UU直播

UU直播's Susan Chatwood celebrated for work on public health in Arctic

Susan Chatwood receives the Polar Prize from Julie Payette, Governor General of Canada
Susan Chatwood (left) receiving the Governor General's 2019 Polar Medal from Gov. Gen. Julie Payette (photo courtesy of the Office of the Governor General)

Having spent her early years in Labrador, the North was always part of Susan Chatwood鈥檚 circle of friends and family. So it felt like a natural place to land when she became a nurse in the 1980s and wanted to address the lack of access to health care in remote communities.

She ended up working as far north as anyone could: the Arctic.

鈥淭hey鈥檙e wonderful communities and the environment is beautiful,鈥 says Chatwood, an associate professor at the UU直播's Dalla Lana School of Public Health. 鈥淵ou make good friendships. I鈥檝e been able to work with so many amazing Elders and learn so much from that.鈥

Recently, Chatwood, who is in Dalla Lana's social and behavioural health sciences division,  for a lifetime of work on public health in the Arctic 鈥 and, in particular, studying and helping to improve access to culturally appropriate care.

鈥淚 think one of the biggest challenges in terms of access is the cultural appropriateness of the health-care system and how it operates in the northern context 鈥 being able to understand how northerners perceive wellness in their communities,鈥 she says. 鈥淧eople have a very holistic perception of wellness: It鈥檚 not only whether you wake up and feel healthy but when you wake up, do you have access to land and food security? How has the caribou decline impacted community wellness?鈥

Especially in the North, where people are intimately connected to the land, climate change can鈥檛 be separated from public or personal health, she says 鈥 perhaps a foreshadowing of things to come in the rest of the world.

Similarly, understanding Indigenous perspectives means realizing 鈥渋t鈥檚 not only about the health system treating diabetes, but is the health system able to connect with wildlife and asking what鈥檚 happening with the caribou?鈥 she asks.

Chatwood has seen real progress on that front in recent years, with federal agencies and local health providers responding to the need for Indigenous Peoples to define sickness and health/wellness for themselves.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a very multi-year process but the conversations are taking place,鈥 she says. 鈥淐IHR funding agencies are aware of this context and they鈥檙e also listening and wanting to understand and make sure they鈥檙e responding appropriately. You鈥檙e seeing communities designing their own programs, taking people out and providing mental health treatments on the land, taking a more holistic approach.鈥

A model program governed by Elders, the Arctic Indigenous Wellness Foundation has had great success providing first-line services for Indigenous people based on traditional knowledge, she says.

Susan Chatwood's photo of an Elder teaching a student, taken during her travels

Public health academics in the rest of Canada can help by creating co-learning environments for the next generation of Indigenous and non-Indigenous health providers, she says. And educators must recognize that students from the Far North don鈥檛 have access to the same educational opportunities as southern students, and strengths may come from an environmental or traditional knowledge background, rather than public health.

鈥淩ecognizing that will be very important if we鈥檙e going to promote ways for the current youth to be involved in public health,鈥 she says.

On an international scale, Chatwood also helps share research and information around climate change and public health among the eight Arctic states.

鈥淐limate change is a huge public health issue but it鈥檚 going to take huge work across sectors, cultures and borders,鈥 says Chatwood, who serves as scientific director of the Yellowknife-based Institute for Circumpolar Health Research. 鈥淭here are shared values in this region relating to Indigenous populations. So it鈥檚 helpful to compare how people are doing in Greenland versus Nunavut, and to look at policy successes in the Nordic countries and ask how these can be applied in the Canadian context with Indigenous values.鈥

Chatwood, who earned her PhD at the Institute of Medical Science at UU直播, is also an associate professor at Dalla Lana's Institute of Healthy Policy, Management and Evaluation, and an associate professor at the University of Alberta鈥檚 School of Public Health.

The Bulletin Brief logo

Subscribe to The Bulletin Brief

Dalla Lana