Thunderchild Health
Department
Profile of Program & Services
December, 2011
Thunderchild First Nation, Treaty No. 6
Table of Contents
1)
Mandate, vision, guiding values
2)
List of program/services
3)
Partnerships
4)
Purpose of moving towards accreditation
5)
Update of activities, policies, acts & processes
6)
Forward Planning
Thunderchild First Nation
Vision
Under the guidance & protection of the Creator, Thunderchild Health will incorporate
traditional & contemporary institutions in parallel to continuously improve our
spiritual, physical, emotional & mental health & wellbeing of our membership
Mission
to pursue self-sufficiency, & self determination where programs & services &
partnerships are bridged & work collaboratively to support building healthy
individuals, families, communities & the Cree Nation
Values
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Ma na chi to win (respect)
Tapwe at si win (honesty)
Sa ki to win (love)
So ke mo win (courage)
Ta pah tayi mo win (humbleness)
Ki se wa ti si win (kindness)
Wa ko to win (kinship)
Thunderchild First Nation
Mandate
To provide health services, daycare
services, and youth, culture & recreation
services to the membership of
Thunderchild First Nation and other
persons ordinarily resident on
Thunderchild lands and to align with
Thunderchild First Nation’s vision,
strategic planning, direction, and its
reassertion of our treaty right to health to
better serve the needs of the membership
Thunderchild First Nation
Health Department Staff
 Annie Jimmy
 Red Echo
 Debbie Sunchild
 Venessa Jack
 Bahig Hammoud
 Linda Okanee
 Cheryl Robins
 Keith Sunchild
 Dinah Sunchild
 Linda Harris
 Doris Thunderchild
 Gina Jack
 Vivian Thomas-Paddy
Ken Thomas
 Yvette Sunchild
 Holly Lewis
 Rema Lewis
Alex Jimmy
Terrence Bird
 Emma Star
Louie Thunderchild
Shirleyann King
Thunderchild First Nation
Community Health assets
People assets:
 many families value their children and often believed as gifts from the creator
 past & current Chief & Council possess leaderships skills including past &
current committee/board members, directors/managers and Elders participating
on various committees & initiatives
 There are many good hunters and often share with elders in the community
 All Elders are interested and pass down their traditional teaching and many who
are 50 years of age and older are sought for their advice
Community assets:
 There are various youth groups and supported through the Piyesiw Awasis
School and the Awasisak Nikan Youth Center
 There is a general feeling of pride in the community due to the various initiative
Thunderchild is leading for example Medicine Chest Task Force and
Governance (band won national award & FNGI would like TCFN to become a
champion, oil & gas development, unification of treaty 6 communities, training,
new initiatives, partnerships, business initiatives-agriculture, banking, etc.)
Thunderchild First Nation
Community Health assets continued…
Physical assets
 Old gym, Veterans Community Hall, Cultural Center, ceremonial grounds, all
public & residential units
 All land owned by the Band and those lands about to turn into reserve status
 all birds, animals, plants, fish, & minerals etc on the Thunderchild lands
Professional assets
 Health Center staff includes: 2 nurses, a community health representative, mental
health therapist, addiction counselors, dental therapist, home health aides
 Elected leaders, Directors/Managers, Committee/Board members, staff possess
post secondary educational degrees/diplomas and many possess Cree cultural
knowledge, skills & abilities not taught at colleges/universities
Thunderchild First Nation
Community Health assets continued..
Community assets
 2 gas bars & confectionary owned by 2 band members
 Band owned business include; Moonlight Bay Convenience Store, TC
outfitting, White Buffalo Ranch, Thunderchild Housing Authority,
Thunderchild properties, Thunderchild Employment & field Services,
Thunderchild Technologies, newly formed business partnership/joint
ventures through Thunderchild First Nation Enterprises Ltd Partnership
 Oil and gas, lease revenue from Thunderchild lands
 Thunderchild Employment & Field services created a strategy to train &
educate community members
Thunderchild First Nation
Programs & Services & Initiatives
 Nursing & Health Education
- to support university education, training, & professional development
opportunities for registered nurses working for Thunderchild First Nation.
 Environmental Health-safe drinking water program
- to build capacity through community based drinking water quality
monitoring program.
to track & report water quality results
 Communicable Disease Control- Health Emergencies
- to coordinate communicable disease management, including outbreaks &
Communicable Disease Emergencies
- to Report on Communicable disease as required by Public Health Act
Communicable Disease regulation; including contact tracing & follow up
Thunderchild First Nation
Programs & Services & Initiatives
 Mental Health/Wellness Program
- to establish a community-based mental health crisis management
team.
