ANNUAL REPORT 2014-2015 CONTENTS 01 Message to Our Community 02 Report from the Chair 03 Report from the Executive Director 04 Department Reports: 05 Primary Health Care 07 Traditional Healing 08 Mental Health 09 Health Promotions 11 Advocacy and Outreach 13 Board of Directors 14 Financial Summary 15 Vendors/Stakeholders/Partners 16 Balance Scorecard for 2014-15 17 Organizational Chart Our Mission To improve the Wellness of Aboriginal individuals and of the Aboriginal community by providing services which respect people as individuals with a distinctive cultural identity and distinctive values and beliefs. De dwa da dehs nye>s Aboriginal Health Centre embodies the concept of: “Taking care of each other amongst ourselves” MESSAGE TO OUR COMMUNITY De dwa da dehs nye>s Aboriginal Health Centre works Making A Difference hard every day to bring the best possible service and An old man walked up a shore lit- support to the Aboriginal Communities of Hamilton tered with thousands of starfi sh, and Brantford, Ontario. beached and dying after a storm. A young man was picking them up As an organization run by and for , we strive to live up and fl inging them back into the to our name “De dwa da dehs nye>s” which when trans- ocean. “Why do you bother?” the lated from the Cayuga language, embodies the concept old man scoffed. “You’re not saving enough to make a of “taking care of each other amongst ourselves”. difference”. The young man picked up another starfi sh and sent it spinning back to the water. “Made a dif- We recognize the many health needs of our Community, ference to that one,” he said. and the social determinants that affect our health as individuals who strive to survive and succeed in our life The Board and Staff of the Health Centre work every day goals. to save the Star Fish of our Community. In 2014-15, the Health Centre implemented a Homeless Program To meet the need of Our People, De dwa da dehs nye>s to provide outreach services to Aboriginal Homeless offers a number of traditional/cultural Health Services persons within the Hamilton Community. Beginning and Supports, as well as Western Medicine and its vari- in the next fi scal year, this program expanded into the ous services and supports. This includes the provision of Homeward Bound program aimed to house Aboriginal Primary Care, Diabetes Management, Health Promotion, Persons who are chronically and episodically homeless. Mental Health and Addictions, Transportation, Advocacy, Patient Navigation and Traditional Health Services and On many occasions staff have rallied to identify and Supports. assist the starfi sh in the Community and this report will outline a few of the ways we have served the It is our goal to always monitor and improve the service starfi sh in our Communities. we provide, in order to give our patients and program participants the best health care, and service, that we can deliver. In the fi scal year 2014-15, The Board and Staff made signifi cant strides to improve our quality of care, the number of programs and services provided, as well as to develop and nurture the infrastructure of the organization to support long-term sustainability and growth. We have increased funder confi dence as seen in the expansion of our budget, which has resulted in an increase of service being provided to our Community, such as the addition of the Patient Navigation Program which began operating in April 2014 and the addition of a Youth Mental Health Patient Navigator that was put in place in February 2015. aboriginalhealthcentre.com 01 REPORT FROM THE CHAIR This year has been one of growth and development for De dwa da dehs nye>s. We welcomed a new board member, Jeff Cooper this past year. Jeff attended his first meeting in September 2014. With the addition of new programs and services, we have had to rent additional space outside the main centre in both Brantford and Hamilton. As a result, there is no space for additional services. De dwa da dehs nye>s is also being requested to provide services in Niagara. To address the spatial restrictions in the Brantford and Hamilton Communities the Board has struck an Ad Chi miigwetch to Elder Walter Cooke for his guidance Hoc. Capital Planning Committee. The Committee has and wisdom in supporting the Board of Directors over overseen the Request for Proposals to hire a consult- the last year. ing firm to assist with the Capital Planning Project as De dwa da dehs nye>s applies to the Ministry of Health Finally, I thank you, my colleagues on the Board and our and Long-Term Care’s Health Capital Implementation Executive Director, Constance McKnight, and her team Branch to be placed on the approved capital project for their time, dedication and hard work. Their commit- list. ment to improving the wellness of the Aboriginal in- dividuals and the Aboriginal Community is evident in As identified last year, the term “Aboriginal” has been the services which are provided that respect people as