B.C. launches FN cancer plan

VANCOUVER — B.C. has launched a strategy to diagnose and prevent cancer among Indigenous people, with an aim to increase survival rates.

Annette Morgan, president of the B.C. Association of Aboriginal Friendship Centres, said systemic racism prevents Indigenous cancer patients from seeking care, which delays diagnosis. She said the province has 25 friendship centres and they are often the first place where Indigenous people seek health-care support and get advocacy from employees who have been trained to provide culturally safe services.

“For decades, we have been working on the front lines of health care, urging our clients to seek medical attention, going with them to their appointments and making sure they get the help they need,” she told a news conference Tuesday.

An Indigenous strategy must be a “two-way street” that goes beyond prevention and screening, said Morgan, whose organization is one of three that provided First Nations’ perspective as part of the new cancer strategy.

“Health-care workers have the responsibility to change their behaviour and make services safe for us so we are not avoiding health services altogether,” she said.

“We urge health-care providers to come to our centres, to come see what we do, to drop in and volunteer and get to get to know us.”

The strategy also includes perspectives from the First Nations Health Authority and Metis Nation BC as they partner with the Health Ministry, the BC Cancer Agency and the Provincial Health Services Authority.

A study by the BC Cancer Agency suggested Indigenous people have an lower rate of most cancers but are more likely to die from the disease.