- to enhance community management & control & provide the
necessary tools to aid in the intervention in problems of
depression & suicide by targeting communities in crisis.
- to address critical gaps in mental health services & programs &
provide crisis intervention, aftercare & training for caregivers &
members of the community to deal with crisis.
- to provide support for intervention in crisis situations in order to
reduce the number of suicide attempts & other violent
crisis situations.
Thunderchild First Nation
Programs & Services & Initiatives
 NNADAP (Community Wellness & Addictions)
- To provide counseling to individuals, families or the clients
significant other or groups with common issue problems &
- To provide prevention, maintenance, support & encouragement for
individuals, families or the clients significant other
- To coordinate a comprehensive after care program
- To provide non medical treatment services
 Community Dental Health Program
To provide dental care benefits to the clients in accordance with
NIHB General Program Directive, NIHB Dental Services Directive,
NIHB Dental Policy Framework, & Regional Dental Benefit Grid
 Medical Transportation
to provide medical transportation benefits by accessing medically
required Health Department in accordance with the NIHB General
Program, Medical Transportation Directives, Medical Transportation
Policy Framework, & the Regional Guidelines
Thunderchild First Nation
Programs & Services & Initiatives
 Home & Community Care
- to provide access to a range of home & community care services
- to First nations community members living in a First Nation
- to assist First nations living with chronic &/or acute illness in
maintaining optimum health, wellbeing, & independence in their
homes & communities
- to ensure that all clients with an assessed need for home care
services have access to a comprehensive continuum of services
within the community
- to assist clients & their families to participate in the development
& implementation of the client’s care plan to the fullest extent & to
utilize available community support services where available &
appropriate in the care of the clients
- to continue to build capacity within First Nation to facilitate the
delivery of home care services that enable program monitoring,
evaluation, research & the definition of best practices
 FASD
- to increase awareness & intervention related to fetal alcohol
disorder & women & families.
Thunderchild First Nation
Programs & Services & Initiatives
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Aboriginal Diabetes Initiative
- to focus on the prevention, early detection & management of Diabetes
as a major health issue.
- to increase awareness & address the high rate of diabetes & its
complications
- to Improve the practice of diabetes self-management
- to Increase ownership of diabetes programs & capacity to combat
diabetes in the community.
Thunderchild First Nation
Programs & Services & Initiatives
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Maternal Child Health
- to increase access to a continuum of services for pregnant
women & families with infants & young children up to 6 yrs of age
- to increase participation of fathers
- Greater role for elders in supporting pregnant women & families
with infants & young children
- to increase screening & assessment of pregnant women &
families with young children to identify those with more complex
needs
- develop new partnerships within the community, & with
provincial health systems to support implementation of services
- to increase access to case management & specialized services
for families & children with complex needs
to increase numbers of professionals & paraprofessional
frontline workers
- to increase awareness to culturally based training for staff
Thunderchild First Nation
Programs & Services & Initiatives
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National Aboriginal Youth Suicide Prevention Strategy
- to develop a national approach to Aboriginal youth suicide in Canada
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that will increase protective (preventive) factors such as resiliency, &
reduce the risk factors associated with suicide
to increase awareness & understanding of aboriginal youth suicide
prevention
to strengthen key protective factors such as a strong sense of identity,
meaning & purpose & resilience
to strengthen & facilitate collaborative approaches & linkages within
the governments, agencies & organizations
to develop & implement locally-driven suicide prevention plans in first
nation communities
to improve & increase crisis response efforts to intervene more
effectively in preventing suicide & suicide clusters following a suiciderelated crisis in community
to enhance knowledge development regarding what is known about
what works
Thunderchild First Nation
Programs & Services & Initiatives
 Brighter Futures
- to increase awareness in mental health, child development, healthy babies,
injury prevention & parenting skills
- to improve knowledge & skills of front line workers & community members in
the above areas.
- to provide opportunities to improve health services & develop communitybased & model projects.
- to address the serious health problems affecting children & families in
community. Holistic & integrated manner
- to facilitate the prevention & early intervention by promoting better integration
of health services.
