Health Services and Programs Overview:
Throughout TI’s 22 years of service devoted to Inuit, the intensifying and complex health challenges faced by community members becomes increasingly apparent each passing year.  In response to this need and requests for health care services dedicated solely to the Inuit population, TI established a health program to deliver a number of health services and promotion:

• Primary Care Pilot
• Diabetes Awareness, Prevention, and Care
• Hepatitis-C Awareness  and Prevention
• KT Research, Community Engagement and Evaluation
• Second hand smoke and smoking awareness program

Primary Care Pilot
Tungasuvvingat Inuit currently pilots a number of primary health care services.  The goal is to provide enhanced continuity and quality of care, in a culturally appropriate, multidisciplinary environment where staff are fluent in Inuktitut and/or culturally competent to the particular needs of the Inuit population. 
2009 marks this program’s 3rd year of pilot.  Services include:  

• Acupuncture, Complementary Medicine
• Birthing Supports*
• Blood Pressure Screening and Treatment
• Blood Sugar Screening and Treatment
• Fetal Heart Monitor, Inuit Mid-Wifery Consultation*
• Health Services Co-ordination and Referral
• Treatment of Acute and Chronic Pain Conditions
• Wellness Checks and Supports
• Near patient hemoglobin and lipid profile testing will soon be additionally piloted. 
• * in partnership with TIFRC’s Pre-Postnatal registered nurse and CAPC facilitators

Securing of stable resources to maintain current primary care and enhance services to include physician and nurse practitioner team members is also underway.  Services are available to all community members.  For more information, or to make an appointment, contact Connie Siedule 613-749-4500 ext 26 or email health@tungasuvvingatinuit.ca.

Hepatitis-C Awareness, Prevention, and Care
A newly acquired program of 2009, Tungasuvvingat Inuit seeks to provide through the Hepatitis C prevention program a community based support that will result in greater access to education, awareness, prevention, screening and care of Hepatitis C to urban Inuit.

The program’s primary objectives are:

• Increase awareness of Hepatitis C, risk factors and complications; ways to prevent the disease and related complications among urban Inuit.
• Practice of healthy living & minimize risk of Hepatitis C contraction by promoting Inuit specific healthy practices and awareness.
• Build ownership and community capacity regarding Hepatitis C and its determinants.
• Provide community-based hepatitis-c screening and care

To achieve these objectives, the hepatitis-c program will engage and develop the following activities:

• Inuit Hepatitis-C Resource Tools
• Internal, Local, Regional Partnerships and Linkages
• Hepatitis-C Website
• Healthy Active Living and Nutritional Support Program
• Peer Support Group

Walking awareness for Hep-C will begin effective May 21, 2010. This will be held once a week on Fridays. We will meet at 297 Savard at 11:30 am and walk down to the river have a light lunch and have informal setting and talk about Hep-C. Julia will be providing bus tickets for participants to this weekly activity.

Do you need confidential information and/or need to speak to someone about Hep-C Julia is available to sit down with Inuit on individual basis to assist and to answer any questions regarding Hepatitis C. Julia is able to speak about this disease in both Inuktitut and English

For more information, contact Julia Kimmaliardjuk at 613-749-4500 ext 27 or email hepc@tungasuvvingatinuit.ca.

KT Research, Community Engagement and Evaluation
Tungasuvvingat Inuit continues its work at all levels to advocate for and produce Inuit community-based, academically solid KT research, community engagement and evaluation.
Projects and activities of 2008-2009 include:

• Acquisition of Our Health Counts (OHC) project.  This project will work with the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care to adapt Ontario’s health information collection system to provide accessible, useful, and culturally relevant urban Inuit population health data to local, small region, provincial and federal policy makers.  This project additionally networks with representatives from provincial aboriginal stakeholders and academics from five different institutions.

• Acquisition of Oral History Archive project.  This is a small initiative that seeks to archive the traditional Inuit knowledge of three recognized Inuit elders.  Elder discussions cover maternal and child health, SIDS, infant/child development and nutritional milestones. 

