Calls for action after report finds unnatural death rates in some First Nations over triple Ontario average – CBC

Jul 05, 2024

Report by Sioux Lookout First Nations Health Authority examines data from 2011-2021

When Patricia Keesickquayash looks atop the hill of her First Nation’s cemetery, which was expanded in the 1990s, she wonders how the plots filled up so quickly.

Unnatural death rates in First Nations across the Sioux Lookout area of northwestern Ontario are more than triple the provincial average.

“This is reality for us,” said Keesickquayash, health director of Mishkeegogamang Ojibway First Nation, about 500 kilometres northwest of Thunder Bay.

The Sioux Lookout First Nations Health Authority (SLFNHA) provides services for 33 First Nations, most of which are remote. Its “Mental Health and Substance Use” report, which was released this week, includes data from 2011 to 2021 on how its communities are disproportionately affected by mental illness and addictions.

Read More: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/slfnha-mental-health-substance-use-report-1.7254548