A social worker from Bashaw, Alta., says drought and a slump in oil patch jobs have made poverty a health issue for rural women.
Edith McPhedran, during an interview at a national consultation on rural women’s health, said traditionally, Alberta farm women haven’t worried about being poor.
But problems have emerged lately as the economy weakens.
McPhedran, who was one of 42 women at the March 17-19 meeting in Saskatoon, cited a case in her district of a young single mother who needed treatment for cancer, yet couldn’t afford the gas to drive to the city to get it.
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“Her life was at risk.”
When the health and social service systems failed her, the community rallied and provided transport and child care.
“There doesn’t need to be a doctor in every small town, but I’d like to see a community-based health system,” said McPhedran.
“If a community wants a nurse practitioner, then that’s what they should get.”
Rural areas also need health professionals who live in and are part of a community, rather than transient workers with no bonds.
But with Alberta’s recent consolidation of regional health districts, rural communities are losing their voice on health boards, McPhedran said.
“We’ll be filtered out and muted out by population.”
The same regionalization occurred in Saskatchewan last year when 12 health districts replaced 32.
The loss of rural voice is real, said Lil Sabiston, a farmer from Kelliher, Sask. She used to be on her district’s health board, but when the boundaries were redrawn, her position was lost.
“We have lost it big time,” Sabiston said.
“It’s too bad for local people they don’t have a contact. I can get more information sitting around my kitchen table and talking to my friends and neighbours and asking them ‘what do you need?’ One on one is where people tell it. They feel uncomfortable in a structure.”
Farmer Noreen Johns of Zelma, Sask., said the health issues she finds being ignored are mental health, poverty and the need for community-based support networks.
“We’ve axed our farm mental health co-ordinator,” she said, referring to the one-year pilot project in which Saskatoon psychologist Nikki Gerard travelled the province working on farm stress.
Johns said the national consultation was important because “it’s saying to women their experiences are valid and valuable. That’s not happening enough. I think somebody’s ready to listen here.”
Ironically, while the consultation was done with grassroots women by federally funded agencies, there was only one provincial health department representative. From Manitoba Health, she spoke out in the final session about the need to plug provinces into the process, since that’s the level where decisions are made and structure and programs determined.
There was agreement from delegate Rose College of Tumbler Ridge, B.C., who said that too often successful health initiatives are dropped when provincial governments change.
“If we find something good that works, then let’s keep it. Don’t keep changing projects.”
Guylaine Leclerc of Ottawa, who works for a francophone group originally called the Catholic Women Farmers of Ontario, said rural women have the same difficulty accessing health care across the country. Her group has an extra problem in finding medical services in French.
“Even if you speak English, when you’re sick and nervous or worried, you lose your ability to speak.”
She said community organizations are best for public education and should be paid to do prevention programs. Too often community groups like hers have to spend time raising money to operate rather than running the services they were set up for.
Governments and the health system also rely on women to do a lot of unpaid work as caregivers for their relatives. Leclerc said this can lead to stress and burnout because women are expected to perform medical procedures on someone they care about.
While the consultation group came up with a top 10 list of concerns about health care for rural and remote women, one of the organizers said the delegates didn’t want to separate the pieces, because the issues are intertwined.
Maureen Haworth-Brockman, head of the Prairie Women’s Health Centre of Excellence in Winnipeg, said action is the next step. It will come on two fronts.
“Each woman is armed with that breadth of knowledge to take back to her community and we (the centres) have our own mechanisms to move the process along.”
Haworth-Brockman said the delegates talked about the fragmentation of women’s groups and how it has stalled progress in health care. But many said the consultation gave them a look at successful programs and empowered them to try recreating those in their home areas.
A delegate from Prince Edward Island likened the consultation to sewing a quilt, patching all the little pieces together, “trying to make a big blanket for the wellness of our communities.”
