Manawan chief says relations with Lanaudire health board have improved since death of Joyce Echaquan

Chief Paul-mile Ottawa, of the Manawan Atikamekw Council, told reporters on Thursday that he's seen a significant improvement at theLanaudire health board since the death of Joyce Echaquanin September 2020.

Ottawa has worked closely with the president and executive director of the CISSS de Lanaudire,Maryse Poupart, since she took on the position in April.

Ottawa described her as a "woman of action," saying that she has "an excellent reputation in Manawan."

He serves as co-chair of the CISSS's reconciliation committee alongside Poupart, and said during a news conference with her that he is "satisfied" with the work being done to improve relations between theAtikamekwcommunity and the health network in the region.

Ottawa said that he was pleased with the spirit of collaboration expressed by Poupart and the administrative team, saying that this kind of co-operationbetween his community and the health board never existed before.

He said thatcommunication is much better and gave the example of the months of negotiation it took to finally get access to ambulance services in Manawan in 2017, saying an issue like that could be resolved much more quickly today.

For her part, Poupartsaid she is committing to moving forward "hand-in-hand," developing solutions to problems highlighted by the community as well as the recommendations identified in the coroner's report into Echaquan's death.

"Isaid publicly when I was therea few weeks ago: 'The community in Manawan has the right to the same care as other communities in Lanaudire,'" she said.

Poupart said some of the recommendations made in coronerGhane Kamel's report have already been implemented and the CISSS has plans to do much more.

They have already hired two new Indigenous liaison officers who have offices in the emergency room so that community members can easily approach them for help.

An assistant director in charge of Indigenous relations has also been hired out of Manawan, and Poupart says she's currently in the process of hiring a new complaints officer from the Atikamekw community.

Several kinds of training have also been developed in collaboration with the community in Manawan and the Universit du Qubec en Abitibi-Tmiscamingue.

Poupart said that 12,000 employees, about 70 per cent of the staff, have already taken part in one element of the training, which she described as a conference. Another training, which was launched in June, has been given to 5,000 employees, she said.

In her report, Kamelmade eight recommendations to the CISSS.

Among them, she advised the health authority to ensure that liaison officers are well-integrated, updatethecollaboration protocol between the Manawan dispensary and the local hospitalso that medical information istransmitted in real timeand organizetraining and inclusion activities onIndigenous culture.

Kamel also instructed the CISSS to make sure it was respecting nurse and patient attendant ratios set by the province, which Poupart says they are now doing.

The global recommendation of Kamel's report was that the Quebec government recognize the existence of systemic racism in the health-care network.

When asked if theCISSS de Lanaudire was willing to publicly recognize it, despite the premier's refusal to do so, Poupart said that she would not debate definitions when it comes to the terminology, but did say that racism and prejudice need to be eliminated.

She said as part of her efforts, the CISSS will be launching a recruitment campaign to integrate workers from the Manawan community into the health network.

"Seeing people who come from the community, it has a comforting effect," she said.