Disparities Original "Medicine Chest" Clause Aboriginal Treaties Essay

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Policy Change for Improvement

The aboriginals of Canada comprise of the indigenous people who are within North America, but dwell in the boundaries of Canada. Nevertheless, people have continuously view them discriminatively. This is what has led to the formulation of numerous policies, which will favor the aboriginals and make them feel part of the Canadian society. Although this is the case, the policies, some of which are applicable, have not yielded much success. Owing to this, there is a need for policy improvement in an effort to attain some of the essential needs such as healthcare (Walkerman and Humphreys, 2002).

In so doing, the aboriginals will access healthcare, and subsequently feel as part of the society. Notably, aboriginals are present in many other parts of the Western world, and the treatment is similar; discriminated. Although the health sector has witnessed inquiries, policies, programs and reviews in relation to the health of the aboriginal Canadians, there has been no evident progress in the health outcomes. The lack of advancement in reducing the gap in health between the aboriginal and non-aboriginal Canadians suggests the need for all other sectors to examine their policies, to reduce poverty, cultural barriers, and jurisdictional challenges, which have contributed to the burden of illness faced by the aboriginal people of Canada (Tookeney, 1996).

One of the significant ways to improve the health of populations is through the implementation of policy ideas, which most of them should come from the people. Notably, Inclusive policy-making is critical to achieving working policies in Canada (McKenzie and Wharf, 2004). The Canadian health care system is complex, characterized by policies, legislation and relationships. In addition, the numerous bodies, which govern health services and programs; federal, provincial, municipal governments, aboriginal authorities and the private sector, also contribute to this complexity. Aboriginal healthcare has become complicated owing to the treaties and other approaches, which aim to expand the Aboriginal people's inclusion in the provision of locally needed healthcare services (Saltman et. al., 2007).

Coordinating the needs of the aboriginals is an ongoing challenge, which calls for improved policies to overcome this challenge. A typical example is the "medicine chest," a clause, which aimed at addressing the suffering of the aboriginals, owing to disease. The people viewed the treaties as an approach to address their healthcare problems. However, the clause became the topic of numerous court proceedings, which suggests that it was not benefiting the aboriginals. The failure of the government to cater for the healthcare needs of the aboriginals inspired the indigenous people to come together and form the First Nations Health Authority, because the Aboriginals have the capacity to establish their own strategies (Wilson and Bird, 2005).

The body aimed at creating lifetime changes to improve the health status of the aboriginals in Canada. Therefore, there were principles that would see to the implementation of new governance systems, and develop objectives for execution of their healthcare needs into an implementation plan (Kinsley, 2002). In addition, the inspiration behind this authority was to improve the health conditions of the aboriginals; therefore, the First nation suggests an extensive health policy, which was central to the community. They felt that the government should design a policy at the community level to make it easy for all the aboriginals to access healthcare services.

Aboriginal Health Policy

In the year 1992, there was development of the Aboriginal Health Policy, which was a provincial healthy policy. This policy was a reflection of a new relationship between the aboriginals and the provincial governments, as collaborators in the attempt to improve the health status of the aboriginal people, regardless of dwelling, status or income. This policy provided an approach to address aboriginal health issues. Notably, it used an inclusive approach at the level, and recognized that the people who faced the health issues were able to provide solutions (McKenzie and Wharf, 2004).

In addition, its main objective is to improve the health status of the aboriginal people through equal access to healthcare, aboriginal-specific healthcare facilities, advanced standards of care, provision of culturally associated services, and the promotion of a healthy setting. Moreover, during the 1990s, the aboriginals lacked influence in health planning, their needs in prior policies, lacked support for their health, and there was no clarification the different hierarchies' role in aboriginal health. In addition, representatives from the First Nation Health Authority, and the Ministry of health supported the development of the health policy in 1992 (Government of Ontario, 1994).Issues Addressed

This policy used several approaches in an attempt to address the major health issues related with the aboriginal people. First, it employed the aboriginal lifecycle to understand the passage stages of the people. Secondly, it employed a holistic health approach, which combines the bodily, mental, emotional, and spiritual needs of the aboriginal people. Lastly, it addressed the continuum of care, which integrates health promotion, treatment, curative approaches, and rehabilitation. In so doing, the policy was able to identify a number of issues relevant in the planning and implementation of policies, especially those associated with the aboriginals. This is a step towards discovering relevant issues to consider in the context of aboriginal healthcare plan, to develop or improve the current policy and cater for the healthcare needs of the aboriginal people.

There is a need to plan, design aboriginal healthcare services, which must be available in locations identified by First Nation Authority

Provincial and federal government resources are needed to support the attempts of First Nation Authority in their attempts to achieve improved health, but the two authorities should clarify their subsequent roles and responsibilities

There is a need to evaluate the healthcare programs on a timely way to make certain that they convene the healthcare needs of the aboriginal community

Policy Improvement

The setting of this policy was at the provincial level, suggesting that the aboriginal people in the remote areas were not inclusive. In addition, research suggests that the remote aboriginal people comprise of the largest group, in relation to those who dwell in the urban areas. A good percent of Canada's indigenous people including the First Nations, Inuit and Metis, dwell in the rural, remote northern areas. This means that this policy, which works in the provincial level could not work well to cater for their needs. In addition, in a bid to decolonize their counterparts at the rural areas (Wilson and Bird, 2005), those at the provincial level faced less severe health issues.

Therefore, there is a need to address the rural health situation of these aboriginals to ensure the access to health is equal. Notably, the dwellers of remote areas experience poor health outcomes and exhibit urgent health provision. Although it is a priority by the Canadian state to close this gap, there is a need to improve access, provide resources, sustainable approaches of healthcare provision and policy improvements in the remote areas with large numbers of aboriginal people (Government of Ontario, 1994).

Addressing the Policy Improvement

This policy improvement is at the rural, and remote areas; therefore, to improve the health of the aboriginal people, through policy improvement, the aboriginal organization should take the initiative to address the policy issue primarily because they know what they lack, in terms of healthcare provision, and related services. Using this inclusive approach will show that the state s ready to connect policy into practice (McKenzie and Wharf, 2004). Although the aboriginal organization should address the policy issue, the provincial government, and federal government should come in and support the people through funds, and information (Saltman et al., 2007). This opportunity will go further to enhance the cultural and community life of these aboriginal people.

On the other hand, giving the people this opportunity will build a strong collaboration with the authorities, and people will feel they are achieving liberation because the state feels they are capable of providing solutions to their problems (Wilson and Bird, 2005). Moreover, the people will be at a better position, when compared to the relevant authorities in addressing the policy issues because they experience the effects of poor access to healthcare. With the required infrastructure, they will have the capacity to develop their own solutions to the health challenges they face (Kinsley, 2002). Most importantly, when the people address their own health issues, this will lead to capacity building in relation to healthcare in rural and remote communities.

Policy Changes

Health transfer

In the aboriginal health policy, whose setting is central to the provincial level does not provide for health transfer. This concept of health transfer is core to the federal or provincial government leaving the responsibility of administering any health issue at the community level, including health programs (Lavoie et al., 2010). Inclusion of this as an amendment to the existing policy is key to achieve the desired needs of the aboriginal people. This is because they will be in a position to execute the strategies they feel will work….....