Community Health Nursing
The goal of Community Health Nursing is to assist the individual, family and community in attaining their highest level of health, and to promote healthy lifestyle choices through education, public awareness and community activities. The main objective of Community Health Nursing is to optimize individual and community health.
Mandatory programs
Health Promotion and disease prevention through one-to-one counseling, group sessions, specialty clinics, school programs, media and announcements. Immunization Clinics & updates for all ages. Flu clinics are offered each fall to the elderly, chronically ill and people who care for them.
Pre Natal Visits and Classes
Post Natal Visits- A community health nurse visits within one week of notification of birth with information on infant care, breast or bottle feeding, safety and maternal post partum issues.
Networking
With other programs, schools, and surrounding health service agencies providing and sharing resources.
Community nurses who work for ITHA realize that each community has its own uniqueness and tailor their work day and planning to the needs of that community. These may include diabetes, heart health, men's and women's health issues (i.e. cancers), asthma & HIV/AIDS; through home visits, specialty clinics, and group or one on one sessions. By observing, then implementing programs that are meaningful to the individual communities, healthier outcomes are obtained.
Home and Community Care back to top
Inter Tribal Health Authority offers a coordinated Home and Community Care (HCC) program to 13 of its' communities. The HCC program is a federally funded program and is coordinated by an ITHA nurse. The HCC program offers Elders and people with special needs extra services so they can live safely in their homes. Essential services such as Home Support for personal care, in-home respite for family caregivers, case management and Home Nursing Care are a few of the health services offered through our HCC program. Services such as meal programs, transportation, wood cutting and health promotion programs are examples of what we call Supportive Services and are also part of the HCC program. In our HCC program, we are beginning to build strong collaborative relationships with Vancouver Island Health Authority HCC. By doing this, we are able to offer community members more HCC health services. Community representatives for the HCC program have described their vision for this program to be a community-driven, community development approach that encourages and builds independence and healthy interdependence. They also want the HCC program to be culturally based, always returning to the traditional First Nations way of life to rediscover and support the cultural ways.
Inter Tribal Health Authority supports and encourages this vision. We believe that by working together we will have healthy Nations.
Small Nation Transfer back to top
Eleven member Nations currently employ community health staff through “flow-through” funding that is received under a small Nation transfer agreement with FNIHB. This unique ITHA transfer approach is designed to provide small, independent First Nations the option of operating within the transfer context. It is founded on a shared-responsibility model, where resources and authority/accountability are delegated by ITHA to each community through a Delegation Agreement. This model has proved effective and stable over the past seven years.
Every month, ITHA processes the flow-through of funding to each of the member Nations. This arrangement, combined with the transfer benefits of flexibility to carry funding forward from one year to the next, has contributed to the increased capacity of these small Nations to provide their own health services to their own people. Over the course of the multi-Nation transfer, over $10 million in direct funding to communities has been enabled by ITHA.
In addition to administering this transfer funding through Delegation Agreements, ITHA supports member Nations through local capacity development, improved facility infrastructure, and helps develop new ITHA initiatives that can support communities.
MCH/FASD/SOAR back to top
ITHA currently offers six of our Member Nations services under the SOAR Mentoring Program. SOAR Mentors provide Supportive, Optimistic Advocacy with the goal of helping women Restore their lives to a place that is meaningful to them and their families.
Please read our SOAR Brochure
Please read our MCH Brochure
Eligibility Criteria
Women who:
- Are from selected Inter Tribal Health Authority member First Nations
- Have used or are at high risk of using alcohol and/or drugs during pregnancy: and
- Are pregnant or up to 6 months post-partum: and
- Have difficulty connecting to community services
Or
- Have previously had a child with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD)
- Are currently using alcohol and/or drugs
- Are in their childbearing years
Or
- Have difficulty learning as a result of prenatal exposure to alcohol
- Are pregnant or parenting young children
Goals
The SOAR Mentor Program will provide support for women and their families to:
- Maintain healthy lifestyles
- Prevent future births of alcohol and drug affected children
Approach
Mentors provide extensive practical assistance and the long-term emotional support so critical to women who are making fundamental changes in their lives.
- Trained and supervised paraprofessional mentors work with women for up to 3 years after enrollment in the program.
Mentors can assist women to:
- Identify their personal goals
- Obtain alcohol/drug treatment
- Choose a family planning method
- Connect with community services
- Get to appointments
- Address housing, domestic violence, and custody challenges
- Resolve service barriers
- Find ways to have fun without drugs and alcohol
- Advocates support the mother and child for up to 3 years regardless of who has custody
- Mothers are not asked to leave the program if they relapse or experience set backs
Special Projects back to top
Vancouver Island Chronic Care Project (VICCP) Phase 2
Working Together for Upstream Solutions
First Nations, Inter Tribal Health Authority, Vancouver Island Health Authority and private practitioners are working corroboratively to improve care for chronic conditions such as diabetes, arthritis and depression.
VICCP includes transitional activities within First Nations Communities to:
- Establish collaborative partnerships with others including physicians
- Strengthen capacity of organizations to better coordinate and improve health services for those living with chronic conditions
- Support use of new technologies for information management, communication and learning
- Measure and share our progress as we learn