and will continue, in the meantime, to describe our individuals with a distinctive cultural identity and dis- Community. However, the Board has recognized there tinctive values and beliefs. I encourage my colleagues is discomfort using this word and has struck the Cul- and staff to continue identifying and supporting the tural Integrity Committee to review the policies and Star Fish in our Community. procedures of the Health Centre to ensure that they are culturally sensitive and appropriate. It has been an honour and privilege to serve as Chair of De dwa da dehs nye>s Board of Directors. The Quality Committee has made great strides in mon- itoring the quality indicators and to ensure that there Respectfully, are processes in place to measure quality. As part of the ongoing Quality Improvement, surveys were con- Pat Mandy ducted at the National Aboriginal Solidarity Day in Chairperson Hamilton. The following diagram depicts the feedback received on how De dwa da des nye>s meets the needs of the Community. 02 aboriginalhealthcentre.com REPORT FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR As we look back over the past year, De dwa da dehs nye>s We also had the children in attendance at the socials has been busy conducting programming, engaging the draw pictures to identify what keeps them, their family Community, meeting with local officials regarding our and the Community healthy. We also asked them for Capital Planning Process, and readying the organiza- their vision of health. The information gathered is very tion for the new Homeward Bound project. powerful as it represents the voice of the future. De dwa da dehs nye>s has been in a constant state of growth and development. This is being recognized within the Aboriginal Community, as well as the Com- munities at large where we provide service and sup- ports. There continues to be an outcry from Aboriginal organizations in the Niagara Region for expansion of the Health Centre, and we are beginning to plan for the anticipated expansion. Capital Planning The Board Chair and I have been meeting with local politicians and stakeholders to begin the engagement Exercising with my family My footprints when I dance process. All of the meetings have been positive and are supportive of the capital project. All of what we do would be impossible to accomplish without the support of the Community, the strong In December we underwent a competitive bidding leadership of the Board of Directors, dedication of nu- process to hire a Consulting firm to assist us with the merous volunteers, and the amazing people employed completion of the first three (3) stages of the Ministry by De dwa da dehs nye>s. To each of those individuals I Capital Planning Submissions. say thank you. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to be “taking care of each other amongst ourselves”. Community Engagement Respectfully, Staff attended the Drum So- cials in Brantford and Hamilton Constance McKnight, CAE a nd surveyed the participants Executive Director on what are the facilitators and barriers to individual, fam- ily and Community health. As well, we asked the participants to describe their vision for health care. aboriginalhealthcentre.com 03 DEPARTMENTS PROGRAMS 2014-2015 Traditional Healing Full Moon Ceremonies Reiki Primary Care Grief Recover Pre & Post Natal Care Attitudinal Healing Primary Care Spiritual Warriors Roadway Chronic Disease Prevention Traditional Counselling and Management Healing Journey Attitudinal Healing Sweat Lodges Primary Care Traditional Healing De dwa da dehs nye>s Advocacy Aboriginal Health Centre Mental Health Health Promotions Advocacy Mental Health Aboriginal Patient Navigator Concurrent Disorders Wheels for Seniors Children and Youth Advocacy Services Addictions Health Promotions Adult Case Management Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) Aboriginal Youth Mental Ontario Diabetes Strategy Health Patient Navigator Healthier you Healthier Kids 04 aboriginalhealthcentre.com PRIMARY CARE Clinical Placements meal essentials that our clients receive delivered to In the 2014-15 fi scal year, De dwa da dehs nye>s pro- their doorstep. We received a generous donation from vided a clinical placement experience for eight (8) Mattel which provided our children with a toy that we Nurse Practitioner students, seven (7) students from provided in the holiday hampers. With help from local McMaster University and one (1) student from the and client volunteers the holiday food hampers were University of Toronto. Total Nurse Practitioner student distributed to 80 adults with 48 children and seven placement(s) hours = 2150. single men in transitional housing. Providing clinical placements for nursing students is an Smoking Treatment for Ontario Patients opportunity for us to share the way we provide holis- (STOP) Program tic culturally appropriate primary healthcare services to The STOP program is a joint our patients and families.