Self-governed health

As primary caregivers in remote Indian communities in northern Canada, nurses often witness considerable health status inequities between these people and the rest of Canada's population. In Saskatchewan, for example, tuberculosis incidence rates are 15 times higher for northerners in general than for people in the south. Infant mortality rates are twice as high, suicides are three times higher, motor vehicle related deaths are four to six times higher and deaths from diabetes in Indians aged 45 to 65 years are six times higher than in the general population. Some people suggest that these discrepancies are due simply to the inadequate funding of health care programs. Others refer to the remoteness of the communities and hence the inability to access advanced medical technology. A final hypothesis is that the increased exposure to white communities, practices and morals and the neglect of spiritual values have led to social disintegration and have hindered good health care practices.