• During 2008-2009, Inuit community member engagement and service evaluation was conducted through two Champlain Local Health Integration Network sessions, one OHC, CRICH--St. Michael’s Hospital concept mapping session, and a rapid survey.  A total of 341 Inuit community members were consulted.

Participants consistently identified and detailed an Inuit specific health services unit as a priority solution to health care service barriers.  Inuit elders and participants expressed a steadfast commitment to work hard and co-ordinate efforts to achieve this solution.  Resulting services to include those Inuit travelling to Ottawa/Champlain from up north was also strongly identified as a foundational principle of the solution.  For more information or to provide input contact Connie Siedule at 613-749-4500 ext 26 or email health@tungasuvvingatinuit.ca.

Our Health Counts (OHC) project
The Development and Application of a Baseline Population Database for Urban Aboriginal People in Ontario, a research project funded by the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care and administered by Tungasuvvingat Inuit in partnership with three provincial aboriginal organizations and academics from five institutions.

OUR HEALTH COUNTS PROJECT - BACKGROUND
There is very little health information available on Ontario’s Aboriginal Population, and more specifically Inuit. What does exist is not based on studies that employ random sampling.
A type of random sampling would help to ensure the results were able to apply more generally and reach cross-sectional of all Inuit. The health information that is currently available is mostly based on programs and services and is not taken from the entire Ontario population. This study was developed to address the lack of information available to and for our community. Tungasuvvingat Inuit has a number of objectives in this study:

1. Build capacity,
2. Identify the health needs and concerns of Inuit community,
3. Create and manage an information database, which is secured by Tungasuvvingat Inuit,
4. Build meaningful collaborative relationships.

Purpose of the Research
The project goal is to improve Ontario’s health information system by working with provincial urban First Nations, Inuit, and Métis organizations and the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care.

Tungasuvvingat Inuit (T.I.) will be interviewing participants from the Inuit community, using community specific survey tools. This will enable us to generate an Inuit database that will in turn provide accessible, useful, and culturally relevant urban Aboriginal population health data to local, small region, and provincial policy makers.

Study Contact
If you require further information regarding the research study, please contact Tungasuvvingat Inuit,
Health Director, Connie Siedule at 613-749-4500 ext. 26, TI Senior Researcher, Deborah Tagornak
at 613-749-4500 ext. 28 or TI Community Researcher, Colleen Arngna’naaq at 613749-4500 ext. 21.

The research team will schedule interviews and prepare a weekly interview schedule.
If you were given a coupon, please contact Mahtoonah Arngna’naaq to schedule an appointment at 613- 749-4500 ext. 21.

NITTG (National Inuit Tobacco Task Group) Non-smoking project

Let Your Blue Light Shine!
The blue Light campaign gets underway this spring for the first time in Ottawa and the surrounding area. Spring means fresh and clean air and so now is the time to announce your home as smoke free!

What is the purpose of the blue light? Its purpose is to promote smoke free homes to reduce the health effects of second hand smoke. This means houses where people who live there don’t smoke at all, or if they do smoke the smoke outside. That’s why they put a blue light in their entrance – to let everyone know that there is no smoking in
this house.

Tungasuvvingat Inuit will provide you with a free blue light bulb to put out over your porch door or for those of you in apartments, to put in your entrance way, to show that your home is smoke free.
Contact Christine Lund – to receive your free light bulb and register your home as smoke free by clicking on the following link and completing a quick survey.

The campaign kicked off on May 20th at our monthly community feasts. There is still time to register!
Each week registrations will also be taken on Wednesday afternoons through the month of June.
You can also complete the registration survey by email, fax or in person with Christine at 301 Savard Ave.
info@ tungasuvvingatinuit.ca – fax: 613- 747-0629 and receive your free blue light bulb.

Remember to turn on your blue light tonight to show that your home is smoke free!
Even if you choose to smoke right now, Light up outside!
Quitting is worth it!

For additional resources please visit The Inuit Tobacco-free Network weblink.