Media.Knet.Ca

The provincial government recently announced the formation of the Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs). LHIN 14 or the Northwest LHIN will serve from Kenora to Manitouwadge, and from Hudson Bay to the Ontario-Minnesota border. Ennis Fiddler, former chief of Sandy Lake First Nation and chair of the Menoyawin Health Centre in Sioux Lookout, was named as one of the eight members of this new organization.

From the Ontario government press release ... "Local Health Integration Networks are local health organizations designed to plan, integrate and fund local health services – including hospitals, community care access centres, home care, long-term care, mental health, community health centres as well as addiction and community support services – within a specific geographic area."

Click here to read the entire gov't press release about the LHINs.

Click here to read the announcement for the formation of the Northwest LHIN.

Click here to read the Thunder Bay Chronicle Journal coverage of this announcement.

New look for health care: Planning will take place in the region under LHIN

By Ward Holland - The Chronicle-Journal

June 29, 2005

The way health care is managed in Northwestern Ontario is about to change.

Provincial Liberal MPPs Michael Gravelle and Bill Mauro announced Tuesday that the government has created 14 Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs), one of them for this region.

“My first thoughts are that I’m pleased that health planning is now taking place in the region,” said Maurice Fortin, executive director of the Canadian Mental Health Association.

The LHINs will plan for, integrate and fund local health agencies, such as hospitals, community care access centres, home care agencies, and mental health and addictions agencies.

“We believe they are going to dramatically change how we do health care in Ontario,” Gravelle (Thunder Bay-Superior North) said at a news conference in Thunder Bay.

Currently, the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care oversees local health agencies.

“We are creating LHINs because local health services are best planned at the local level by people familiar with the needs of the community,” Health Minister George Smitherman said in a statement.

“You can’t micromanage a $33-billion health care system from an office in Toronto.”

John Whitfield, a former mathematics professor at Lakehead University, was introduced as chairman of the region’s LHIN.

The Northwestern Ontario LHIN will begin operating in early September, he said.

Gravelle praised Whitfield as “a true gentleman who certainly knows how to work with people.”

Two other board members have also been named. Janice Beazley, vice-chairwoman, is a health executive from Fort Frances; and Ennis Fiddler, is a teacher and CBC radio broadcaster.

The other six board members haven’t been selected and Gravelle said they will be chosen on merit.

Gwen DuBois-Wing was introduced as chief executive officer of the LHIN. She is a registered nurse with more than 15 years experience in health care management.

“She’s smart, she’s organized and she’s a system thinker,” Whitfield said.

“The status quo isn’t good enough anymore,” DuBois-Wing said. “Changes are needed. And that’s what we’re here for.”

DuBois-Wing was director of the Northwestern Ontario District Health Council from 1998 to 2005. The council disbanded in March.

She said the LHINs are “substantially different” than health councils which gave advice. LHINs will determine health needs and where dollars will go.

The boundary of the Northwest LHIN will extend from Kenora to Manitouwadge, and from Hudson Bay to the Ontario-Minnesota border.

Fortin said the Canadian Mental Health Association is part of a large region that extends from Parry Sound to the Manitoba border.

The Ministry of Health’s regional office is in Sudbury.

“I think that people have felt like we’re poor cousins,” Fortin said. “We’re less connected.”

Mr. Barkman is continuing his fundraising efforts to raise funds for a Traditional Food Bank for individuals who have had to relocate to urban areas due to medical requirements.  He has already completed 400 kms of walking via winter road travel.

Participants include:

1. Jimmy Barkman, Sachigo Lake
2. Rhoda Barkman, Jimmy’s wife, Sachigo Lake
3. Marsha Wood, Jimmy’s daughter, Winnipeg, MB
4. Dillon Wood, Jimmy’s grandson, Winnipeg, MB
5. Bella Chapman, Jimmy’s sister-in-law, Big Trout Lake, ON

Estimated travel from Sioux Lookout to Thunder
Bay, ON, will be another 400 kms, commencing today, April 22, 2005.

