First Nations leaders call for better health services on reserves – Edmonton Journal

‘We’re Albertans too’

FEBRUARY 12, 2014

EDMONTON – First Nations health leaders say the provincial government can reduce the number of aboriginal children dying in the child welfare system by improving health-care services on Alberta reserves.

On-reserve health care is funded by the federal government, but advocates say the provision of health-care services to Alberta’s most vulnerable children should not be undermined by inter-jurisdictional wrangling.

“The number of aboriginal children in care, and aboriginal children dying in care, is simply too high to be acceptable in Alberta, one of the richest places on earth,” said Peyasu Wuttunee, co-ordinator of the Health Co-Management Secretariat in Edmonton, an organization of aboriginal health-care providers that implements the 1996 health co-management agreement Alberta First Nations signed with the federal government in 1996.

Read more: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/First+Nations+leaders+call+better+health+services+reserves/9501366/story.html