March 19, 2021
Nursing students and instructors help immunize Indigenous seniors in Calgary
An Indigenous-led immunization clinic for Indigenous seniors opened March 15聽at the in the Sunalta neighbourhood of Calgary with immunizations provided by some 草莓污视频导航 Nursing students.聽Its objective is getting as many as possible of Calgary鈥檚 Indigenous seniors aged 65-plus聽vaccinated against COVID-19 in a culturally safe environment.聽A cleansing ceremony with Elders from the Aboriginal Friendship Centre of Calgary (AFCC) and the Circle of Wisdom for volunteers and staff took place on Friday, March 12.
The AFCC, Siksika Health Services, Circle of Wisdom Elders and Seniors Centre, OKAKI and Seven Brothers Circle聽have all partnered as national leaders in vaccine rollout for urban Indigenous people and worked closely with Alberta Health Services and the Government of Alberta to ensure health and safety measures are in place and enforced.
鈥淭he partners have a common denominator,鈥 says Tyler White, CEO of Siksika Health Services. 鈥淥ur people trust us. Our Elders are the heart of our community, which is why we鈥檙e calling them directly to book appointments, walking them through what to expect at the clinic, ensuring they have transportation to the clinic, providing them with a care package when they leave, and following up with reminders about second dose appointments.鈥
"We are so excited to be brought into this opportunity by聽Alberta-based public health services and informatics company聽OKAKI," says Dr. Zahra Shajani, EdD, associate dean, undergraduate clinical practice education.
We recruited students and some volunteer former nursing instructors who will be administering the vaccine for the next three weeks.聽The hope is to immunize as many as 400聽Indigenous seniors.
鈥淗istorically, urban Indigenous people would undergo immunization via the same process as the general population,鈥 says Shane Gauthier, AFCC's CEO. 鈥淏ut this approach fails to consider the systemic racism and trauma our people continue to experience in the health-care system and why many of our people do not access health services.鈥