 Community Health Services & Injury prevention
- to target high risk behaviors & raise awareness in promotion prevention of
injuries in children & youth to include such programs as maternal & infant
health, child health, school health, adolescent, adult & elder health
Thunderchild First Nation
Programs & Services & Initiatives
 Canada Prenatal Nutrition Program (CPNP)
- to improve the adequacy of the diet of prenatal & breast feeding
- to increase access to nutrition information & services, & resources
to eligible FN women particularly those at high risk
- to increase breast feeding initiation & duration rates
- to increase knowledge & skill building opportunities for those
involved in this program
- to increase the number of infants fed age appropriate foods in the
first twelve months
- to support & educate the awareness of prenatal care
 Building Healthy Communities-Solvent Abuse
- to support the Community to reduce the level of solvent addiction
- to Increase awareness & understanding among the community
members
- to promote healthier lifestyles
- to Strengthen links between the community-based program &
residential treatment & provide support to individuals & families in
post treatment
Thunderchild First Nation
Programs & Services & Initiatives
 Immunizations strategy
- to improve the immunization rate infants & children living in the
community
- to link with internal \external health providers on client advocacy,
interpretation discharge planning, & continuity of care between
health systems off & on reserve
 HIV/AIDS
- to encourage & support the active involvement of the on reserve
community
- to provide timely & comprehensive education & prevention
programming
- to ensure appropriate skills exist at the community level to provide
prevention programs
- to develop a coordinated approach associated with HIV/AIDS
education programming for residents
Thunderchild First Nation
Partnerships
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
TB Advisory Committee, FNIH
Mental Health Advisory Group, FSIN
National Aboriginal Youth Suicide Prevention Strategy
Committee, FNIH
Central Bands Nurses Group
Lakeland Advisory Council, Prairie North Health Authority
Prairie North Health Authority Primary Care Network
Thunderchild Managers/Directors Group
Thunderchild First Nation
Partnerships
7) Inter agency partnership
8) Saskatchewan Technical Advisory Group, FSIN
9) Aboriginal Health Transition Fund
Committee, Prairie North Regional Health Authority
10) Maternal Child Health Advisory Committee, FNIH
Thunderchild First Nation
Update of activities & processes
 Survey on quality on service delivery
implemented
 all job descriptions updated
 Performance appraisal tools being updated
 Aligning HR policy to federal labor code
 Review of and revision of 5 year health plan
Thunderchild First Nation
Update of activities & processes
 Discharge planning protocols
 Recording & documentation of adverse & sentinel events in all
areas
 Planning to move towards electronic immunization registry
Thunderchild First Nation
Update of policies, acts
 Critical Incident Stress Management
 Revision of Health Department Operational Procedures Manual
 Management and Operations Board terms of reference complete
Thunderchild First Nation
Forward Planning
-
Pursue accreditation to meet national standards in Health
services
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build a foundation for a self government funding arrangement in
the future
- To support Thunderchild’s strategic direction
Thunderchild First Nation
Contact Information
Department of Health
Box 744 Turtleford, Sask. S0M 2Y0
Tel: 845 - 4330 Fax: 845 - 2978
Linda Okanee, Director, ………………………………………....845 - 7414 cell
Debbie Sunchild, Executive Assistant ………………………..845 - 8253 cell
Cheryl Robins, Home Care Nurse Manager……………….…845 – 7933 cell
Doris Thunderchild, Medical Transportation Coordinator...845 – 7958 cell
Yvette Sunchild, CHN …………………………………………....845 – 4330 work
Vivian Paddy Thomas, CHR…………………………………......845 – 7726 cell
Emma Star, Liaison ………………………………………………845 – 7216 cell
Gina Jack, Special Projects ………………………………….…845 – 7662 cell
Annie Jimmy, Community Wellness …..…………………...…845 – 7123 cell
Linda Jimmy, Community Wellness …………………….........845 – 7405 cell
Thunderchild First Nation
Thunderchild Day Care
Daily Activities
Halloween
Thunderchild First Nation
Thunderchild School
Thunderchild First Nation
Youth Center
Awasisak Nikan
Thunderchild First Nation
Moonlight Bay Store
Thunderchild First Nation
Community Buildings
Thunderchild
Technical Institute 
 Fire Hall
Chief James
Memorial Centre 
Thunderchild First Nation
Band Office
Administration
Public Works
Thunderchild First Nation
Thunderchild
Health Center
Community Health
Thunderchild First Nation
Thunderchild
Health Center
Medical Transportation
Community -------------------------- Wellness
Thunderchild First Nation
Thunderchild
Health Center
Director of Health
Health Liaison
Maintenance
Janitor
Thunderchild First Nation