WE’RE ABLE TO BUILD RELATIONSHIPS BECAUSE EVERYBODY IS INVOLVED IN THESE FAMILIES’ CARE. SHERRI DI LALLO
base for the program. Di Lallo lauds the leadership of the Foundation. “They are recognizing and addressing several of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s calls to action in its health section,” she says, including working to improve health-related outcomes for Indigenous infants, children and youth. “To create the Awasisak program and set priorities and strategies, we hosted seven talking circles, with 95 participants representing 28 communities,” Di Lallo says. She has done much of the organizational heavy lifting herself, with help from colleagues and community members. “These talking circles are an ongoing conversation and the most important part of our work.” Di Lallo was careful to follow Indigenous protocol. “That was part of our success,” she says. “We worked with Elders and organized a sweat lodge to find out where we should take the program. We got blessings from the grandfathers — the creator — also from the Elders.” Her outreach uncovered four areas of
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HEROES MAGAZINE | FALL 2017
priority: discharge planning and process, resources, communication and cultural sensitivity, which a steering committee that’s part of the Awasisak Indigenous Health Program helps implement. Consultation also uncovered the longer-term goal of establishing a transitional house where families could stay as a bridge between discharge from hospital and going home to the community. “We needed a stronger child-first focus. Everything else is structured around that,” she says. Building the team will help. Di Lallo hopes to incorporate another nurse, a social worker and an Indigenous engagement co-ordinator, whose role is to welcome families and help them navigate the health-care system. Di Lallo recently met with the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation to provide results from community talking circles and report her strategies to move forward. She sees the Foundation and donors as part of the team. “We’re able to build relationships,” she says, “because everybody is involved in these families’ care.”
DIVING DEEPER WITH DONOR-FUNDED RESEARCH
Dr. Briana Goad started working in the pediatric outreach clinic in Maskwacis, Alta., to fulfill a requirement in her medical education at the University of Alberta. Located 70 minutes from Edmonton, Maskwacis consists of four First Nations bands — the Samson Cree, Ermineskin Cree, Louis Bull Tribe and Montana First Nation. The clinic, serving more than 7,000 mostly Cree residents, trains every first-year pediatric medical resident at the University of Alberta. Other residents might work at the clinic, learn from it and move on to other priorities. Goad, however, developed a deeper interest. “I wanted to spend more time there,” she says. “The clinic initially developed in response to a request from the Maskwacis Four Nations,” says Goad’s supervisor, Dr. Lola Baydala. “It was to identify and remediate disparities in care of pediatric patients in Maskwacis compared to other populations.”