Friday April 22nd 2005 – Depart Sioux Lookout @ 1:00 pm to Dinorwic (Sioux Lookout Accommodations)
Saturday April 23rd 2005 – Dinorwic to Ignace (Sioux Lookout Accommodations)
Sunday April 24th 2005 – Rest (Sioux Lookout Accommodations)
Monday April 25th 2005 – Ignace (Ignace Accommodations)
Tuesday April 26th 2005 – Ignace (Ignace Accommodations)
Wednesday April 27th 2005 – English River (English River Accommodations)
Thursday April 28th 2005 – English River (English River Accommodations)
Friday April 29th 2005 – Upsala (Upsala Accommodations)
Saturday April 30th 2005 – Upsala (Upsala Accommodations)
Sunday May 1st 2005 – Rest (Thunder Bay)
Monday May 2nd 2005 – (Thunder Bay Accommodations)
Tuesday May 3rd 2005 – Thunder Bay Arrival

Jimmy Barkman and family will be walking Monday to Saturday from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Sunday – Rest day

Volunteers are required to walk 5 kms each.

Photo taken by Carol Terry, at WFNC’s BBQ.

The April 12, 2005, Vol.172, Issue 8 of the Canadian Medical Association Journal contains a research article entitled "Epidemiology of severe trauma among status Aboriginal Canadians: a population-based study". The Calgary based study found that the treaty status aboriginal Canadians in that region were nearly four times more likely to suffer a serious traumatic injury.

The study included the Calgary Health Region encompassing the city of Calgary and its surrounding areas which includes the three large First Nations (Stoney, Siksika and Sarcee [Tsuu Tina]). All adults (16 years of age or older) experiencing severe trauma  (1779 patients) living in the health region between Apr. 1, 1999, and Mar. 31, 2002, were included in the study.

Aboriginal Canadians were found to be at significantly increased risk of njuries resulting from motor vehicle crashes, assault and traumatic suicide. They are twice as likely to die as a result of their injuries.

From the CBC coverage of this report ...

The numbers don't come as a shock to Jason Goodstriker, the Alberta regional chief for the Assembly of First Nations. He has heard countless stories of injury and death among his people.

"Obviously there's a huge sense of disappointment," he said of the study.

"We've heard these numbers before and Canada – whether it's the population or the government – has had a tough time in dealing with that."

Goodstriker said First Nations communities need between $3 billion and $4 billion to address health and social concerns like the one addressed in the study.

The United Nations report entitled "INDIGENOUS ISSUES - Human rights and indigenous issues - Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people, Rodolfo Stavenhagen" was released in December 2004.

Canada would be placed 48th out of 174 countries if judged solely on the United Nations' human development scale for the economic and social well-being of its First Nations people, states an April 11 CBC report.

Excerpt from attached study

33. Among the 174 countries included in the United Nations Development Programme Human Development Report 2003, Canada ranked eighth, with a score of 0.937 (it had ranked first in 1999). When the Human Development Index (HDI) is calculated for Registered Indians, however, it reveals a substantially lower score for this population, which would be ranked about forty-eighth among the countries in the report, according to the information received by the Special Rapporteur from the Aboriginal organizations in Canada. Canada recognizes that key indicators of socio-economic conditions for Aboriginal people are unacceptably lower than for non-Aboriginal Canadians.

From the CBC article... 

TORONTO, March 30 /CNW Telbec/ - Federal Minister of State for Public Health, Carolyn Bennett and Manitoba Minister of Healthy Living, Theresa Oswald, are co-leading, along with the Ontario Minister of Health and Long-Term Care, George Smitherman, today, a roundtable to develop public health goals for Canada.

This roundtable is part of a Canada-wide consultation process that is designed to advance commitments made by First Ministers to work together to improve the health status of Canadians by developing public health goals.

