Opening of the Mi’kmaw Indian Friendship Center Wije’winen Health Center – Halifax | Globalnews.ca

A health clinic for the urban indigenous population has been identified as a need for decades. Now it is becoming a reality in Halifax.

“So we have been looking for an indigenous doctor for a while and we were very blessed out of the blue. I got an email from Brent and here we are,” said Pam Glode Desrochers, executive director of the Mi’kmaw Indian Friendship Center. (MNFC).

Brent Young is the Academic Director of Indigenous Health and Assistant Professor of Medicine Defects at Dalhousie University. He recently completed his residency in Calgary and will now be the clinical lead for the urban Indian wellness initiative with MNFC.

“Being from an urban Indian background myself, it was always very important to me to be able to serve this community,” Young said.

“I am Anishinabek, but my mother was a 1960s survivor. My grandmother was a residential school survivor. So we landed here in Nova Scotia and I grew up in Cape Breton.”

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The clinic, located in the Friendship Center, will begin accepting reservations on Friday with the first patient appointments scheduled for next Thursday. The clinic is reserved for indigenous clients and expects to see between 800 and 1,000 patients in its first year.

“Due to colonialism and racism here in our country, indigenous peoples face very unique barriers and challenges in terms of social determinants of health,” Young said.

“That’s things like access to training, employment, housing and food, that result in health disparities like addictions, mental health issues, diabetes. ”

The wellness center will provide services tailored to those specific needs and in a culturally appropriate manner.

“Many members of the community are often left out of mainstream services,” said Glode Desrochers.

“They don’t see themselves in that space, so they don’t go there…this will really help bridge some of those gaps.”

In addition to Brent Young, the staff will include two part-time physicians, a full-time registered nurse, a nurse practitioner and two administrative assistants.

“The reality is that health care is at a crisis point. It’s not one solution that will fix it, it will be many, and we hope to be a piece of that puzzle,” Glode Desrochers said.