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Weve been fortunate enough to have had some staff who have been here for the whole 10 years. Shanna Weir
with the 10 First Nations in the district, where we hold a monthly clinic with the nurse practitioner and a registered nurse, Weir explained. Weve also recently had one of the local pharmacists also participating in some of our community outreach to provide education, and review medication and those sorts of things, which has been really beneficial. Access to health care is such an issue for us in the north, she stressed. In doing the outreach, were increasing peoples access, Weir remarked, noting they can bring primary health care services to individuals in First Nation communities who otherwise might not have access to it due to barriers like mobility, remoteness, and health issues. Back in 1999, the centre had one physician, nurse practitioner, registered nurse, and medical records technician, as well as a dietitian, health educator, traditional healing co-ordinator, and a translator, Weir said. So it was rather small at that time. Since then, the centre has grownit now has more than 4,200 patients in their database along with even more staff, including two part-time physicians, two full-time nurse practitioners, two registered nurses, and two medical records technicians. Weve been fortunate enough to have had some staff who have been here for the whole 10 years, Weir said, adding those four will be receiving 10-year service awards during tomorrows open house. We also have two mental health workers, Weir added. We did expand to include a mental health program, which we felt was very important as part of holistic health. We really operate from a holistic perspective from the aspect of health carethat health care encompasses the entire persons mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being, so we focus a lot on that, she stressed. As we started to grow over the 10 years, weve added additional programs, and sort of switched focus for some of the other programs, as well, Weir continued, citing the Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder child nutrition program thats one of the more recent addi-
tions. Working from what Weir described as an interdisciplinary approach, the centre also has done a lot of collaborative work with other organizations to provide even more programs for patients. One other success has been the incorporation of traditional healing, noted Weir, since the centre offers traditional healing method for patients if they would prefer to use that instead of Western medicine, or to combine the two practices. Weve recently, just about a month or two ago, we had our first traditional healing clinic, where we brought in a traditional healer and a traditional medicine person, she explained, noting they are planning to continue with that practice. I think that was a huge success. We had two full days of patients booked that seemed to really benefit from having that. It seemed to be a definite need. So weve certainly grown considerably in 10 years, and expanded the scope of our practice, Weir said. In the coming years, the centre hopes to expand on both the availability of current services and programs offered, she noted, pointing towards areas like physiotherapy and oral health that they arent able to offer at the moment but would be beneficial. The Gizhewaadiziwin Health Access Centre is located next to the Nanicost building at Couchiching.
Fort High student Morgan Krueger was chosen to participate in the pilot project launched by former Prime Minister Paul Martin in partnership with the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants, which has linked her with a menPeggy Revell photo tor at BDO Dunwoody here.
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