"Keeping as many Canadians healthy for as long as possible means looking beyond health departments to broader determinants of health, such as poverty, violence, the environment, shelter, education and equity," said Minister Bennett. "Involving Canadians in this process will ensure the goals we set will be relevant, responsive and will increase our understanding of the complexity of health."

Click here to read the entire press release

A summary of this roundtable will be posted on the Public Health Goals website http://www.healthycanadians.ca. Additional information for Canadians on the Canada-wide consultation process will be available on the web site, giving Canadians the opportunity to become directly involved in the process.

From Saturday's Globe and Mail

Diabetics are losing legs unnecessarily
By CHRISTIE BLATCHFORD
Saturday, March 26, 2005 Updated at 1:36 AM EST

Canadian diabetics are losing feet and legs at an alarming rate every year despite a growing body of scientific evidence which shows that a treatment already available can potentially prevent amputation in about 70 per cent of cases.

In Ontario alone, conservative estimates are that 2,100 diabetics suffer below-.or above-the-knee amputations every year due to foot ulcers, with some doctors quietly putting the number at twice that and a recent British study finding that amputation rates themselves are often unreliable and underestimated.

Statistically, every year about 2.5 per cent of the more than two million Canadians with diabetes develop foot ulcers - the disease often causes poor circulation and nerve damage in the extremities, with the result that such minor problems as calluses and cuts can quickly become infected before the patient realizes it - with about a quarter of those eventually going on to amputation.

Most are older people, if not elderly, their bodies worn down after decades of the disease's insidious effects.

Yet though the treatment - called hyperbaric oxygen therapy, or HBOT - is, on paper, available in most major Canadian cities, its controversial history of overblown claims, combined with ignorance about its legitimate efficacy in more than a dozen conditions and a pharmaceutical-driven medical establishment, has resulted in the therapy being relegated to the sidelines. "It's got no champion," Dr. Wayne Evans, chair of the Ontario Medical Association's hyperbaric medicine division, said sadly of HBOT.

"It gets lost in the shuffle. It's not glamorous. The profession sees it as boring stuff involving yechy wounds mostly in old, smelly people."

Calgary hyperbaric physician Ross Harrison says the lack of information and widespread reluctance of doctors to refer their diabetic patients for HBOT is tantamount to a conspiracy of silence.

"That's definitely true," he told The Globe and Mail in a telephone interview from his office at HBOT Clinics Inc., a private facility that treated 12 diabetics last year.

"Diabetics are losing legs unnecessarily," Dr. Harrison said. "There's no question. We run into a great deal of resistance, from several different quarters," and mentioned one local health authority that flatly refuses to approve the treatment.

HBOT is long-established as a remedy for divers suffering from decompression illness and firefighters with carbon monoxide poisoning.

But since 1976, when the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society first formed a committee to review research and clinical data, other therapeutic uses for HBOT have been added, with the recommended "indications" now refined to 13, including delayed radiation injuries (which may show up years after cancer treatment) and so-called problem wounds, the broad category into which diabetic foot ulcers fall.

--------- Inserted box ---------------
Whether for treatment of "the bends" or a foot ulcer, patients enter a treatment chamber where they breathe 100-per-cent oxygen at a pressure typically 21/2 to three times that of sea level. With diabetic wounds, what this hyperoxygenation does is kick start a number of healing processes, chief among them the growth of new blood vessels.
--------------------------------------

Since 2001, there have been four randomized, controlled clinical trials of HBOT on diabetic ulcers - the gold standard in evidence-based medicine - though the patient numbers were small, ranging from 30 to 70.

All the studies found either markedly fewer amputations with patients who received HBOT compared to those who didn't, or enormously improved healing.

Yet the Canadian Diabetes Association, which defines one of its functions as "effective advocacy" for diabetics, makes not a single mention of the therapy on its website. Indeed only last month did the CDA announce it will soon begin an independent technical review of the HBOT literature, with recommendations expected this summer.

