Among communities within the Sunrise Health Region, Kamsack has the highest rate of potentially vulnerable families, town council was told last week by a delegation from the health region.
Kamsack has a rate of 46.9 per cent of births that are within potentially vulnerable families, council was told by Sandy Tokaruk, Lois Okrainec and Donna Colemen-Trombley of the health region.
This is compared to the community with the lowest proportion of potentially vulnerable families, which is Langenburg at 12.2 per cent, the delegation said. Yorkton was in the second-highest place with 28 per cent, while Preeceville was at 27.6 per cent; Canora, 22.9 per cent; Melville, 18.9, and Esterhazy, 18.8 per cent.
Within the health region, the analysis by area singled out Kamsack as the area with the highest proportion of pregnant women who admitted to using drugs and/or alcohol during pregnancy. The rate is 14.6 births per 100 births, while Yorkton was in second place with 4.5 births. Preeceville is at two per cent, and Canora, 2.1 per cent.
Fully a quarter of the families in the Kamsack area have reported financial difficulties at the birth of a baby, council was told. Kamsack is at 25.9 per cent, while Yorkton is at nine per cent, Preeceville at 4.1 per cent, and Canora, 2.1 per cent.
“The strong and growing evidence that higher social and economic status and small gaps in income equality are associated with better health has led most researchers to conclude that these factors are fundamental determinants of health,” said a report the delegation delivered to council.
Infections were recorded in more than 10 per cent of pregnancies within the Kamsack area (10.3 per cent), while at Preeceville the rate was 6.1 per cent, Canora, 4.2 per cent, and Yorkton 5.9 per cent, the report said.
“Healthy beginnings means healthier communities,” the report said.
“Early childhood development is considered to be the most important phase in life which determines the quality of health, well-being, learning and behaviours across the life span,” it said, quoting the World Health Organization (WHO).
“The data analysis has allowed the health region to allocate and align resources more effectively and to identify areas where collaborative partnerships were necessary to achieve positive health outcomes,” it said. “We know the effects of early disadvantage on children can be reduced; children who receive assistance in their early years achieve more success at school; efforts to improve early child development are an investment, not a cost, and reflecting on inequities pertaining to this delicate stage of development is key.”
This is important because “the breakdown by health determinant, age, and community will enable more focused strategies, where most needed, and in ways that can lead to the greatest good,” it said. “As a society, and as a region of caring people, we do not view the children studied in the report as statistics. They are ‘our’ children, ‘our’ responsibility and ‘our’ future.
“Every child in Sunrise Health Region deserves the best start in life.
“In children one to three years of age, diseases of the respiratory system, followed by infectious and parasitic diseases, are the most common reasons for hospitalization,” it said. “In the four-to-six-year-old age group, hospital admissions are first due to diseases of the respiratory system followed by injuries and poisoning.
“Kamsack and Preeceville emerge in the majority of cases as the two areas with the highest disease burden.”
Factors associated with vulnerability show that Kamsack, Yorkton and Preeceville are the areas as particularly being in need of attention in terms of strengthening of family services, it said. It takes a village (to raise a child), also a community, the Sunrise Health Region and collaboration among ministries and human service organizations, including KidsFirst, SIGN, social services, health and education.
Asking “What can we do together?” the report, quoting Frederick Douglas said that “It is easier to build a strong child than to repair a broken man.”
