Aboriginal peer leader training program included a self-assessment by participants using digital storytelling. Five leaders from Saskatoon and five from Yorkton used the video technique to reflect on their lives and experiences with chronic disease. The two to four minute stories reveal aspects of the individuals’ lives, and how the LWCC program has helped them. The digital stories are available on line at www.patientvoices.org.uk under the tab “Stories from Saskatoon Health Region.”
“Development of peer leaders and the use of digital storytelling are superb ways to reach the Aboriginal community,” said Sheppard “The LWCC program focuses on peer leadership. That, and the project’s use of storytelling as an evaluative and educational tool, fit very well with Aboriginal cultural approaches to leading and learning. Live Well™ provides information and tools that peer leaders can use to educate their communities about managing chronic illness. The digital stories will be one of the most important of those tools,” she noted.
In Saskatchewan, about five percent of the general population has been diagnosed with diabetes.
According to Canadian Diabetes Association 2008 Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Prevention and Management of Diabetes in Canada (page S187), Type 2 diabetes in the Aboriginal population has reached
“epidemic proportions, with the national age-adjusted prevalence 3 to 5 times higher than that of the general population and as high as 26% in individual communities. Aboriginal peoples are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes at a much younger age, with high rates of diabetes in children and adolescents. As well, Aboriginal women are at more than twice the risk of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) compared to non-Aboriginal women and have high rates of pre-existing type 2 diabetes in pregnancy. Prediabetes and metabolic syndrome are also more common in these populations.”
Diabetes comes with high costs to the individual, the Saskatchewan health system and society as a whole. Together, the Ministry of Health and the Saskatoon Health Region have developed and are implementing the Provincial Diabetes Plan. That plan focuses on team-based provision of health care; implementation of evidence-based best practices; increasing the knowledge of health care providers about diabetes care and prevention; and implementing primary prevention initiatives to address the rapidly increasing incidence of diabetes.
Through its strategic plan, Saskatoon Health Region has committed to achieving goals outlined in the provincial strategy, with a specific focus on working with Aboriginal communities to improve health and reduce the incidence of chronic conditions like diabetes. The Aboriginal Live Well™ program is one example of how we are achieving that goal.
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For more information contact:
Linda Walker
Corporate and Public Affairs Adviser
Saskatoon Health Region
306-655-3328 |
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Saskatoon Health Region
“Healthiest people, healthiest communities, exceptional service.”
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