Healthcare and Demographics

Importance of Cultural Practices for Wellbeing

• Accessing traditional healers, traditional foods, and spirituality can help older adults renew energy and strength.
• Wellbeing is supported by healthy connections with family, community, culture, the land, and all of Creation.

Key Recommendations for Supporting First Nations Adults

• There is a need for First Nations-designed housing, social, and health services that support First Nations people with multiple chronic conditions.
• Policy and healthcare provider focus should be on prevention of chronic illness, given the early age of onset.
• Existing and future services, programs, and research need to integrate First Nations perspectives on aging well, including concepts of resilience:
• Maintaining and adapting roles
• Relationship to land and language
• Relationships to family and community
• There is a need to review current policies to ensure younger First Nation adults (45+) have access to supportive services such as home and community care.

Residential Schools

• At the age of six, the narrator was forcibly taken from their mother and placed in a residential school, where they experienced traumatic events like being painted with white liquid, having their hair cropped, and being doused with kerosene.
• The school had around 220 students, with boys and girls separated, and punishment was given for even minimal interactions between siblings.
• This led to many students, including the narrator, failing to develop proper social skills during their youth.

Indigenous Culture and History

• The narrator grew up in Kwikwasut'inuxw Haxwa'mis, now known as Gilford Island, where they harvested food from the forest and ocean, and had a strong connection to the environment.
• Churches played a significant role in attempting to convert Indigenous people, labeling their beliefs as "heathen" and "pagan", and targeting their language and cultural practices.

Legacy of Residential Schools

• The residential school system lasted over 100 years, with more than 150,000 children attending.
• The last school closed in 1996 in Saskatchewan.
• Many students, including the narrator, struggled with addictions, alcoholism, and violence after leaving the schools.
• The Truth and Reconciliation Commission report highlighted the extensive harm inflicted on Aboriginal people, leading to a formal apology from the Prime Minister in the House of Commons.

Truth and Reconciliation

• Canada is the only western country to have had a Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
• The process of truth and reconciliation aims to bring about a more equal and prosperous future for all Canadians, focusing on mutual respect and understanding.
• Chief Robert Joseph believes that truth and reconciliation is essential for Canada's future.

This quiz is about the association between multimorbidity and hospitalization, and how it is affected by individual demographics and physician continuity of care. It also explores the socioeconomic gradient in older adults' survival with multiple chronic conditions.