The agency was responding to a letter from Bill Roman, president of the Canadian Council on Clinical Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy, urging the group to "take a leadership role and provide this information to patients, physicians and the [Ontario] minister of health" and flatly describing the loss of limbs in Ontario as "a carnage."

Diabetes in Ontario, published in 2003 by the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences and considered a top-level "practice atlas," devotes an entire chapter to peripheral vascular disease (the underlying problem that causes nerve damage and leads to amputation) without any reference to HBOT.

Federally, Health Canada devotes two pages on its website to HBOT and lists 11 recognized uses of the therapy - but none for problem wounds like foot ulcers.

Indeed, Health Canada's "A-Z" on-line information guide has four listings about dengue fever, hardly the equal of the health crisis posed by diabetes, which experts universally estimate to be increasing by about 10 per cent a year due to the aging baby boomer generation and what is euphemistically called "over-nutrition."

Yet there is only one reference, currently unavailable, on the Ottawa website for hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

As Michael Garey, a hyperbaric doctor at Lakeview Hospital near Salt Lake City, Utah, says: "For some people, amputation is the best way to go. It's a good surgery. But a lot of people, we can save. And all of them deserve the right to have a say in it, and to know that there are options."

It was more than two years ago that the U.S. CentersÖ for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal agency that administers the federal Medicare plan and helps states administer Medicaid, issued a "national coverage decision" expanding approved use of HBOT to specifically include coverage for "diabetic wounds of the lower extremities." Starting in April of 2003, U.S. diabetics with serious ulcers that failed to heal within a month using standard treatment were eligible for HBOT as an "adjunctive therapy," a decision described by the OMA's Dr. Evans as "a very logical but gutsy move."

Dr. Evans, a hyperbaric doctor of 14 years at Toronto General Hospital's small unit and a University of Toronto assistant professor, noted that "the U.S. decision isn't the only piece of information. There's tonnes of scientific material that supports it [HBOT]. Admittedly, a large body of the older work is lower-quality evidence," he said, "but the recent work is pretty substantial evidence. It just doesn't get the headlines that a study of 5,000 patients gets. A huge study may be required to show a slight difference, but a smaller one can still show a statistically significant difference."

As Dr. Ted Sosiak, secretary of the OMA's committee on hyperbaric medicine, told The Globe, because "there's no patent [to be had] on oxygen and no financial incentive, there's no one coming in to do research with $20-million."

Yet Dr. Sosiak says, "the evidence is there" - not only that HBOT works "about 75 per cent of the time," but also that it's cost-effective. "Amputation in Canada, using the CDA's own figures, costs about $74,000," he said, while an average course of HBOT treatment - 30 or 40 are usually needed to fully heal a diabetic ulcer - costs between $8,000 and $12,000.

The situation in this country is complicated by provincial health insurance plans, which cover HBOT. But some, like Ontario's, pay only for physician consultation, using archaic codes that were developed in 1968 when hyperbaric oxygen was used primarily with divers. In other plans, such as Alberta, clinics are also compensated with a "facility fee," which is billed to the local health region.

Because the Ontario style of funding pays no facility or technical fee, it means there's little incentive for hospital-based HBOT clinics, such as the one at Toronto General Hospital - the only hospital clinic serving the country's largest city - to treat elective patients such as diabetics, or to expand. The TGH's so-called "standalone" budget is but $285,000, hospital spokeswoman Gillian Howard said, emphasizing that the clinic is meant to function as "an emergency service."

Ms. Howard said that in a given year, the clinic treats between 100 and 125 cases; there are about four elective patients a day, only two of whom, The Globe has learned from other sources, are diabetics. These sources say this has translated to a waiting list of about a year at TGH, and about eight months at the province's other hospital clinics, located in Ottawa and Hamilton.

