Health Canada is targeting the well being of First Nation families through a reference guide -- with "handy home checklist, resource information and useful tips" --aimed at improving the environmental health of homes on and off reserve.

Released Friday, Your Health at Home is available in electronic or hardcopy forms and "provides useful information and practical tips for First Nations to keep their homes safer and healthier." The guide addresses health issues related housing conditions and lifestyle, including indoor air quality, drinking water, sewage, food safety and the benefits of having a creative outlet like weaving, hide tanning and carving.

Dr. Paulette Tremblay, CEO of the National Aboriginal Health Organization, said the 36-page guide offers straightforward solutions to common problems. In a news release from Health Canada, Tremblay credited Your Health at Home with making "an immediate difference in improving the health of First Nations families and communities."  

A media advisor with Health Canada said focus groups were used to determine what information would be most useful to aboriginal people. The guide will be directly mailed to homes in coming months. Currently only published in English and French, Your Health at Home is part of a $3.3 million initiative to distribute guides and generate awareness around environmental health for First Nations and Inuit. In an email to The Tyee, the media advisor said the federal ministry will "explore the option, if there is a demand, for the guides to be translated into other languages."

Targeting First Nations health was the topic of a panel discussion held in downtown Vancouver in March. Panelist Dr. Marcus Lem, the B.C.-based Health Canada director for First Nations and Inuit health protection, said complex socio-economic health determinants "can cause us to freeze up" and stall the development of innovative solutions out of fear of treating one population differently from another. Lem said health practitioners and providers must overcome this apprehension if it means improved health services and information for First Nations.

Lem said genetic factors can interact with poverty, diet, nutrition, exercise and stress -- the associated hormones which can have "incredibly negative effects on health" -- to exacerbate a disposition for certain diseases. Smoking can further compound health problems and housing conditions are also a significant factor for overall health.

(One of the panelists said overcrowding and building conditions are so significant to health that she was occasionally struck by the impulse to take her research funding and build houses.)

Combine lifestyle and housing with lower levels of education, exercise and economic opportunities and Lem said the negatives of the situation may be even further compounded. He pointed to higher rates of diabetes and tuberculosis affecting aboriginal people compared to the general Canadian population.

According to the Assembly of First Nations, in 2007 nearly 20 per cent of First Nations adults had been diagnosed with diabetes and one of every third adult over age 55 is at risk.

Your Health at Home includes a chapter on air quality and guides homeowners on preventing and addressing mould and spores. Much of the safety advice can benefit the broader Canadian population and includes carbon monoxide detectors, chemical labelling, and noise pollution. Recommendations targeted at rural populations address septic tanks and well water; food preparation and storage also advices cleaning "country foods (fish, caribou, deer, seal, etc.) outside when it is possible to do so. . . When cleaning country foods indoors, clean and disinfect the counters, cutting boards, and knives completely when you are finished." Your Health at Home: an Environmental Health Guide for First Nations can be downloaded of the Health Canada website here.

Megan Stewart is completing a practicum at The Tyee.