BZA Health Fair connects members with area services

BIINJITIWAABIK ZAAGING ANISHINAABEK – Community members were invited to the Biinjitiwaabik Zaaging Anishinaabek Community Centre on Thursday to meet with and learn about various health and well-being services that they have available to them. 

The annual community health fair is an important tool to make sure that community and band members know what services are available to them according to Maryann Mickelson, the community’s health director and family well-being worker. 

She said that while it is important to connect people with community-based services it was also important to make sure people know what regional services are available to them. 

“We have our mental health counsellor here from our school and the education director Pamela, they have a table here. We have APS here with a booth and some phone numbers so that people can get in contact with them,” she said. 

“We also have Brenda, the nurse, from Beardmore, and we have EMS Jeff, he's a lead on a new program starting in the area, because of our ambulance service that we're losing.” 

The event ran from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. and featured a variety of information booths on services as well as free health screenings and instead of the typical trinkets handed out by presenters, organizations were asked to bring healthy food to give out instead. 

Mickelson said that she and other health workers in the community hope to also bring the services of nearby communities together as well to ensure that all area First Nations people have access to essential services. 

“We're also looking to have a health and Wellness conference sponsored by our First Nation to bring other communities together like Lake Helen, Rocky Bay, Sand Point and number of others,” she said. 

“It would be really good to see everybody work together and, you know, have all these kinds of supports and know that [community members] can reach out to any one of them for help. 

For more information on health services available for your community, contact your community’s health care representative.