With TGH treating only about 15 diabetics a year, and the other hospitals together averaging about 35 annually, it means, Dr. Sosiak said, that not more than 50 of the thousands of Ontarians with deteriorating leg ulcers are able to take advantage of

According to the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society, there are 23 HBOT clinics - a mix of hospital, private and military facilities - across Canada. And diabetics who resist amputation and learn about the therapy will dig into their own pockets if necessary and travel to get the treatment.

Mary Svitek, a 64-year-old from Windsor, guesses she spent about $10,000 for travel and accommodation while getting HBOT from a private Toronto clinic more than two years ago.

"Within two months," she told The Globe, the ulcer on her right foot healed, and even grew new skin. "That's still fine." But in early 2003, she developed three new sores on the bottom of the foot, and had to return for more treatment. "Two of them healed," Mrs. Svitek said, "but one is still open."

Yet she continues to walk, and remain active. "To me, it would be very, very difficult to lose my leg. I'm a very active person."

Mrs. Svitek learned about HBOT on the Internet, where, as the OMA's Dr. Evans said, "You have to be a very good Googler, and have an obsessive-compulsive" persistence to unearth information. "None of the doctors in Windsor seemed to be aware of it," Mrs. Svitek said. When she asked her family physician for a referral, she said his attitude was, 'Well, you can go ahead but I don't know if it's going to work.' He was very impressed when he saw how it healed."

"It's made a believer out of me," Toronto private investigator Jack Hunter said. "I'd never heard of it, but it worked wonders."

At 66, Mr. Hunter's journey through surgery is typical of the slippery slope that for many diabetics begins with a minor amputation and, several agonizing procedures later, ends in death.

First, the big toe on his right foot became discolored, then went black with gangrene; he had it amputated; then the adjacent toes went the same way, and on March 11, last year, the leg was amputated below the knee, and he walked out of hospital five weeks later on a brand-new prosthesis.

But three months later, informed enough now to be panic-stricken, Mr. Hunter noticed "a little black spot" between the toes on his left foot, and ultimately lost two toes and a piece of the sole. He credits HBOT, which he received at Toronto General Hospital from Dr. Evans, with saving his leg. "At the end of eight weeks, it's really doing well. It's almost healed. It's just amazing," he said.

Most of the physicians interviewed by The Globe say the demand for HBOT is primarily patient-driven. "Why isn't there more usage?" the OMA's Dr. Sosiak asked rhetorically. "Physician ignorance, no training [in HBOT] in our universities; patient ignorance; a culture of antagonism."

As Dr. Garey of Utah's Lakeview Hospital said sadly, "Part of it is politics; part of it is that doctors are not exposed to it in residency and what they're not exposed to, they're leery of. I run into that when I lecture at the university ..... I always reply, 'How many of the 39,000 articles have you read?'."

He said that in his six years of hyperbaric medicine, he has treated "dozens of people who were told they need amputation, and we were able to save their limbs." Given that most diabetics facing amputation are older, Dr. Garey said, saving their legs "is a tremendous quality-of-life issue. Rehabilitation is not a fast thing, not any faster than wound care. Prostheses are much better now, true, but most of the elderly can never successfully use them. Almost 50 per cent [of those who undergo amputation] die within months."

Dr. Garey said hyperbaric doctors often make the black joke that only when they develop a "scratch 'n' sniff panel for our pictures" will HBOT get the recognition it deserves.

In June, he will present a paper at the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society conference in Las Vegas. The title of his paper? "Limb salvage." Who would have thought that in 2005, such a discussion would be necessary.

You could be a host on the hit TV show Road Scholars!ROAD SCHOLARS follows high school students, armed with digital cameras, as they capture the history and beauty of exotic locales while drawing viewers into their personal experiences.

In the summer of 2005 8 aboriginal hosts will be sent on adventures (paid for
by ROAD SCHOLARS) to: 

• Peru,
• Australia,
• Wyoming
• and 5 other cool places

The television program about their experiences will air on APTN Aboriginal Peoples Television Network in the winter of 2006.

