Janis Huntington Fieldwork Coordinator, CANHelp Working Group

Janis HuntingtonFieldwork Coordinator, CANHelp Working GroupKaren Goodman, Rachel Munday, Chris Fletcher

Determining effective knowledge translation of

health research findings to community members

of Aklavik, NWT

CANHelp Working Group

• Canadian North Helicobacter pylori Working Group– Est. 2006



• A team of Alberta and Northwest Territories investigators, health officials, and community health leaders who have set out to search for Helicobacter pylori infection and its consequences in Canada’s Arctic communities


• Research Team (PI: Karen Goodman, University of Alberta): Aklavik Planning Committee: Aklavik Health Committee (Robert Buckle, Chair, Glen Gordon, Annie Buckle, Jerome Gordon, Andrew Gordon), Rachel Munday Aklavik Health Centre, Crystal Lennie – Inuvialuit Regional Corporation; Northwest Territories: Leah Seaman, MD, Medical Health Officer, Beaufort-Delta Regional Health Authority, Inuvik; Andre Corriveau, MD, MBA, Chief Medical Officer, NWT; John Morse, MD, Medical Director, Stanton Territorial Health Authority, Yellowknife; Capital Health, Edmonton: Robert Bailey, MD, Director, Northern Health Services Network; University of Alberta, Edmonton: Justin Cheung, MD (Gastroenterology); Christopher Fletcher, PhD (Anthropology); Karyn Heavner, PhD (Public Health); Sander van Zanten, MD (Gastroenterology); Monika Keelan, PhD (Lab Medicine & Pathology); Safwat Girgis, MD (Pathology); Richard Fedorak, MD (Gastroenterology); Carl Phillips, PhD (Public Health); Joanne-Simala Grant, PhD (Medical Microbiology); Robert Rennie, PhD (Medical Microbiology); Hien Huynh, MD (Pediatric Gastroenterology)

• Endoscopy Team (in Aklavik Feb 3-9): UA/Capital Health gastroenterologists: Robert Bailey; Justin Cheung; Richard Fedorak; Sander van Zanten; Mario Millan; NWT gastroenterologists: John Morse; Tom Guzowski; Inuvik clinical personnel: Leah Seaman; Louie Goose; UA Hospital nurses: Leanne Ellis (charge nurse); Cinnamon Landhausser; Paula Ledsham; Louise Steffan; Royal Alexandra Hospital nurses: Brenda Holowaty (manager); Jennifer Antonio; Sheila Berrisford; Kathy Korner; UAH/RAH endoscopy aids: Tamara Bangs; Tammy Church; Shada Naidu; Austin Babb; Epidemiology team: Karen Goodman; Karyn Heavner; Caroline Hernandez; Olympus Technical Support Team: Peter Bresee; Dale Kennedy

• Aklavik Community Coordination Team: Billy Archie – Outreach, Evelyn Wilson – Participation & Administration, Trevor McNutt – Data Collection & Project Logistics, Heather Stewart – Data Collection

• University of Alberta Research Assistant Team: Janis Huntington, Michael Arget, Larissa Shamseer• Project Partners: Aklavik Health Centre, Arctic Health Research Network, Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, Govt.

of the NWT Health and Social Services, Capital Health’s Northern Health Services Network, University of Alberta, Public Health Agency of Canada



• 3 goals– Address community concerns– Recommend clinical management strategies– Reduce health risks


• Pilot Community – Aklavik, Northwest Territories


• Phase 1– Community survey/H. pylori screening

• Phase 2– Scope Testing

• Phase 3– Treatment

• Phase 4– Policy Development, Sharing Knowledge with

the Community

Methods

• Ethics• Data collection April 2008

– 3 group discussions– 4 individual interviews

• Thematic Analysis• Validation July 2008

Results – Expectations of the research

• Community health and cancer• Self-awareness of health• Provide recommendations for altering

lifestyle

Results – Expectations of the research

• Community health and cancer• Self-awareness of health• Provide recommendations for altering

lifestyle

And maybe, um, make us aware of treatment, make us aware of how we can change . . . our lifestyle, or eating healthy, or whatever the cause may be

Results – Current knowledge transfer

• Radio, newsletters, community reports

• Community impact• Frequency


• Radio, newsletters, community reports

• Community impact• Frequency

A lot of times I know in the past, people from universities have done studies, they take all information from us, go, and never come back. And never talk to the people.


• Radio, newsletters, community reports• Community impact• Frequency


• Radio, newsletters, community reports• Community impact• Frequency

It’s a slow process. Some people understand that, some people don’t understand that, so you just need to let them know it’s a slow process and that it’s ongoing and that we haven’t forgotten about the people that are infected

Results – Traditional Lifestyle

• Loss of language• Loss of traditional culture• Involving youth

Results – Traditional Lifestyle

• Loss of language• Loss of traditional culture• Involving youth

We do eat the fish in the summer and things like that. But I know with the younger generation, they don’t eat traditional foods, as much as when I was growing up. Right now, we haven’t had caribou meat for a while, and personally I do miss the caribou meat, then with the younger group they wouldn’t care less, because they don’t eat it as much as we did.

Results – Recommendations

• Local boards• Cross-generational communication• Video



Definitely for the elders it would be good to have some translators around. But for the young, like our generation and that, I’m sad to say we don’t know our language





I think they’d like to see a mixture. Yeah, cause that’s the best result I think, because if you get too one sided, if it’s all research, it’s sort of like, well you’re minimizing the community’s input, after all they, they’re sort of the specimen group

Conclusions

• Frequent messages, regardless of availability of new information

• Incorporation of traditional lifestyle when it is possible

• Encourage communication between youth and elders

• Emphasize individual and community level impacts of findings

Acknowledgements

• Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research• Canadian Gastroenterology Association• Canadian Institutes of Health Research• Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council• Public Health Agency of Canada• Indian and Northern Affairs Canada• Canadian Circumpolar Institute• University of Alberta Faculty of Graduate Studies

and Research, Profiling Alberta’s Graduate Students Award

Documents

Janis Huntington Fieldwork Coordinator, CANHelp Working Group