A new report using data from Our Health Counts found nearly 40 per cent of Indigenous respondents felt they were treated unfairly due to their race.<\/p>\n
KENORA \u2014 A new study has found Indigenous people in Thunder Bay and Kenora report higher rates of discrimination in the health care system than those in southern Ontario.<\/p>\n
The data was compiled by Octavia Wong, a Toronto-based researcher. It noted that, among Indigenous respondents, 39 per cent and 37 per cent in Thunder Bay and Kenora respectively reported anti-Indigenous discrimination when accessing health care. People were asked whether they had \u201cbeen treated unfairly (e.g. treated differently, kept waiting) by a health professional (e.g. doctor, nurse, etc.) because you are Indigenous.\u201d<\/p>\n
The study\u2019s Ontario average, which also included respondents in Toronto and London, was just over 32 per cent.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s something that needs to be addressed, if it’s so widespread across the cities, and it’s something that the government should be looking into,\u201d Wong said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause we all have a right to health care access, we all have a right to fair treatment when we go into those systems.\u201d<\/p>\n
The data came from Our Health Counts, an Ontario community-based research initiative that aims to document the heath care experiences of Indigenous people living in urban settings. Kenora and Thunder Bay are two of its program sites.<\/p>\n
\u201cIndigenous peoples are commonly excluded, unidentifiable or under-represented in health information systems \u2014 especially when they live in cities,\u201d the organization\u2019s website<\/a> says. A media release about the study added that \u201cdata is collected using comprehensive community-driven health surveys and all data is owned and governed by Indigenous research partners.\u201d<\/p>\n Province-wide, those who were aged 45 to 54 reported the highest rate of discrimination at 33.6 per cent. People who were 55 to 64 said they faced unfair treatment at a 28.6 per cent rate.<\/p>\n The study also found 17.5 per cent of respondents\u00a0in Thunder Bay and 10.5 per cent in Kenora\u00a0reported prescription opioid usage \u201cwithout a prescription or out of keeping with the prescription\u201d within the last 12 months. The\u00a0average of all five cites was 15.8 per cent.<\/p>\n Self-reported rates of diabetes among Indigenous people in the five cities\u00a0was 11.3 per cent \u20141.6 times higher than the general adult population in Ontario,\u00a0the research found. That, the report said, \u201cis in part due to a lack of access to upstream health supports and traditional foods.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSince (Indigenous) populations are much younger than the general Ontario population and less likely to have access to health services to diagnose diabetes, this prevalence difference is concerning,\u201d the report stated.<\/p>\n In Kenora and Thunder Bay the prevalence of self-reported diabetes (based on the diagnosis coming from a health care provider) was much lower: 4.5 per cent in Kenora\u00a0and 8.2 per cent in Thunder Bay.<\/p>\n