If you think you have what it takes, here's what you need to know and do:

1. Be ready, willing and able to travel and learn
2. Be ready to teach others about your Inuit, First Nations or Métis culture with games,drumming, chanting, telling traditional stories etc.
3. Be in high school grades 9-12 (No Age limit)
4. Be cool about making new friends
5. Love performing for the camera and be willing to learn to be a videographer

If this sounds like fun then send a picture and a short letter saying why you would make a totally awesome Road Scholar.  Make sure you tell us if you've done any performing!

Deadline for applications is April 30, 2005

Snail mail to:
Road Scholars Productions Inc.
2 Haig Ave.
Toronto, Ontario M1N 2W1
Or email to: maria@amberlight.ca
If you have questions go to  www.roadscholars.ca
or call Maria at 416-694-3131
Chris Allicock
Amberlight Productions
2 Haig Avenue
Toronto, Ontario M1N 2W1
416-694-3131
416-694-2784 (Fax)
www.amberlight.ca

The George Jeffrey Children's Centre has launched a $4.5 million Capital Fundraising Campaign for the construction of a new treatment centre in Thunder Bay. First Nation representatives for the Foundation committee are being sought.

Thunder Bay, ON — The George Jeffrey Children’s Centre in Thunder Bay officially launched its Foundation’s Capital Fundraising Campaign on Tuesday, March 1, 2005. At the same time, the Centre unveiled its new branding and website, as well as a list of program events scheduled for 2005 such as the famous Soap Box Derby.

The George Jeffrey Children’s Centre, which provides vital treatment services to children with physical and developmental disabilities, revealed its new image at the media conference. The re-branding and new website has been developed by local firm, Korkola Design Communications, in order to better represent and communicate the mission of the Centre.

Following the unveiling ceremony, Tom Jackson of the newly formed George Jeffrey Children’s Foundation, also be officially kicked off the Centre’s four years, $4.5million Capital Fundraising Campaign for the construction and equipping of a much needed new Centre. The proposed new Centre will be able to serve over 1000 children annually from across Northwestern Ontario.

Over 50 members of the regional community from both the business and public sectors attended the event and guest speakers included; Thunder Bay Mayor Lynne Peterson, Margie Bettiol from the Ministry of Children & Youth Services, representatives from the Federal and Provincial Members of Parliament and representatives from Matawa First Nations Management. The kick off agenda items included; presentations, guest speakers, cheque presentation, the launch of the 2005 Soap Box Derby, facility tours, and a luncheon. 

Says Eiji Tsubouchi, Executive Director of The George Jeffrey Children’s Centre; “March 1st will mark an exciting and long awaited day for all of us at the Centre, including the children. We have a dual purpose with the unveiling of our new branding and the kick off of our Foundation and its Capital Fundraising Campaign, yet they are both complementary initiatives. The results of our recent feasibility study indicated that the public did not fully understand what we do at the Centre and that our branding was not representative of the children in our care. With a great new image, we hope to better connect our Centre with the public and help them to understand the vital roles that both the Centre and these children play in our community. By the same token, this approach will allow us to demonstrate why our capital fundraising campaign is so desperately needed. Without the public’s understanding and support, we cannot hope to achieve our $4.5 million fundraising goal.”

The George Jeffrey Children’s Foundation is hoping to recruit representatives and individuals from all sectors for its committees and hopes that the regional First Nations will also participate in the campaign. Children from the communities of Bearskin Lake,  Big Trout Lake,  Cat Lake,  Deer Lake,  Fort Hope,  Fort William, Gull Bay,  Heron Bay,  Kingfisher Lake,  Neskantaga,  MacDiarmid,  Mishkeegoogemang,  North Spirit Lake,  Pikangikum,  Sandy Lake,  Wapekeka,  Webequie and  Wunnimun Lake currently attend the Centre.

Individuals who are interested in participating in the fundraising drive or serving as a committee member may contact the George Jeffrey Children’s Centre Fundraising Coordinator at: 807 767 4443.

