Partners for Aboriginal Health
Through the @YourSide Colleague® partnership initiative, Saint Elizabeth Health Care Foundation is helping to support a different course for Aboriginal health care in Canada.
Closing the gap in health status between Aboriginals and other Canadians has tremendous potential to renew our health care system and make it more sustainable. Aboriginal people want for themselves what many Canadians take for granted: access to health care and the opportunity for a healthy life.
The program focus is on assisting Aboriginal communities to identify and respond to local needs in a flexible and cost-effective way, for long-term results. @YourSide Colleague offers around-the-clock access to a virtual network of peers and experts, as well as self-directed learning modules in areas such as diabetes, wound care, and palliative care. The program is available to an array of community health care workers, at anytime and anywhere there is Internet access. Among those championing the approach are First Nations communities across Manitoba, who have been using the program for over six years to improve local health care quality and delivery.
To expand and accelerate the adoption of this proven solution, Saint Elizabeth Health Care has committed $2 million over three years to support the expansion of @YourSide Colleague to First Nations and Inuit communities across Canada. To build on this commitment and achieve ongoing sustainability, the Foundation is seeking additional funding partners to join us in supporting a different course for Aboriginal health care.
@YourSide Colleague is currently being shared with First Nations communities across Manitoba, British Columbia and Saskatchewan.
Benefits of the program:
@YourSide Colleague:
- Supports better health care and outcomes
- Builds skills and confidence among health providers at the community level
- Improves communication and reduces the profound sense of isolation health providers experience in rural and remote communities
- Addresses major diseases and health issues experienced by the First Nations and Inuit population
- Helps to reduce costs for education and support to health care providers
- Is an effective way to gain knowledge and access to current, evidence-based learning resources
By enhancing local capacity, the program is enabling Aboriginal people to receive more care and services, close to home, in their culture and their communities.