An e-book that offers a unique approach for transforming the heart of deep-rooted conflict in the world today by Jessie Sutherland and with a foreword by Chief Robert Joseph. E-books are purchased o­n-line and you can download them o­nto your computer.

Visit: http://www.worldviewstrategies.com/e-book/

Here are what people have to say.

"Jessie Sutherland's book may well be the insight that provides the greatest potential for bringing about the needed healing and reconciliation that must take place. It has the potential to provide the spark required to bring real peace, balance, and harmony between parties, between Canada and its Aboriginal people. I agree absolutely with Ms. Sutherland's assertion that at the heart of reconciliation is essentially a parallel process of personal and political transformation from systems of dominance to relationships of mutuality. Heart by heart, family by family, community by community is the most appealing way to bring about reconciliation and this I have learned from Ms. Sutherland."

Chief Robert Joseph, Hereditary Chief of the Gwa wa enuk First Nation
Chairman of Native American Leadership Alliance For Peace and Reconciliation
Special Advisor to Federal Government for Residential Schools
Former Executive Director of Indian Residential School Survivors Society of BC

"Reconciliation From The Inside Out: Worldviewing Skills For Everyone offers a fresh, insightful and great contribution to the field. I immediately requested o­ne for my library."

John Paul Lederach, PhD,
author of Building Peace: Sustainable Reconciliation in Divided Societies.

"Reconciliation From The Inside Out: Worldviewing Skills For Everyone is a tool we can all use as individuals, families, or communities. I encourage everyone to take a risk o­n a new approach. I met Jessie Sutherland at a time when I was shedding the "victim mode" of the colonizer/colonized relationships - I believe the o­nly way we can have true (authentic) reconciliation is if we "get real" about the healing that is needed o­n both sides of the colonizer/colonized fence."

Dorothy Christian, Okanagan-Shuswap Nations

"In her book Jessie Sutherland clearly and thoroughly analyses the complexities of reconciliation. Her unique approach emphasizes both the psychological and systemic aspects of deep-rooted conflict. She proposes a new and workable way of transforming cycles of conflict and domination into those of reconciliation. In my opinion, this brilliant work establishes a fundamental foundation applicable equally to intercultural as well as international relations."

Ihab Banabila, Doctor in European Law, University of Montpellier - France.

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Four teleconference sessions starting February 1st at 2pm PST / 5pm EST with a special promotion rate of $49.95 (+GST), Total $53.45. Teleconferences are held over the phone for o­ne hour. Teleconference size for this series is limited to 12 people and participants are required to purchase the accompanying e-book and expected to do some preparatory reading and exercises in between sessions.

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"For more than a generation now, Aboriginal people have been on a journey of healing and renewal, taking slow, self-determined steps. Now, First Nations and Métis are gathering strength, midway on a path to recovery from an era of oppression."

The Summer/Fall 2004 issue of the Network Magazine put out by the Canadian Mental Health Association, Ontario is called "Diverse Communities: Bridging Gaps in Mental Health Care". The article entitled "The Healing Dance" carefully presents the story of aboriginal people working together to build healthy individuals, families, communities and a nation using traditional gatherings and teachings.

"Few in number, Elders and traditional healers quietly go about their work in every community, usually outside of organizations and offices. People call on them at home, offering tobacco and simple gifts to sit with them at kitchen tables, around a fire, in sweat lodges and ceremonies."

Mary Alice Smith, or “Kokum Sam” as she is known to her family, wrote this article for the Network Magazine. She spends much of her time learning and sharing with others about how to “get along” in life. She has a BA in Conflict Resolution and 30 years of experience in community development and adult education with First Nations and Aboriginal organizations. A Métis (European-Cree) and lifelong resident of northwestern Ontario, Mary Alice lives near Kenora on the shores of Longbow Lake, where she enjoys gardening, walking, writing and jingle dress dancing.

The entire article is available on-line (without the pictures that are contained in the magazine). Click here to read the article.